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Ellen Belcher is the Dayton Daily News opinion pages editor. She writes about state government, education, the environment, higher education and all things Dayton.
Martin Gottlieb is an editorial writer and columnist for the Dayton Daily News opinion pages. He focuses on the political process itself and does such national issues as war, the economy, taxes and Social Security, as well as a hodge-podge of local and state issues.Home > Blogs > A Matter of Opinion > Archives > 2010 > March > 02 > Entry
Editorial: State hasn’t learned how to judge progress
Ohio has been a pioneer in recognizing school districts whose students make progress, even if they may not pass state-mandated tests. But its system for judging how much progress is being made is being seriously questioned.
In the early years of the modern movement toward standardized tests as a way of judging schools, low-scoring school districts complained that the state did not reward them for big gains. Schools were measured only against other schools, not on student progress.
That’s changed. This will be the third year Ohio gives extra credit to districts for making this kind of progress and penalizes those that fail to make “expected” progress on state tests.
But trends in the state’s data look implausible; questions about odd patterns aren’t being answered.
That may be because the statistical model on which Ohio based its system to calculate academic growth is the secret property of the company that designed it.
The anomalies have to be explained. The data problems could mean that there are serious flaws in the testing system.
And scores that don’t add up could mislead parents about the quality of their schools, confuse educators about how well they’re doing in the classroom and lead lawmakers astray.
In an essay entitled, “Is Ohio’s value-added system broken?” Cleveland State professor Douglas Clay points to a strange “yo-yo” effect in the statewide data over the past two years.
(The essay was touted on Gadfly, a blog operated by the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, and can be found at tinyurl.com/ybbmwtb.)
Mr. Clay points first to fifth-grade reading scores in 2007-08. Statewide that year, a phenomenal 83 percent of schools failed to meet “expected growth” in reading. Just 2 percent were above expectations, and the rest had average improvement.
Looking at the same group of kids the next year in sixth grade, Mr. Clay expected to see a similar pattern.
Instead, the 2008-09 sixth-grade class saw its performance completely flip: 98 percent of schools rated above expectations in reading, and not a single school statewide was below expectations.
That is such an extraordinary reversal that Mr. Clay describes it as all but statistically impossible.
Mr. Clay found similar, if not quite so pronounced, “yo-yo” patterns for other groups of kids in other grades. He also saw the pattern in math scores.
Colleen Grady, a former Ohio school board member, has similar concerns that the growth measure may not be providing accurate data. (Ms. Grady blogs here, along with Susan Haverkos, a state school board member from West Chester who represents part of the Dayton area.)
She says she had concerns about the methodology years ago, when the state board was crafting the program.
An Ohio Department of Education spokesman says a review of the improvement measure is upcoming, and that revisions may follow, but that the state has confidence in the model, noting that the U.S. Department of Education is pushing other states to try it.
Unsatisfactory. The state must address the concerns Mr. Clay has raised and explain the extent of the data problem he cites. Doing anything less erodes confidence in the rating system.
Permalink | Comments (13) | Post your comment | Categories: Editorials, Education, Ohio government, Ohio politics, Scott Elliott
Comments
By B.H.O.
March 2, 2010 7:29 PM | Link to this
I understand the concerns of parents with their child’s school. I have two daughters myself and I am the one you have been waiting for. I have a simple solution. Let’s throw more money at the problem. We will tax those evil business people, take their money and give it to the schools. We will hold those teachers who refuse to pass their non-performing pupils on to the next grade accountable! We will have teachers teach songs in my honor and your kids will learn to praise me! Yes, we can! We will revolutionize school districts—from the biggest of cities to the smallest of towns—we will indoctrinate these kids so they can compete in the 21st century! I am confident in the leaders of the NEA and other unions to lead today’s children into poverty….wait…uhhh…my teleprompter broke…can we cut away from…ah…ah….John, the the election is over…oh….my bad…I thought this was a health care forum…is my teleprompter ready to go?
By Mary
March 3, 2010 7:58 AM | Link to this
The www.stateofohioeducation.com blog you mentioned is also a yo-yo and essentially a Republican (from what I can tell)propaganda machine. While by name and so-called credentials it is supposed to be a free and open discussion of Ohio’s views on education, it is not. Inputs are censored according to their “conservative in name” only agenda. For example, their stand on class sizes and specific finances on student activities are inconsistent and yo-yo. It is not okay to spend money on keeping class sizes personal and meaningful, but is okay to spend tax dollars on student activities and keep sports teams small and exclusive. It is a shame people masquerading as education leaders do not even understand basic democratic principles and free discussion of opinion. Why should they be trusted with fixing education?
By Jim
March 3, 2010 9:19 AM | Link to this
Oh—So we had no problems with education in this country before Obama became the President? No Kid Left Behind worked great?
By Ben
March 3, 2010 10:32 AM | Link to this
The whole point of the education process is to prepare pupils for the next step - whether that be higher education or a job. The folks receiveing those pupils at the next step have certain expectations of performance from them. How do we assess that performance? STANDARDIZED TESTING!!! It doesn’t matter what progress is being made toward that goal, MEETING the goal is what counts. All of the metrics are meaningless if the pupils can’t pass the test. Many complain about “teaching to the test”, but that is the entire point. Basic education is not about creating a hypothetical think tank, it is about teaching the basics of reading, mathematics, and how our government is structured and operates. If we can’t generate a product that meets the expectations of those at the next step - i.e. employers or higher education - then we are failing.
