Transcript School and District Accountability Under NCLB

Update on Accountability: Growing Our
Way to Measuring Success
Ira Schwartz
Coordinator, Accountability, Policy and Administration
New York State Education Department
March 7, 2008
The Challenge of
Accountability

Not everything that can be measured is
important and not everything that is important
can be measured (Albert Einstein).
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That which is measured, improves (Unknown).
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Goals worth pursuing are ones that are difficult
to obtain but possible to achieve (Ira Schwartz).
Purpose of
No Child Left Behind
“…to ensure that all children have a fair, equal,
and significant opportunity to obtain a highquality education and reach, at a minimum,
proficiency on challenging state academic
achievement standards and state academic
assessments”
Accountability: Status v. Growth

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Status Models: takes a snapshot of a
subgroup’s or school’s level of student
proficiency at one point in time and often
compares that proficiency level with an
established target
Growth Models: models that measure
progress by tracking the achievement scores of
the same students from one year to the next to
determine student progress
Why Growth?
Types of Performance
Status
Status/Growth Combinations
Change
High Status
Achievement
Status
Improvement
High/Low
High/High
Effectiveness
Growth
Acceleration
Low/Low
Low/High
Low Status
Low Growth
High Growth
School Performance: Four Views
(Carlson, 2001; Gong, 2002)
Status
Achievement
“Status”: How high “Improvement”:
do students in this
school score on state
assessments?
Is the performance of
successive groups
increasing from one
year to the next?
Effectiveness
“Growth”: Are
“Acceleration”:
individual students
learning as they
progress from one
grade to the next?
Change
Is the school
becoming more
effective or improving
more rapidly?
Betebenner, Jan. 2008, for RI project
Growth Models and NCLB
Growth models generally refer to
accountability models that assess the
progress of a cohort of individual students
over time with the intent of measuring the
progress these students have made
(Performance in fourth grade compared to
performance in third grade.) USDE is
permitting all states to submit growth
models. Currently nine models have been
approved.
New York State: Local Initiatives

A Number of NYS districts have developed local growth
and value added models. The two most prominent are:
– NYC’s Progress Report Card initiative
– Capital Region BOCES initiative.

These initiatives are neither endorsed by SED nor
require SED’s endorsement.

These initiatives are not constrained by USDE’s growth
model guidelines and do not comport with all of the
required elements of the guidelines.
Enhanced Accountability System
– Chapter 57 of the Laws of 2007 calls for an enhanced
State accountability system, including:
 New accountability standards based on state assessments
and other indicators of progress, such as graduation rates or
college attendance and completion rates, to be established
by 7/1/2008.
 Growth model by 2008-09.
 Value added model by 2010-2011 based on new or revised
state assessments.
 Expanded SURR system, resulting in the identification of up
to 5% of State schools between the 2007-2008 and 20102011 school years for restructuring or reorganization.
Chapter 57 of the Laws of 2007:Growth
Model
“By the start of the 2008-2009 school year, the
regents shall establish, using existing state
assessments, an interim, modified
accountability system for schools and districts
that is based on a growth model, subject to
approval of the United States department of
education where required by federal law.”
Chapter 57 of the Laws of 2007: Value Added
Model
“The regents shall proceed with the development of an enhanced
accountability system, with revised or new state assessments, based on an
enhanced growth model that, to the extent feasible and consistent with
Federal law, includes a value-added assessment model that employs a
scale-score approach to measure growth of students at all levels. (a) If the
Regents establish that the assessment scaling and accountability
methodology employed have been determined by external experts in
educational testing and measurement to be valid and reliable and in
accordance with established standards for educational and psychological
testing, and (b) the approval of the United States department of education
has been obtained where required by federal law, the enhanced growth
model shall be implemented no later than the start of the 2010-2011
school year”
Value Added Assessment Model:
Chapter 57 Definition
“Value added assessment model shall mean
a form of growth model that includes an
evaluation of the specific effects of
programs, and other relevant factors, on the
academic progress of individual students
over time.”
Accountability Update: SED’s Growth
Model Design Principles

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Growth Model shall be implemented in 08-09 school year
(pending USDE approval)
Model shall meet core principles of Spelling 11/21/05
correspondence
Model shall be based upon NY’s current State assessment
program & shall not require the implementation of new
assessments
Model shall utilize such data as is currently collected through
State data collection processes and shall not require the collection
of substantial new data elements
Models purpose shall be to measure the degree to which students
are making sustained progress such that students will be
academically proficient as determined by the Commissioner
Accountability Update: SED’s
Growth Model Design Principles
Model shall use an “open architecture.” All calculations should
be transparent
 Model should provide information that is useful to districts and
schools in planning school an district improvement efforts
 Model should, if possible, serve as a platform for the
development by 2010-11 of a value-added accountability
system based on the next generation of State assessments

Enhanced Accountability System: Plans
for Intervention
– School Quality Review Teams to assist any school in improvement, corrective
action, restructuring status or SURR status in development and implementing
school improvement plans. May also conduct planning, program, and resource
audits of schools.
–Joint School Intervention Teams, whose members are appointed by Commissioner
and must include educators from the district, review and recommend plans for
reorganizing or reconfiguring schools in restructuring status or SURR schools that
have failed to demonstrate progress as specified in their plans.
–Distinguished educators to assist districts and schools that have failed to make AYP
for four or more years.
–Recommendations of School Quality Review Teams and Joint Intervention Teams
are advisory.
–The services of all the above are a charge to the school district.
What May Be On the Horizon
1.
2.
3.
4.
More rigorous standards for SURR
schools.
A Growth Model.
New SED Service Delivery Models.
Reauthorization of NCLB.
This may be the Dawning of
the Age of Accountability
Key Questions:
 How do we design accountability models that compel
movement from awful to adequate without impeding the
movement from good to great?
 How do we resist the temptation to improve scores
without improving learning?
 How do we take data and turn it into actionable
information that improves teaching and learning?
 How do we move from beating the odds to changing the
odds?
More Information
Ira Schwartz, Coordinator
Accountability, Policy, and Administration
New York State Education Department
Office of School Improvement and Community
Services
[email protected]
718 722-2796