Education
Experts Weigh In On
State &
Local Government Role
In
Performance & Opportunity Gaps
Luis Ángel Pérez
Writing4light
Educator & Advocate
June 2017
“…
Our Panelist … Are Experts On These Plans.”
“We are here today to
talk about the
‘Every Student
Succeeds Act’ & the States.”
“We’re going to talk
about this law
that passed in 2015,
that replaced the ‘No Child Left Behind’,
and sort of where States
are at, now.”
“Essentially, there
are two submission windows, uhm,
for States to send in
their plans
under this new law
for …”
“… holding schools
accountable, ..”
“.. for how they plan
to intervene in schools, ..”
“… for how they plan
to, uhm, intervene in, in groups of students ...”
… who are consistently
underperforming.”
“… our panelist … are
experts on these plans.”
Caitlin
Emma,
Host
& Education Policy Reporter from Politico, Washington DC.
May
31, 2017
“… We Were Able To Ignore Groups of Kids …”
“I think, there are 2
pieces that I, I think we’re most interested in.”
“One, making sure
that as States set these plans,
we don’t go back to a
time Pre-‘No Child Left Behind’,
where we were able to
ignore groups of kids,
or ignore poor, ah,
performance
in any sort of way,
in any school.”
“I think another area
where, uhm, where I think we have a lot to do is
on the intervention
side.”
“What are we going to
do,
as a State or as a
District,
to help that school
improve?”
“Ahh, there are new,
ahh, parts of the law that gives a,
give States more
flexibility with those resources;
the money.”
“And, I think we
will, ahh, largely look back on this law
as a success or
failure about how we do with the schools
that aren’t getting
it done with kids right now.”
“So, meaning, ahh,
the lowest performing
in our State,
are we able to
significantly improve those schools?”
“And I think, some of
the techniques
we’ve been using in
the past
haven’t necessarily
worked in the States.”
“So, largely, under ‘No
Child Left Behind’
States did a lot of
reporting data, uhm,
and then asking
Districts & Schools to improve themselves, ..”
“… either by
coming-up with a plan or, uhm, ahh,
or, you know, just
saying,
‘You need to
improve’.”
“And that, that
didn’t work as well.”
“And I think, I think
we need a structure in place in each State.”
“And, it has really
been left up to the States.”
“So one, one area
that I’m really interested in States improving
is to think about how
do we intervene in low performing schools?”
“As we have these
conversations, it’s really important that we
get into the plans
and figure out …”
“… What the States are
actually doing?”
“Uhm, States may have
submitted something
to the Federal
Government
that may not have
everything in it
that they are going to
do in their State …”
“… because of the way
the template played out and some other things.”
“Uhm, the Federal
Government is only asking
for certain types of
information from States.”
“Their process and
their plan may be bigger than
what they submit to
the Federal Government.”
“So, I think, is an
important thing for reporters to ask is …”
“What else, besides
this Federal plan,
is going to go on in
the State
to help improve
schools?”
Chris
Minnich,
Executive
Director of the Council of Chief
State School
Officers
May
31, 2017
“What Is The Civil
Rights Community Looking For
When You’re Going
Through These Plans?”
&
“What Are The
Concerns That You Might Have About
How This Administration
Will Be Scrutinizing Them?”
Caitlin
Emma,
Host
& Education Policy Reporter from Politico, DC.
May
31, 2017
“… A Deference
To States, Even At Times …
When
States Are Violating Federal Law.”
“We keep hearing,
over & over, a deference to States,
even at times, uhm,
when States are violating Federal law.”
“I think that is
something that we should all be concerned about.”
“Uhm, using Federal
dollars to discriminate
violates Federal law.”
“And, it is the
responsibility of the Secretary of Education
to stop that.”
“Uhm, we have not
gotten the assurances that we need
that this
administration is going to make sure that these ESSA plans
are consistent with
the law and …”
“… the law’s long
standing intent
to raise achievement
for marginalized children.”
“And so, we are still
listening and hoping for that assurance.”
“We have seen some
bright signs in plans being returned to States
because they are
insufficiently complete
but, I think, we all
need to make sure that
it is not just that
they are using a sufficient number of words
but the words that
are included in the plans are
compliant with the
law
and describe a system
of accountability
which holds schools
accountable
not just for the
performance of children on average
but for the performance
of each group of children.”
