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REL N

D.C. schools to use data from teacher evaluation system in new ways - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2011021302584.html

ADMS707 Evidence-based Decision-making VAModels Niemeyer

shared by REL N on 16 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • by matching teachers' ratings to the universities they attended, officials are deciding which pipelines deliver the best, or worst, talent.
  • "We'll just stop taking graduates from institutions that aren't producing effective teachers."
  • Teacher ratings from one cluster of schools might be compared with those from another cluster to assess how a particular instructional superintendent is faring. Principals will be judged in part by the number of "highly effective" teachers they are able to retain from year to year. Instructional coaches will be held accountable for the ratings of the teachers they coach.
  • ...2 more annotations...
  • Critics of value-added evaluation models, who have objected to using the data to fire teachers, say that expanding their use is unwise at this point. "The core problem with these data is the creation of incentives to narrow the curriculum," said Richard Rothstein, a research associate with the Economic Policy Institute and one of the authors of a recent report critical of value-added evaluations.
  • "It's never been piloted, never been tested," Saunders said. "And the conclusions made using IMPACT as a basis will be just as flawed as the instrument they rely upon."
  • REL N on 16 Feb 11
     
    DC is expanding the use of the data from value-added evaluation models. "And the conclusions made using IMPACT as a basis will be just as flawed as the instrument they rely upon."
REL N

Rhee faces renewed scrutiny over depiction of students' progress when she taught - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...AR2011021007240.html

ADMS707 Niemeyer Test Scores Rhee

shared by REL N on 16 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • REL N on 16 Feb 11
     
    The principal for whom Rhee worked said that there was "clear evidence of actual, knowing falsehood" in statements Rhee made about the magnitude of improvement in test scores for her students. Frederick Hess, who was not involved with that school or its faculty said : "There's simply no way with these data to say anything, good or bad, about Rhee's teaching performance,"
  • REL N on 16 Feb 11
     
    The principal for whom Rhee worked said Rhee's statements about the magnitude of improvement in test scores for her students were "clear evidence of actual, knowing falsehood." Frederick Hess, who was not involved with the faculty or school responded "There's simply no way with these data to say anything, good or bad, about Rhee's teaching performance,"
REL N

