MASC Summer Institute: DESE Next-Generation Accountability System

This past Friday, July 20th, the Mass. Association of School Committees (MASC) kicked off it's second annual Summer Institute. One of the Friday presentations was titled "Massachusetts' Next-Generation Accountability System" an excellent 2-hour clinic by Rob Curtin, Associate Commissioner of Data and Accountability at the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE). (Apologies for the alphabet soup of acronyms.) There is much for more information on the DESE website if you're interested in learning more. 

Why should parents be interested? Because the Melrose Public Schools will be measured based on the aggregate student data of all district schools, and schools will be measured based on aggregate student data in those schools. When you see the newspapers reporting on districts, or read more refined data on different websites, you should know how these numbers were calculated. The results should be one factor on which resources are allocated in the district and taxpayers should feel confident that their money is being used wisely to improve education for our students. You'll also want to be cognizant of the fact that the schools are responsible for education all students in every group and subgroup, and it's our privilege as a community to ensure that we meet students where they are and do everything we can to bring them to the next level equitably. As always, the Melrose School Committee will hear a report from administrators on the results in late fall.

Why did MA need a new accountability system?

·      US Dept. of Education’s Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)

o   DESE was thinking about a new accountability system even before ESSA. DESE hadn’t designed the system to have Level II be bad (left room for interpretation); needed to change the words around accountability.

o   A lot of federal $ at stake (Title I allocations: out this past Monday).

o   Requirements: “annual meaningful differentiation between schools;” “ambitious state-designed LT goals;” continued annual testing; 95% participation; identify lowest performing 5% of schools, and HS with grad rates <67%; identify schools with low performing subgroups.

·      State requirements/reasoning

o   Achievement Gap Act

o   Public info sharing

o   State resource and federal grant allocations

Timeline: did a listening tour, modeling, listening, revising (4/16-4/17); submitted plan to US Dept. of Ed., approved by BOE in June 2017. Final plan: not exactly representative of everyone. (This Sept. 19^th BOE meeting: 1^st results from new accountability system.)

Metrics

Non-High Schools

·      Achievement: MCAS average scaled score for English, Math; CPI for Science

·      Student growth: mean SGP for ELA and Math

·      English Language Proficiency: progress made (note: 4% of students in MA were ELL in 2002 and 9% now)

o   Half of ELL students are in 5 MA districts

o   Using ACCESS as the testing measure

o   Takes about 6 years to get kids to ELL proficiency

·      Chronic absenteeism (measured as 10% of days = 18ish). There is a “fairly serious attendance problem” across the Commonwealth and kids who are in school more do better. A school day measured as a day that a student is receiving services. Wide range across districts. In one district, 33% of students miss more than 10 days.

High Schools

·      Similar to non-high schools, but adds elements of graduation, dropout, % of 11^th and 12^th grade students completing at least one advanced course (AP, IB, post-secondary).

Problem with measuring the closing of the achievement gap:

·      Must have two reference points and there are schools that have all high needs students and others that have no high needs students.

·      Problem: when the high performing group declines, the gap is still closing (but not in the desired manner). Want lowest performing students to get better. (Raising the floor.) Better if you say lower performers vs. higher performers.

·      Urban schools do really well when students stay but so much transience skews the data. Will now look at lowest performers who stay (e.g. 3^rd to 4^th grade) and they’ll have an improvement trajectory.

Ask: how are our students doing on each of the metrics listed above.

Supt. will have two numbers: percentile and percentage (by school). (If percentage is at 75% or higher, in general, school is meeting improvement targets.) These numbers are weighted equally.

·      Categorizing schools: those needing intervention (15%) and those that don’t (85%). Determined at the discretion of the Commissioner. If percentile is between 1-10% and not already in needing intervention, identified in need of focused/targeted support. Still requires a minimum of 20 students.

·      No more “if you have a Level 2 school then you are a Level 2 district.” Won’t give districts a rating like this.

What should SC members focus on? It depends:

·      Mostly: “how are schools improving?” Subgroups concerns. Specific concerns: chronic absenteeism, ELL, etc.

·      Small number of districts: are you among lowest performers?, equity concerns, dropout/graduation rate concerns.

District and school report cards:

·      DESE will redesign report card in late fall 2018.

·      Measures of performance/opportunity beyond assessment & accountability results:

o   Discipline, availability of art education (this was BIG), educator data, grade 9 course-passing, per-pupil expenditures

·      MCAS scores won’t be the first metric reported.

·      Why isn’t discipline in accountability system? Couldn’t allow a situation where a school thought about disciplining or not disciplining based on accountability but it will be on report card. Last cuts: arts education and Grade 9 course passing. (Students who fail one class in 9^th gr. are 25% more likely to drop out.)

·      Comment: there is huge differential in quality of art programs. DESE: they don’t yet have criteria to measure.

·      Educator data is important to student outcomes too (inexperience, out of field, staff attendance) but it’s not in the criteria at this time.

Key factors in student success: is child progressing in all facets of education (math, science, having fun, etc.)? Unfortunately, there is no “fun” metric.

City of Melrose Inauguration Night!

Last night, a group of dedicated and hard-working Melrose citizens were inducted into their School Committee and Aldermanic offices at a lively and joyous celebration at Melrose's beautiful Memorial Hall. Thank you to all who attended or will watch on cable TV! Below please find my remarks on behalf of the Melrose School Committee:

It is an immense privilege for the School Committee to sit before you this evening as we commit ourselves to serving you and the children of the Melrose Public Schools in 2018 and beyond. We are incredibly grateful to prior School Committee members, Aldermen, department heads, staff members, citizen volunteers, and particularly Mayor Robert Dolan, who have paved the way for the beautiful city and outstanding school district we share, and we welcome those who now join together to keep the momentum going and build on the excellent work that has gone before.

We are living in a time of unprecedented change, and the pace of that change is both exciting and daunting. A stark reality for educational communities is evolving teaching and learning to prepare students for a world about which we may now know little. As Supt. Taymore noted in her opening remarks to Parent University this past November, if you went to school in the ‘70-‘80’s, information doubled every 10 years. In the ‘80’s through the‘90’s, it was every 8 years. For our children, information doubles every 12 months and soon, every 12 hours. She asked: “what do you teach? What is important for students to know? How much can a person remember?”

This past year, the Committee, with community input, agreed on a new Vision for our district: Every student will be an engaged, challenged, enriched, and self-directed learner. To that end, and with the highest standards in mind, we are committed to employing the unique skills and abilities the seven of us bring to the table, and working tirelessly together as decisions are not made alone. We are committed to listening and learning, from parents, community members, staff, students, and experts in education; and then employing input from all to make those decisions, some of which will be popular and some not, but hopefully all with the confidence that we are well-informed. We are committed to staying true to our core values and beliefs, embedded in our new Mission Statement: The Melrose Public Schools will provide and sustain a thriving and dynamic teaching and learning environment, preparing every student to excel in their authentic life and global citizenship, as supported by an engaged community.

You have elected us to represent your community, families and your most precious charges, your children. We take that responsibility as seriously as we take raising our own families, because in truth, your children are our children too. So we ask you to join the School Committee and our administration to build on the many achievements of our school district, and we ask for your support and like-mindedness in being purposeful in our actions, honest in our communications, and compassionate in our thoughts and in our deeds. When we do this, and we will, together, every single Melrose Public School student will shine. Thank you.