“The purpose of this
law is
not just to raise
educational quality overall
but to address long
standing barriers to success
faced by Low Income Students,
Students of Color,
Students with Disabilities,
and English Learners.”
“And, if a State is
not doing that,
if that is not what
they have described,
then their plan should
not be approved.”
Liz
King,
Director
of Education Policy
at
the Leadership Conference on
Civil
and Human Rights
May
31, 2017
“So Linda, Uhm, from
what you’ve seen so far,
the plans that have
been handed in,
the draft plans that
are out there, uhm, you know …”
“… Do you feel as
those States are
delivering on this
promise
and ensuring equity,
uhm, you know,
are they being
innovative
in, in thinking about
accountability differently?”
“I mean, what, what
are you seeing?”
Caitlin
Emma,
Host & Education Policy Reporter from
Politico, DC.
May
31, 2017
“… Getting Access …
Is Typically Been Unequally Allocated …”
“… course taking,
actually, is a stronger predictor of success
in college and beyond
than test scores.”
“And so, getting
access,
which is typically been
unequally allocated,
to College
Preparatory Curriculum,
to Advance Courses, Advance
Placement,
International Bank of
Laureate, to, ah, Credit Courses,
as a lot of States
are measuring, ahh,
to strong
Poly-Technical Education Programs
that meet a quality
standard, ahh, those kinds of things.”
“Ahh, and getting to
a place where
hundred percent of
kids are prepared to go on in life …”
“… would be a huge
change in
where we are as a Nation.”
Linda
Darling-Hammond,
CEO
of The Learning Policy Institute,
Professor
of Education at Stanford
University
May
31, 2017
“What
Are The Signals That States Are Sending
To
The Schools In Terms Of Who Matters?”
“I think, when we
look at these plans,
and we’re talking
about accountability plans,
and especially when
it comes to the ratings,
a couple of things
that I hope you ask, ahh,
when you look at your
own State’s plan.”
“The first one is
whether or not it
does a good job helping
parents & tax payers,
regular, you know, man & woman on the street,
understand if a given
school is a good school or not.”
“The second thing I’d
look at is
whether or not these
ratings are doing a good job
differentiating between
really good high poverty schools
& really bad high
poverty schools.”
“If you’re a high
poverty high school and most of your kids
are coming in three
grade levels ahead,
even if you were
doing a phenomenal job,
you’re going to have
some pretty low proficiency rates.
And your graduation
rate might not be great either.
So, if that’s all the
State is looking at,
you’re going to get a
low rating.”
“And finally,
“What are the signals
that States are sending
to the schools in
terms of
who matters?”
“… we want to make
sure, ahh, the signal is that
all kids matter.
Right?”
“… if you serve a lot
of poor kids,
you’re going to get a
low grade
&
if you serve a lot of
rich kids,
you’re going to get a
high grade.”
“That is not a good
accountability system.”
Michael
J. Petrilli,
President
of the Thomas B. Fordham Institute
May
31, 2017
“These
States’ Plans Are Just Not Following The Law …”
“… I think, from our perspective,
I mean, the central question here is
whether all kids
matter in the system or not.”
“And, I think, that’s
the biggest challenge that we see.”
“The politically hard
thing to do is to hold accountable
a school which, on
average, may be performing well
but is really just
failing to serve a group of students.”
“Whether it’s
an all White Middle-Class
School that is not
serving its Children with
Disabilities well or
an all White School
that is not
serving its Low
Income Children well or
a Newly Diverse School
that’s not
meeting the needs of
English Learners or
African American
Students, …”
“… that is the
politically hard thing to do.”
“It is not
hard to hold accountable
a high poverty
racially isolated school.
Those schools are in
the situation they’re in
because they have
such little political power.”
“… when you design a
system which is only about
holding accountable
schools with the least political power
you are undermining
the value of accountability
to create the
behavioral change.”
“The system we have
right now is not working.
It is not serving all
of the children it needs to serve.”
“These historic
barriers to opportunity persists
and in order for them
to go away
behaviors need to
change,
policies &
practices need to change.”
“And, this is the
thing we’re seeing.”
