Louisiana Educator: SPS Scoring Bias

Louisiana Educator: SPS Scoring Bias:

SPS Scoring Bias

by Michael Deshotels

Dear Readers:

I am very pleased to publish a guest post this week by Dr Mercedes Schneider, a Louisiana educator who has a doctoral degree in statistics. It is an excellent analysis of a major flaw in our Louisiana school grading system. 

The grades that our schools in Louisiana have been assigned by our LDOE have almost no relation to the actual quality of education offered by each school. By far the dominant factor measured by the SPS scores and the resultant grade of “A” through “F” is the level of poverty of the students attending the school. In addition, Dr Schneider's analysis explains how the present school grading system favors high schools and combination schools over middle and elementary schools. 

Next year the letter grading system will be based on 150 points instead of 200 points but the letter grades are not exactly proportionally adjusted. In addition, schools will receive bonus points for achievement gains by more