Fast Report

01/06/04 -- Panel will study dropout definitions

• The U.S. Education Department awarded a contract to the National Institute of Statistical Sciences Dec. 19 to convene a group of experts to review the methods for reporting high school dropouts and "on-time graduates."

The group will sort out the varying definitions, standards, and tracking systems used throughout the nation to count dropouts.

Diverse schools less likely to make AYP

• The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) unfairly penalizes schools with more diverse student bodies, reports Policy Analysis for California Education (PACE), a cooperative venture of the schools of education of the University of California, Berkeley, and Stanford University.

According to a PACE policy brief titled Penalizing Diverse Schools?, schools enrolling more demographic subgroups tend to score lower on standardized tests, and thus are more likely to fail to make adequate yearly progress (AYP) and to be subject to various sanctions. Yet even when students display almost identical average test scores, schools with more subgroups are more likely to miss their growth targets for AYP.

For example, the report states, a school serving middle-class children is 28 percent more likely to be labeled "needs improvement" if it has five student subgroups than a school serving one subgroup.

The report says the goals of NCLB are laudable but the regulations are "a mine field -- a harrowing set of trip wires that can easily detonate consequential explosions." Hit one trip wire -- for example, testing 94 percent instead of 95 percent of students with learning disabilities -- and the school is stigmatized.

Manzanita Elementary School in Oakland, Calif., is a case in point. It made strong gains on the state's academic performance index. Yet because the school is so diverse it had to meet 18 targets to make AYP. And because it missed just one -- the African American subgroup barely missed the proficiency target for mathematics -- the school failed to make AYP.

States fall short on NCLB teacher data

• A large number of states failed to report teacher quality data to the U.S. Education Department as required by NCLB, states a report issued Dec. 22 by the Education Trust.

Telling the Whole Truth (or Not) About Highly Qualified Teachers also says some states submitted inconsistent data and many others failed to apply their own definitions of teacher quality before submitting their baseline data.

"Consequently, the data provides a distorted picture of where states stand now and what progress needs to be made," the Education Trust says.

Another recent Education Trust report finds states are reporting inadequate and inconsistent data on dropout rates.

Effective high schools engage students

• High schools that successfully engage students in learning have many things in common, states a new report by the National Academy of Sciences published Dec. 2.

These schools set high academic standards and provide rigorous, meaningful instruction and support so that all students can meet them. Their structure makes it possible to give students individual attention. The teachers take an interest in students' lives and show students the connections between success in school and long-term career plans.

Unfortunately, too few of the nation's urban high schools fit this description, concludes Engaging Schools: Fostering High School Students' Motivation to Learn.

The most important thing urban schools can do to motivate students is to provide an academic program that is appropriately challenging and engaging to students from diverse backgrounds.

The report also recommends that schools abandon the practice of ability tracking, train teachers to work effectively with academically and socially diverse groups of students, better align standardized tests with academic standards that promote deep understanding and critical thinking, and encourage personalization through the creation of small "learning communities."

The report also suggests strategies to encourage students and teachers to spend more time with each other, such as block scheduling, and proposes pairing each student's family with at least one trained adult advocate on staff.

Feds offer help on evaluating research

* The U.S. Education Department's Institute of Education Sciences published a guidebook to help local and state education leaders determine whether educational practices are based on science. NCLB requires education officials to use "scientifically based research" to guide their decisions about which programs and strategies to implement.

Identifying and Implementing Educational Practices Supported by Rigorous Evidence: A User Friendly Guide says an intervention should be supported by "strong evidence of effectiveness." This means the program has been proven to be effective through randomized controlled trials that are well-designed and implemented.