“These States’ plans
are just not following the law,
avoiding the
politically hard challenge,
they are focusing
only on, uhm, overall achievement
and they are not
holding schools accountable for
disaggregated
achievement and …”
“… that’s just
unacceptable.
We can’t have that
system.”
‘…
This Is An America
As Good As Its Ideals’.
“… we think it’s a
fallacy to argue that
achievement gaps are
inevitable, or natural, or preordained.”
“This is a system we
have created.”
“We have created an
inequitable system
through policies &
practices
over the past several
hundred years.”
“And, we are working
very hard now, many of us, to fix that.
And that’s the work
that we need to be doing.”
“And, it doesn’t
start with NCLB
and it doesn’t start
with the Civil Rights Movement.”
“This work is much
older than all of that.”
“I mean, when we, in
language that we use …”
“‘… this is an America
as good as its ideals’. Right?”
“We all believe in an
education system which
supports the success
of all children.”
“And, that’s the
system we need to be working towards.”
“And so, I think it
is wrong to argue that our ult,
our options are only
to
ignore historical
differences,
to sweep under the
rug inequitable opportunity …”
Liz
King,
Director
of Education Policy
at
the Leadership Conference on
Civil
and Human Rights
May
31, 2017
“…
Because We Inequitably Fund Schools In This Country.”
“In this law, in
contrast to NCLB,
where you would rank
& sort the schools
and label them and,
you know, ahh,
create a whole set of,
ahh, sanctions that could occur, …”
“… there was no
requirement to invest in those schools.”
“There was a period
of time where there was
School Improvement
Grants
but a lot of schools,
ahh, were, you know,
basically, under
resourced because
we inequitably fund
schools in this country.”
“In, ahh, ESSA,
States do have the obligation,
when they identify a school
as, ahh, requiring intervention,
to do a resource audit
to really look at the
ways in which
resources may be
inequitable or inadequate
to do the work in
their school.”
“And, I think that’s
part of what, ahh,
has to be leveraged,
ahh, as we look forward.”
Linda
Darling-Hammond,
CEO
of The Learning Policy Institute,
Professor
of Education at Stanford
University
May
31, 2017
“What Sort of
Questions Do You Think
Reporters Should Be Asking
States
Regarding Their
Targeted Intervention
For Particular Subgroups
Instead of Schools as
a Whole?”
- From
Audience -
May
31, 2017
“How
Would That Manifest Itself
In a
Student Outcome?”
“One of the problems
that we have is
this continued use of
this Super-Subgroup
which ignores the
meaningful differences between
African American,
Latino, Native American,
Asian American
Students, White Students, ahh,
Low Income Students, ahh,
Students with Disabilities,
& English Learners.”
“And so, the first question
is …”
“… How do you plan to
apply an intervention when
your identification
system,
your accountability
system,
does not meaningfully
disaggregate
among groups of
students?”
“So, that’s the first
question.”
“Is that,
what you need is the information about
who is not being
effectively served,
and then, to Linda’s
point earlier,
on what? Right?”
“A general knowledge that
the school is not working
for that group of
kids is not helpful.”
“Is it reading
achievement, is it math achievement, is it a graduation rate issue?”
“And so, I think,
having those pieces of information …”
“Who is not getting
the supports they need
and then, in what area?”
“How would that
manifest itself in a student outcome?”
“The very next
question is …”
“How are you going to
engage
the parents &
communities of affected students
in the decision about
what to do?”
“Because, if you’re
talking about a school
that is not
effectively serving
its African American
students,
I bet you,
African American
Parents in that Community
have a good
understanding of part of the challenge.”
“Whether it is
something like, uhm, you know
barriers to access to
higher level courses,
whether it is
something like implicit bias,
whether it is
discipline disparities, & school push-out,
you know, what this
sort of, the cause of the challenge.”
“I think that, parents
are a really important source of information
about what to do
there.”
“And then,
looking at other
schools that have done a great job. Right?
For, for all of the
challenges that we have in our system,
there are schools
that really are excelling at serving all students.
And, really learning
from that
and figuring out what
it is that they did,
and how did that
work,
and how do you apply
those lessons in other places.”
“So, that’s where I
would start.”
