LCAP reviews continue without evaluation tool
(Calif.) This month, county superintendents throughout the state are completing their reviews of accountability plans submitted by local districts – a process that lacks for a second year a key evaluation tool.
Limited to using a simple, three-question criteria to determine adequacy of the Local Control Accountability Plans, county offices of education are expected once again to reject only a handful, similar to the number held back last year.
Still, reports from the field suggest county superintendents remain optimistic about the direction that California is taking in redefining student performance and accountability of schools – even though most acknowledge the system will need several more years to become fully operational.
“It’s evolving,” said Peter Birdsall, executive director of the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association. “It’s evolving very rapidly when you consider that it took us over 20 years to develop the current fiscal accountability system. We obviously need to get this up and running sooner – but I think there’s a broad consensus that we’ve accomplished a lot in just two years.”
Adopted as part of Gov. Jerry Brown’s sweeping restructuring of the state’s role in both funding and overseeing K-12 education, the LCAPs were initially envisioned as a reporting vehicle to explain how districts spent new resources for low-income students, English learners and foster youth.
But increasingly, as state officials struggled in another arena to construct a school accountability system not exclusively reliant on test scores, the LCAPs have emerged as the focal point for articulating academic success as well.
As a result, the process that counties and the state will use to evaluate the LCAP is critical as are all LCAP reviews continue without evaluation tool :: SI&A Cabinet Report :: The Essential Resource for Superintendents and the Cabinet:
