Legal Clips, [December 2007]The U.S. Education Department (ED) has announced it will allow schools in eligible states to be graded on steady student achievement over a period of time through a "growth model" under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). Currently, schools are rated on rigid testing benchmarks for groups of students. The move to expand growth models, which have been restricted to pilot projects in nine states, came in response to stalled efforts in Congress to rewrite the 5-year-old law. How progress is measured under the mandate is critical to schools because it determines whether they meet annual goals and avoid penalties. The current formula requires schools to report, for example, how this year's fifth-graders did compared with last year's fifth-graders in math and reading. The goal is to get all kids working at grade level by 2014. However, some educators say the current format is imprecise because it tracks the progress of groups of students but does not monitor gains by individuals. They also complain schools do not get credit for making big improvements if groups of students still fail to hit testing benchmarks. Educators say that can be a problem when looking at gains made by poor and minority students, who often start out well behind other kids. The growth model would have schools measure individual student progress, a method Hawai‛i officials believe could lead to fewer state schools facing federal sanctions. “The growth model has always been championed as the better alternative,” said Glenn Hirata, an evaluation specialist with the state Education Department's Systems Accountability Office. However, earlier this year, the department had its application to adopt a growth model denied, in part because of concerns by a panel of experts who were unsatisfied with the state's ability to track students. Currently, 219 public schools—excluding charters—are wired into the state's Electronic Student Information System, and the remaining 43 should be added by the summer, according to Rodney Moriyama, assistant superintendent in the Information Technology Services office. Mr. Hirata said the state Department of Education can track as many as 90% of its students. “It's not easy. When you have 180,000 kids and almost 100,000 of them are being tested, to be able to keep track all of the inactive, active, exits, incoming kids, you've got to be really careful.”
Honolulu Star-Bulletin By Alexandre Da Silva, with Associated Press
[Editor’s Note: ED’s press release announcing the decision, with a link to its information page on the pilot program, is below. The nine states whose plans had been approved under the pilot program are North Carolina, Tennessee, Delaware, Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Ohio, Alaska, and Arizona. For background, see the second link. More on the lack of Congressional progress toward NCLB reauthorization is available starting at the third link.]
ED growth model press release
NSBA School Law pages on growth model program
NSBA on NCLB reauthorization