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Wednesday, 18 November 2009 |
By SHEA STASKOWSKI
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Starkville School District Supt. Judy Couey says it is critical that local residents understand how the state’s new educational accountability system works, especially with the release of test scores adhering to the new standards in a few days.
Couey spoke in a forum Tuesday night about the new state accountability system scores that will be released later this week.
Couey said she felt it imperative to discuss the new model before scores come out to hopefully ward off any confusion since the new system is complicated and multi-faceted.
“My desire is for our community to understand this model,” she added.
Couey outlined requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 and how Mississippi, as a whole, is already going above and beyond in the terms of the act.
For example, NCLB requires an annual testing of either mathematics or language arts, while the state tests both subjects annually.
“Each state has it’s own test and it’s own accountability model,” Couey explained. “Our model looks like no other model, but we must be compared to each other.”
Before the revised version of the Mississippi Curriculum Test (MCT), Starkville scored well over average for students testing proficient or above on the MCT, but when compared to the National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP), the numbers were staggeringly low.
NAEP is one of the only assessments districts can use as a national comparison, besides ACT or SAT tests, which have no consequence to school’s rankings.
To respond to the data, the state made the MCT2 test, which revised the curriculum frameworks, and is essentially a more difficult test.
Couey pointed out that often times, parents and others in the community might be concerned that teachers are teaching for the state tests, but she explained that is the case simply because the state test tests on the curriculum frameworks that should be taught in the classroom.
“You should expect teachers would teach the frameworks,” she added.
The old MCT only measured students at two assessment points — basic achievement index and high achievement index — whereas NCLB measures only those students
who score proficient or above.
The new model now gives students credit in the three areas of basic, proficient and advanced.
Couey explained that the new accountability model will rank schools based on three components: Achievement, growth and graduation rate. Achievement is measured by the quality distribution index (QDI). Schools earn one point per percentage of students who score basic, two points for proficient and three points for advanced.
The QDI scale is from zero to 300, and based on that score, the school can fall into one of five categories.
However, based on a goal set forth by the state to have all schools test proficient or advanced by 2014, with each passing year, with the QDI scale, it becomes harder and harder for schools to stay in their category without improvement.
“This is the year Starkville must make progress,” Couey stated. “You can increase your score, but you’re still losing ground,” she added of the state proficiency goal.
However, the QDI is not the only thing the new system takes into account. Growth is also a major factor in the ranking a district receives. Growth is determined by a state predicted average and labeled as zero.
Students who preform above ‘zero’ are considered as meeting growth, and the students that test below the predicted ‘zero’ are considered not to have met growth.
This means that a school could have a QDI labeled as Academic Watch, but if they met their growth for the year, they may be moved to the category of Successful. The third component of ranking (graduation rate) comes into play only if growth and QDI requirements are met.
Though scores have not officially been released, Couey did comment on the status of the SSD by saying they fall in the middle with the majority of schools all over the state.
She stated that the district has schools with a low QDI and it also has schools with a good QDI, as well as schools that met growth and schools that did not meet growth.
However, the SSD did not meet expected growth as a district.
Now with the new accountability model in place, Couey plans on reviewing the data with other administrators. From there, they will determine how they will focus at each school based on student performance and teachers will be given the data in order to focus on specific skills needed by specific students or groups of students.
During the question and answer portion of the forum, one parent voiced confusion about the frameworks in general, to which Couey called on all parents to become familiar with the frameworks.
The Mississippi Dept. of Education lists the frameworks in detail on their Web site at http://www.mde.k12.ms.us.
Another parent asked about the greatest obstacle facing Couey and the administration to get children to learn in order to score higher on tests.
“The Starkville School District is still the Starkville School District,” she answered. “Unfortunately that is not how we are measured... It tests content more so than skill, so teachers must teach that content, and that is something we will have to change.”
She also explained that she didn’t see any obstacles rather than getting all teachers on the same page to teach the curriculum frameworks, and maintaining differentiated lessons for students of all learning levels.
Also during the forum, Couey entertained questions about the projected upcoming budget cuts when one parent asked if the SSD would be laying off employees once more cuts come.
“I don’t see how I could avoid it if it’s as deep as they say it is,” Couey responded.
Couey said she has examined every possible avenue to make cuts that would not affect faculty and support staff members. However, when 80 percent of the budget is being spent on transportation and personnel, such cuts seem inevitable, she said.
Editor’s note: More information about the new test scores and accountability rankings will be published as the State Department of Education releases the scores and related information in the coming days.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 20 November 2009 )
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