Accountability Lost : Education Next - 0 views

educationnext.org/accountability-lost

ADMS707 Niemeyer Boards accountability

shared by REL N on 17 Feb 11 - Cached
    • REL N
      REL N on 17 Feb 11
       
      Tried to identify confounding variables to increase the likelihood that any changes in voting behavior were due to school performance
  • incumbent school board members won a larger share of the total vote in a precinct when test scores in that precinct improved. We estimate that improvement from the 25th to the 75th percentile of test-score change—that is, moving from a loss of 4 percentile points to a gain of 3.8 percentile points between 1999 and 2000—produced on average an increase of 3 percentage points in an incumbent’s vote share. If precinct test scores dropped from the 75th to the 25th percentile of test-score change, the associated 3-percentage-point decrease in an incumbent’s vote share could substantially erode an incumbent’s margin of victory.
  • percentile scores had increased in the year preceding the election, incumbents won 81 percent of the time in competitive elections; in districts where scores had declined, incumbents won only 69 percent of the time.
  • ...24 more annotations...
  • significant relationship with precinct test scores and the absence of a relationship with district scores suggests that voters were more concerned with school performance within their immediate neighborhood than across the district.
  • all indications of a relationship between school performance and an incumbent school board member’s vote share vanished after the passage of NCLB in 2002.
  • None of these approaches yielded clear evidence of a link between school performance and voter behavior in school board elections.
  • the overwhelming weight of the evidence indicated that school board members were not being judged on improvement or weakening in school test scores.
  • School performance as measured by test scores may have helped determine which candidates sought reelection and which faced a challenger.
  • assess the relationship between test-score trends and incumbents’ decisions to run for reelection, and then to estimate the effect of test-score trends on the probability that an incumbent who runs faces an opponent.
  • incumbents may bow out in anticipation of being held accountable for poor test-score performance by schools in their district.
  • drop from the 75th to the 25th percentile of test-score change, our results lead us to expect that incumbents will be 13 percentage points less likely to run for reelection. In fact, 76 percent of incumbents sought reelection in districts with improving test scores; in districts with falling scores, only 66 percent did.
  • we failed to find any indication that incumbents in 2002 and 2004 based their decisions about running for reelection on student learning trends.
  • In these years, only 30 and 34 percent of articles, respectively, touched on test scores. The decline in media attention leads us to suspect that concerns about student learning trends probably did not stand at the forefront of voters’ or candidates’ thinking in the 2002 and 2004 elections.
  • “The PACT needs to be seen for what it is: a vehicle for politicians to say that they are tough on education (and educators). This may make for good politics, but it makes for bad educational policy.”
  • Reacting to the rising criticisms directed toward PACT, voters may have grown disenchanted with the state’s accountability system and removed test-score performance from among the criteria on which they evaluated school board candidates.
  • if most schools appeared to be average or better, parents may not have been prompted to hold incumbents accountable for poor school performance. Incumbents and potential challengers may also have become less responsive to scores when the testing regimen began to give nearly every school a passing mark.
  • School board elections give the public the leverage to improve their schools. If voters do not cast out incumbents when local school performance is poor, they forfeit that opportunity. As debate continues over components of NCLB, policymakers should consider whether it is realistic to assume voters will in fact use the polls to drive school improvement.
  • Neither the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) nor the states impose direct sanctions on members of school boards that oversee large numbers of underperforming schools.
  • According to a 2002 national survey, student achievement ranks second only to financial concerns as school board members’ highest priority.
  • the basic purpose of all school board activities is to facilitate the day-to-day functioning of schools.
  • analyzed test-score data and election results from 499 races over three election cycles in South Carolina to study whether voters punish and reward incumbent school board members on the basis of changes in student learning, as measured by standardized tests, in district schools
  • impact of school performance on incumbents’ decisions to seek reelection and potential challengers’ decisions to join the race.
  • All but 4 of the state’s 46 counties hold nonpartisan school board elections. Approximately 80 percent of school board members receive some compensation, either a salary, per diem payments, or reimbursement for their expenses. Over 90 percent of South Carolina’s 85 school boards have between 5 and 9 members, while the largest board has 11. And, as is common practice in other states, nearly 9 out of 10 South Carolina school districts hold board elections during the general election in November.
  • the most important difference between South Carolina and most other states when it comes to local school politics is the role played by the state’s teachers unions, which are among the weakest in the country.
  • South Carolina school boards are unlikely to be beholden to the unions, which should make the boards more responsive to the broader public.
  • examine whether voters are more concerned with student performance districtwide or in their local neighborhood, we computed two measures of average school performance to include in our analysis.
  • separate the effect of school performance from the effects of other factors that could reasonably influence an incumbent school board member’s vote share
  • REL N on 17 Feb 11
     
    Details about research on the impact school performance has on how people vote for school board members. The authors conclude "If voters do not cast out incumbents when local school performance is poor, they forfeit that opportunity. As debate continues over components of NCLB, policymakers should consider whether it is realistic to assume voters will in fact use the polls to drive school improvement."
mirabilecp

The Center for Comprehensive School Reform and Improvement - August 2009 Newsletter - 0 views

www.centerforcsri.org/index.php

ADMS707 School Boards

shared by mirabilecp on 18 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • mirabilecp on 18 Feb 11
     
    I found this easy read to provide good background on the history of school boards. It features two of Virginia's school boards (Hopewell and Fairfax).
Victoria Schnettler

Obama Still Increasing Education Spending in New Budget - 0 views

www.huffingtonpost.com/...education-budget_n_823735.html

ADMS707 federal Obama spending education

shared by Victoria Schnettler on 16 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Victoria Schnettler on 16 Feb 11
     
