States apply for growth model pilot

Growth models give schools credit for student improvement over time by tracking individual student achievement from one year to the next.

This approach differs from the current NCLB model, which tracks test scores by grade level from year to year, even though the scores are for different students.

The approval of a growth model, along with other measures to provide more flexibility, is seen as an attempt by the Administration to head off the growing chorus of criticism of NCLB, which is up for reauthorization in 2007.

Twenty states have applied to participate in the pilot.

Fourteen states applied for the current school year: Alaska, Arkansas, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah.

Another six states -- Maryland, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and South Dakota -- applied for the 2006-07 school year.

But there is no guarantee that the pilot will continue for a second year, says Kerri Briggs, a senior policy adviser at the Education Department. That would depend on “how it works this year, the kinds of results we get, what we learned from the outcomes, and, ultimately, what happens with student achievement.”

The department named a panel of peer reviewers to select states to participate in the pilot program. Peer reviewers are to submit their recommendations by May.

To be selected, states must meet certain minimal criteria, such as having had an assessment in place for grades 3-8 since 2004-05 and having an assessment and data system that tracks individual student progress. Proposals that meet these criteria will advance to the peer review process.