Liz
King,
Director
of Education Policy
at
the Leadership Conference on
Civil
and Human Rights
May
31, 2017
“One of the issues
that I have is that it’s very hard for me as a reporter
to ‘look under the
hood’ of growth models and see, like, what their, …”
“What Is Their Formula
for Determining Growth.”
“And, and, especially
as we change State Accountability Test.
It just, it, it kind
of seems like a mess
and then I’m very
suspicious because
I can’t understand
what they’re, what they’re looking at.
So, even though,
like, you might look at two scores, uhm,
two, like, average
scale scores, they could be exactly the same
but yet have
different growth percentages,
and so, and I know
that’s because it’s individual students
but it’s, it’s a
mess.”
- From
Audience -
May
31, 2017
“… I
Think … States Have a Responsibility
To Have
The Public & The Reporters
Be
Able to
Replicate
Their … Calculations.”
“I agree with you. I
actually think we should be pushing toward
simpler models, uhm, uhm,
that pe, people can understand.
Uhm, I, I think, I
think States have a responsibility to
have the public and
the reporters
be able to replicate
their, uhm, uhm, their calculations.
And, I don’t think, ahh,
I think we should be able to
give reporters access
to the, the, the data-set
in a way that you
could check that.”
“So, I understand
growth modeling is very complicated
but I, I think we can
do better at sort of understanding, uhm,
if, if similar kids
with similar demographics,
are, are, should have
similar growth targets.”
“So, ahm, tha,
that’s, I think is, I think is something
that we kind of, we
get into the research side and …”
“… we sometimes lose
the ability to explain what we’re doing
and therefore we lose
parents, so,
and, and the general
public.”
“So, I, I think we
can be better on that front.
And Linda has a lot
of experience in this ...”
Chris
Minnich,
Executive
Director of the Council of
Chief State School Officers
May
31, 2017
“No, I’m going to let
them go to the next question.”
Linda
Darling-Hammond,
CEO
of The Learning Policy Institute,
Professor
of Education at Stanford
University
May
31, 2017
“We talked a little bit about those interim
benchmarks
and setting interim
benchmarks, and I know it, so,
what I’ve seen is that
certain subgroups have lower starting points. Right?
And we get this – ‘Oh
well, we’re just being realistic.’
How do y’all feel
about that, having, you know,
black kids, kids with
disabilities, ELLs,
and everybody’s got
this starting benchmark?
- From
Audience -
May
31, 2017
“…
We’ve Been So Familiar with Talking About
The
Achievement Gap
For
The Last 15 Years That
There’s
Been Much Less Conversation
About
The Opportunity Gap.”
“You know, Mike made
the point earlier that,
it’s important to set,
uhm, you know,
achievable targets,
uhm, with effort.”
“And, uhm, most
States are, are doing that
in a way that, ahh,
looks at where kids are now
and then sets an
expectation that there will be steeper growth
for kids who are
starting further behind
so that you’re
looking at lines that should,
you know, over time, ahh,
move towards convergence.
And, ahh, I think
that’s, you know, that’s a reasonable thing to do.”
A lot of the challenges
are about how quickly do you expect that slope to,
you know, go up and,
ahh, over what period of time.”
“Uhm, but, you have
to start with, with where things are now
and then set, ahh,
that expectation for, uhm,
closing the
achievement gap.”
“That means, though,
also closing the opportunity gap.”
“And we’ve been so
familiar with talking about the achievement gap
for the last 15 years
that there’s been much less conversation about
the opportunity gap.”
“The fact that kids
do get access to very different curriculum
in many, many places.”
“They get access to
very different learning opportunities
before they get to kindergarten.”
“They have access to
very different resources within schools, etcetera.”
“So as we worry about
the goals & the targets
and the movement of
kids along those,
it’s really important
to continue to
loop back to the
question about …”
“What opportunities to
learn, ahh,
are different groups
of students receiving,
really from birth
forward?”
“And, as we look at
the, ah, interventions that States can,
the evidence based
interventions that States can put in place,
it’s going to be very
important that they, ahh, consider
such things as ahh,
and some, some places are looking at this, ahh,
it, as pre-school. As
high quality pre-school for some children.”
“It may be very
important in some communities
for highs quality,
how, high quality community schools models
to be put in place.”