By Ben
March 3, 2010 10:34 AM | Link to this
The whole point of the education process is to prepare pupils for the next step - whether that be higher education or a job. The folks receiveing those pupils at the next step have certain expectations of performance from them. How do we assess that performance? STANDARDIZED TESTING!!! It doesn’t matter what progress is being made toward that goal, MEETING the goal is what counts. All of the metrics are meaningless if the pupils can’t pass the test. Many complain about “teaching to the test”, but that is the entire point. Basic education is not about creating a hypothetical think tank, it is about teaching the basics of reading, mathematics, and how our government is structured and operates. If we can’t generate a product that meets the expectations of those at the next step - i.e. employers or higher education - then we are failing.
By Ben
March 3, 2010 10:36 AM | Link to this
The whole point of the education process is to prepare pupils for the next step - whether that be higher education or a job. The folks receiveing those pupils at the next step have certain expectations of performance from them. How do we assess that performance? STANDARDIZED TESTING!!! It doesn’t matter what progress is being made toward that goal, MEETING the goal is what counts. All of the metrics are meaningless if the pupils can’t pass the test. Many complain about “teaching to the test”, but that is the entire point. Basic education is not about creating a hypothetical think tank, it is about teaching the basics of reading, mathematics, and how our government is structured and operates. If we can’t generate a product that meets the expectations of those at the next step - i.e. employers or higher education - then we are failing.
By Informed Taxpayer
March 4, 2010 7:01 AM | Link to this
One cannot help but acknowledge this kind of data failure and note that teachers in DPS and other districts were/are skeptical of using these types of data to make hiring/firing decisions. There is accountability and then there is just gibberish. Will DDN make this point in other articles and opinion pieces in the future? I highly doubt it, as it would prove the teacher’s point of view - and that isn’t likely to happen. Efforts at improving schools fall to the entire community, not just teachers, but that is certainly not a popular view with the voting public or DDN. After 9+ years of “No Child”, the data systems are not in place to measure student progress. There is no getting around this fact.
By Jim from Dayton
March 5, 2010 4:22 AM | Link to this
Current problems with schools have less to do with teachers and facilities than with the students themselves and the values of the peer-groups they form. And where do they get these values? From their families! That’s why Dayton Schools are so awful and Oakwood schools non pareil—and everything else in between. Why do parochial schools tend to do well? Not because of their poorly paid faculties and often marginal facilities, bue because parents care enough to fork over sometimes hefty tuition—and make sure that their children earn a return on their investment. Education in America today is about social class that’s fast becoming social caste. There are no quick fixes and maybe none at all. However, to the extent that poor school districts can be helped, we could begin funding schools more equitably, like the Ohio Supreme Court ruled years ago. That means ditching local property levies for some form of income tax. But that’s anathema to suburban parents to the detriment of inner city and rural school districts. And so it goes …
By Calvinj
March 5, 2010 9:54 AM | Link to this
The urban schools took their high property tax and squandered it on union and silly things instead of educating the kids with high expectations and accepting no excuses from the kids or the parents. So now the urban schools want to take from the surrounding areas to fund more of their waste. It’s bad enough they get more of the state money to rebuild the schools they didn’t maintain properly with their bond and operating levies; the suburban people who fled from the poor discipline and affirmative action silly stuff of the urban schools have to help pay for their mistakes. Let the urban tax the people they have left who in too many cases are graduates of their social excuses experiments. All those big buildings have value: tax them.
By Mary
March 5, 2010 1:40 PM | Link to this
Jim from Dayton, I think some of the peer group values you mentioned are formed in the school environment outside the purview of parents. My children were exposed to a lot that adult school employees accepted as appropriate behavior, goals and values that did not reflect our family values. Among these values taught in the school environment are such things as sports are more important for college than academics, it is more important to achieve in sports than academics, schools invest more in student athletes than they do in students, and bullying is normal. My children went to a suburban school. Then we wonder why American schools are such low performers compared to the rest of the world. The rest of the world does not operate their academic and education programs that way. The people in leadership positions in education are the ones setting or condoning these value systems.
By Jim from Dayton
March 5, 2010 3:55 PM | Link to this
Mary: Your point is well taken; many values are indeed learned within the peer group or by adults outside the home. And there is also no question that sports, in particular, are way overemphasized by our culture both in and outside the schools. However, there is no question that many, many children in inner-city urban environments come from one-parent and grandparent homes with no real authority figure to establish standards and enforce them. And that’s if they’re lucky… . As for the comment by Calvinj: it was poor RURAL schools that brought suit for a more equitable distribution of education monies in the state. Their problems are still unaddressed. The only FAIR way to fund schools statewide is with an income tax on all Ohioans.
By calvinj
March 6, 2010 10:11 PM | Link to this
The urban schools are receiving more than their fair share from taxpayer state money per student. They also receive the property tax from their urban area; that tax includes all the businesses they have nurtured and the buildings pertaining to them. The poor rural schools don’t have the tax base for property tax that the urban schools have. Look at the cost of educating each student in the urban schools vs the cost in the poor rural and the suburban schools. The article mentions that in Jefferson Township the cost of administration is 68% of every dollar they receive. Why? How much are their administrators paid? Is Raleigh Trammel on the payroll? But we already have an income tax. I don’t understand FAIR unless it’s that you think the urbban schools should recieve even more of every dollar in Ohio to waste on their unions and no maintenance plans for buildings. I still regret that we are paying extra for the urban schools to rebuild their buildings at the expense of others in the state.
By It's Great in Dayton!!!!!
March 11, 2010 8:46 AM | Link to this
No matter what metrics you apply, the answer is the same: Dayton Public Schools $uck!!——————-DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING DAYTON’S DYING