Growth model a new way to rate progress in Pennsylvania schools -- themorningcall.com:
"The federal No Child Left Behind law requires schools to make adequate yearly progress on standardized tests, which sounds clear-cut until you see the manual. The law takes 1,669 pages to define that goal.
This year, the testing playbook is thicker and more challenging for Pennsylvania teachers with the addition of yet another assessment form: the growth model.
The new measurement, which compares individual student scores from year to year to track progress, apparently worked, results released last week on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment show. It enabled hundreds of schools in Pennsylvania, including four in Bethlehem and one in Allentown, to make Adequate Yearly Progress.
''In my mind it provides a truer picture of how much increase and achievement happened over the course of a year,'' said Diane M. Holben, executive director of academic accountability for the Allentown School District. ''If kids are proficient [under the old AYP methods], all I know is they jumped over a line, but I don't know if they took one step to get over the line or 20 steps.''"
"The federal No Child Left Behind law requires schools to make adequate yearly progress on standardized tests, which sounds clear-cut until you see the manual. The law takes 1,669 pages to define that goal.
This year, the testing playbook is thicker and more challenging for Pennsylvania teachers with the addition of yet another assessment form: the growth model.
The new measurement, which compares individual student scores from year to year to track progress, apparently worked, results released last week on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment show. It enabled hundreds of schools in Pennsylvania, including four in Bethlehem and one in Allentown, to make Adequate Yearly Progress.
''In my mind it provides a truer picture of how much increase and achievement happened over the course of a year,'' said Diane M. Holben, executive director of academic accountability for the Allentown School District. ''If kids are proficient [under the old AYP methods], all I know is they jumped over a line, but I don't know if they took one step to get over the line or 20 steps.''"