“We’re doing, ahh,
releasing a report on Monday, uhm,
looking at
one-hundred-twenty-five studies of community schools models,
many of which have
very strong achievement gains
because they give the
wrap around services
that students need,
plus, before and after study time,
and support systems.”
“They’re variety of
ways that States & Districts of schools
can approach the improvement
question.
Including strong
curriculum in reading and math
and professional
development for teachers, well designed.”
“Again, another place
where we’re going to need
access to the
research about what actually works
and what doesn’t, in
that regard.”
“But those are going
to be the most important questions
once the targets get
set.”
“Uhm, there’s a lot
of, you know, measurement ankhs right now but …”
“… the next ankhs
really has to be about
the investments &
the improvements.”
Linda
Darling-Hammond,
CEO
of The Learning Policy Institute,
Professor
of Education at Stanford
University
May
31, 2017
“What Happens If There’s, Sort Of,
A Dualing
Accountability System;
You Have One System on
The Federal Level
& One System on
The State Level;
“What Impact Will That
Have on Education
State?”
- From
Audience -
May
31, 2017
“…
What Are The Differentiated Supports
That
You’re Providing?”
“Yeah, I think from
our perspective on, you know, part of this …”
“… Is the State’s plan something other than just
a policy compliance
exercise?”
“You know, from our
view,
the State’s planning
process should be …”
“… the State coming
together and deciding
what it’s going to do
to meet the needs of all children in that State.”
“And that’s what we
are expecting.”
“These State plans
should be a demonstration
of the commitment by a
State
to educate all the
children in that State.”
“And, that necessarily
involves an integrative system
of holding schools
accountable,
provided supports.”
“I think, to the
question around differentiating for interim targets,
the question that,
you need to be asking,
right, so, okay, so, we’re
saying,
in year one or year
two we’re expecting lower achievement
for children with
disabilities
but you’re telling me
that the long term plan is
everybody getting the
same high goal.
And that’s great and
we’re going to all have to move faster
with different groups
of kids along the way,
the big question then
is …”
“… what are the
differentiated supports that you’re providing?”
“So, we’re going to
say, …”
“‘… as a State we have
not been serving
children with
disabilities
for way too long and
here is our plan
to change that.’ ”
“Talk about
intergrading,
States also have
plans under IDEA
and how they’re going
to better serve children with disabilities.
Are they intergrading
their plan under IDEA
for how to serve
children with disabilities for their ESSA plan
for how to serve children
with disabilities?
And, are they
intergrading all of their State’s processes?”
“If you got a State
that’s been making
really important
State driven progress on
closing discipline
gaps and ending exclusionary discipline,
and racial
disproportionally in discipline, …”
“… How are they
intergrading that
to help raise
achievement for students
who’ve been getting
pushed out of school?”
“So, our hope really
is that this is an opportunity
for States to come
together
and really make a new
commitment
to educating all the
children
in our State.”
Liz
King,
Director
of Education Policy
at
the Leadership Conference on
Civil and Human Rights
May
31, 2017
“…
The Federal Government Isn’t Asking
For
Everything That a State Needs To Do
To
Make Their School Successful.”
“Uhm, so, I, I, I just,
I think is ridiculous that, uhm,
we would, that we
would have two sets of plans.”
“Now, to be said,
the Federal Government
isn’t asking for everything
that a State needs to
do to make their school successful.”
“So, to be fair,
if I were sitting in
the State
I don’t think I would
send the Federal Government
everything that I’m
going to do because
they’re not asking
for it.”
“Now, uhm, I think, the
State should have one plan
that they might send
parts of it to the Federal Government.”
Chris
Minnich,
Executive
Director of
the
Council of Chief State School
Officers
May
31, 2017
“When States Are
Putting These Plans Together,
How Should They Ensure,
How Can They Ensure
That The Impact of
Poverty, You Know,
That Poverty Doesn’t Have
a Significant Impact
on Achievement,
So That, You Know, Like
Michael Said, ahh,
Districts That Are Serving
Large Populations of Students
in Poverty
Aren’t All Just Marked
as Failing?”
-
From Audience -
May
31, 2017
“… I think the
metrics actually
matter the most in
that conversation.”
Chris
Minnich,
Executive
Director of
the
Council of Chief State School
Officers
May
31, 2017
“… It
Is Really Dangerous If We Play With The Metrics
But Don’t Play With The Opportunity
That
Matters At The Child Level.”
