California Data Show Flaws in Federal Regulations
When Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act in 2015, it was celebrated as relief from its predecessor, but as regulations emerge it's beginning to look like its evil sibling of the discredited No Child Left Behind Act's name-and-shame policy. In a report released Monday two California organizations are pushing back with data.
A report issued by Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), as a part of its research partnership with the state's CORE districts, argues that the summative single list of bottom 5 percent schools required in pending regulations would fail to indentify some of the schools that need comprehensive support. The regulations would unjustly target some schools that were making good progress but whose overall scores were still low.
Data from CORE Districts
Authors Heather Hough, Emily Penner, and Joe Witte illustrate the issue with data from California's CORE districts, which include Los Angeles, San Francisco, Fresno, Long Beach, Oakland, and Santa Ana. Although only six districts, they contain 923 more high poverty (Title I) schools than do 26 states.
Both academic performance and academic growth are required elements in the federal guidelines for academic measurement. But as the graphic below shows, only a few schools fall in the lowest 5 percent of both low achievement and low growth in achievement (red dots). For the most part, the schools with low achievement (orange dots) are different from the schools with low academic growth (blue dots).
Under pending federal regulations, achievement and growth, along with graduation rates and chronic absence, must be combined into a single indicator to pick the bottom 5 percent of schools for comprehensive assistance by an external body. But analysis shows that each of the four operate independently. For example, only 4 percent of the schools that were in the bottom tier of academic achievement were also in the bottom tier of results for English learners.
Seeking A 'Flashlight Not A Hammer'
This report is not just picking at nits with the feds. The question of what schools are labeledCalifornia Data Show Flaws in Federal Regulations - On California - Education Week: as
Big Education Ape: CORE districts want state waiver to continue their work | EdSource - http://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2016/08/core-districts-want-state-waiver-to.html
