New Indicators Released to Evaluate High School Performance
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Confession: I’m a sucker for a good infographic. And today, the Strategic Data Project at Harvard (part of the Center for Education Policy Research) released three(!). As Caralee Adams reported in College Bound, the project has developed a set of performance indicators for school districts and high schools – indicators that provide insight into how well they do in preparing and sending their graduates to college. While Harvard has partnered with five specific school districts, the work could expand to more with the help of a free educator toolkit on how to better use data. The project hopes these data points will become as commonly-used (and understood) as price-to-earnings ratios in the business sector.
This is not the first time I’ve cheered (or lamented) the lack of information-sharing between K-12 and postsecondary education. As the K-12 system becomes more and more oriented around college and career readiness – through Common Core academic standards, the related PARCC and Smarter Balanced assessments, and new school accountability systems in ESEA waivers –high schools will have unprecedented
Quick Hits (4.18.12)
NCLB waivers lack specifics on ELT. Expanded learning time is often listed as a possible reform strategy among the applications from the 11 first-round states granted waivers last fall to the federal No Child Left Behind law. However, a new report shows that very few, if any, states fully articulate their plans to use the extended time wisely. As Education Sector’s Elena Silva recently pointed out, extended learning time can be beneficial in academic turnaround efforts when implemented thoughtfully and deliberately, and not like a magic wand. (Center for American Progress)
Newsflash: College tuition is not what it was 40 years ago, or even 10. U.S. Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., told a radio show that she has “very little tolerance” for students who graduate with student loan debt “because