    Seems Obama is serious about education even though the government is threatening a shut down over budgetary issues.
Roger Mancastroppa

School Administration in the Federal Republic of Germany and Its Implications for the U... - 0 views

www.eric.ed.gov/ED380881.pdf

ADMS707 education states boards

shared by Roger Mancastroppa on 18 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Roger Mancastroppa on 18 Feb 11
     
    Germans do not use lay governance - This paper presents findings of a study that explored the governance and administration of elementary and secondary schools in Bavaria, in the Federal Republic of Germany. The sample included 12 Bavarian schools--3 each of the following 4 types of schools--elementary (Grundschulen) and secondary (Gymnasien, Realschulen, and Hauptschulen). Data were gathered from interviews with school principals or headmasters and some administrative staff, observation, and document analysis. Findings showed that the selection process for teachers in Germany is much more rigorous than in the United States. Principals are experienced classroom teachers with proven ability who continue to teach. In addition, the entire district apparatus is missing; there are no superintendents, lay boards of education, and so forth. Bavarian schools appear to function extremely well within a framework of fairly tight external control, while enjoying strong professionalism among educators and freedom from the micromanagement that all too often plagues their American counterparts. Findings underscore the need for fundamental and systemic reform in the United States; high student achievement must be preceded by advances in teacher professionalism.
Victoria Schnettler

Eurybase - 0 views

eacea.ec.europa.eu/...eurybase_en.php

ADMS707 education international Europe governance

shared by Victoria Schnettler on 18 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Victoria Schnettler on 18 Feb 11
     
    Education systems of all European nations - outlined.
REL N

NAEP and the Common Core Standards - Brookings Institution - 0 views

www.brookings.edu/...0111_naep_loveless.aspx

ADMS707 Niemeyer CoreStandards NAEP

shared by REL N on 16 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • REL N on 16 Feb 11
     
    Advanced release of a Brown Center (Brookings Institution) report on the Common Core Standards.
Victoria Schnettler

First, Kill All the School Boards - 0 views

www.theatlantic.com/...3

ADMS707 education reform School boards federalization

shared by Victoria Schnettler on 18 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Victoria Schnettler on 18 Feb 11
     
    An interesting, an extreme, point of view in the historical creation of school boards and the current desire to federalize programs for greater consistency in standards alleviating the need for school boards altogether.
  • stephlennon on 20 Feb 11
     
    Extreme in every sense of the word, but especially after thinking about this issue over the week, I am not sure I disagree!
  • Roger Mancastroppa on 21 Feb 11
     
    Did you read the article on how the Germans form policy? Check out Professionalism & Receptivity to change?
REL N

Obama's budget: A play for the center? - CNN.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

ADMS707 Niemeyer Budget

shared by REL N on 15 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • While it's absolutely essential to live within our means ... we can't sacrifice our future in the process," he told reporters while touting some targeted new education spending. "We have a responsibility to invest in those areas that will have the biggest impact in our future" while "demanding accountability."
Victoria Schnettler

Besieged: School Boards and the Future of Education Politics - 0 views

books.google.com/books

ADMS707 education School boards unions

shared by Victoria Schnettler on 18 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • Victoria Schnettler on 18 Feb 11
     
    Chapter: Teacher Unions and School Board Elections is very interesting when looking at self-interest in the political realm
Angela Winston

School Funding Competition: Education Department Secretary Arne Duncan Announces 10 Win... - 0 views

abcnews.go.com/...story

RACE 2 THE TOP Winston ADMS 707

shared by Angela Winston on 18 Feb 11 - No Cached
  • "The creativity and innovation in each of these applications is breathtaking. These states show what is possible when adults come together to do the right thing for children,"
  • Angela Winston on 18 Feb 11
     
    Race to the Top Winners announced for round 2
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