“It’s not, it’s not just
about the metrics.”
“You could also then
remove the barriers to opportunities
that exist for
children in poverty. Right?”
“You can provide, you
know, greater funding
for schools with
greater challenges, …”
“… you can provide
the strongest teachers
to students who need
the strongest teachers, …”
“… you could equalize,
uhm, course access
so that all children
have meaningful access
to rigorous courses
& college preparatory curriculum.”
“And, I think, that
is really where we want to see this go.”
“I think it’s, it is
really dangerous if we play with the metrics but
don’t play with the
opportunity that matters at the child level.”
“… the child does not
care about the metrics. Right?
The child cares about
their experience in school.
Do they have a school
with a high concentration of novice teachers?”
“And I think these
are the, the real core questions.”
“We need to solve
the fundamental
inequalities that exist.”
“We need to stop
providing less to
children who need more.”
“And that’s what we
need to do.”
“Mass
deportation, mass incarceration,
taking
away children’s healthcare,
taking away
access to family nutrition support, …”
“… all
of those are bad for student achievement.”
“Even if we all, if
we only cared about student achievement
all of those things
are bad for student achievement.”
“That is also not the
society any of us want to live in
but that’s the
proposal on the table.”
Liz
King,
Director
of Education Policy
at
the Leadership Conference on
Civil
and Human Rights
May
31, 2017
“… But
Almost Everything Was Undone.”
“One last fact –
The war on poverty
and the, ah, set of programs that were
part of a great
society in the 60’s and the 70’s, ah,
actually reduced the
reading achievement gap
by two-thirds, ahh,
by, ahh, the early 1980’s.”
“Had we stayed on
course with those programs,
we would have
probably have no black-white achievement gap
by the year 2000.”
“But almost
everything was undone.”
“And so, we have
never recouped, ah,
the opportunity, ahh,
strategies
that we once put in
place that were successful.”
Linda
Darling-Hammond,
CEO
of The Learning Policy Institute,
Professor
of Education at Stanford
University
May
31, 2017
“Do You Have Recommendations,
in Elementary, Middle
School,
of Alternative
Measures
that Aren’t Based on
Test Scores?”
“As well as financial,
uhh,
there’s a lot of
things that go on input, ahh,
into schools.”
“Have You Noticed in Any
Districts
or Any State Plans
That Have Begun Grading
Their Schools
Based on What’s Going
Into The School,
Not Just What’s Co,
Not Just On The Test Scores
& The Outputs?”
-
From Audience -
May
31, 2017
“Each
one of those groups of students
has a
different experience even while
they
have an experience shared among themselves.”
“… they have a super subgroup that combines
Low Income Students,
Students with Disabilities, & English Learners.”
“So, they do not hold
schools accountable
for disaggregated
performance.”
“Uhm, I don’t know if
their assumption is that
all children of color
are
of Low Income English
Learners or Children with Disabilities,
but they are not. “Uhm,
so the math is wrong on that.”
“And, there’s also a
difference between
being an English
Learner & a Child with Disability & being Low Income.”
“Those are not, uhm,
ahh, redundant categories.
Each one of those
groups of students
has a different
experience even while
they have an
experience shared among themselves.”
“And so, that’s the
other thing to remember. Right?”
“Not just what is
being measured but for whom?”
“Uhm, and whether
schools are being held accountable
for disaggregated
performance
across all the
indicators they decide to use in the system.”
Liz
King,
Director
of Education Policy
at
the Leadership Conference on
Civil
and Human Rights
May
31, 2017
The
above depicts some of what was asserted by experts during a conference titled,
Education
and States’ Accountability, (May 31,
2017),
hosted
by the Education Writers Association.
To
learn more or watch the entire conference, visit their website
or
click on one of the links provided below.
Education Writers Association
C-SPAN
Let’s
End Abuse of Power In Our Schools
Awareness Is Power So
Please Continue To Follow
Luis Ángel Pérez,
Degrees in Psychology & Education,
Mental Health, Social Services,
Public School Science & Mathematics,
Dual Language Middle School Seventh
& Eighth Grades,
Elementary School First & Fourth
Grades,
Educator & Advocate.
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