Washington DC/ Graduation Rates Latest NCLB Waiver Flash Point
Some say flexibility on NCLB could dilute accountability
By Michele McNeil
Education Week, Vol. 32, Issue 10 [Edweek.org]
October 31, 2012 [posted online 11/7/12]
A growing chorus of education policy advocates is urging the U.S. Department of Education to strengthen graduation-rate accountability in states that have earned waivers under the No Child Left Behind Act.
In separate letters last month to U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, a group of 36 civil rights, business, and education policy groups, along with U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Calif., say they are concerned that many states' approved flexibility plans violate the spirit-if not the letter-of 2008 regulations that require all states to calculate the graduation rate in the same way and make those rates an important factor in high school accountability.
What's more, those groups and Rep. Miller warn that in many states, graduation rates-especially for groups of at-risk students-are such a minor part of the new accountability systems that getting students to successfully finish high school may take a back seat to other factors, such as performance on tests.
An Education Week review of the 35 approved waiver applications shows approaches to graduation-rate accountability vary significantly:
Two states use the number of students that earn General Educational Development certificates, or GEDs, as part of their accountability system.
- In South Dakota, 12.5 percent of a school's grade is based on high school completion, which includes those earning a GED diploma.
- Louisiana awards a small number of points to schools for the GED certificates their students earn.
Several states allow schools to take credit in their grading systems for students who take longer than four or five years to graduate.
- Colorado, for example, allows for a seven-year graduation rate.
The weight that states afford to graduation rates in their accountability systems varies greatly.
- In Michigan's system, graduation rates are worth just 10 percent of a school's grade;
- in Kentucky, 20 percent; and
- Nevada, 30 percent.
"An erosion of the bipartisan progress made in the area of high school graduation-rate accountability is an unacceptable byproduct of this [waiver] policy," states the Sept. 21 letter from the business, civil rights, and education groups, which include the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Council of La Raza, and the National School Boards Association.
In his letter from the same day to Secretary Duncan, Mr. Miller, the senior Democrat on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, wrote: "Of most immediate concern are those new state accountability systems approved by [the Education Department] that I believe undermine the role of graduation rates in determining school performance, are not supported by research or best practice, and erode the recent progress states have made on improving graduation rates."
Education Department officials had no additional comment on the graduation-rate issue and pointed to a spokesman's statement from last month in response to Mr. Miller's letter. "We will vigilantly monitor states to make sure their kids are getting over the bar and graduating them," said department press secretary Justin Hamilton at that time.
Four Years and Beyond
The concern over graduation rates is the latest in a series of sharp critiques by advocacy groups raising alarms about the waivers. Already, several states are defending their new accountability systems because, as the federal rules permit, they are setting different school performance benchmarks by race and ethnicity.
The waivers under the NCLB law allow states the freedom to design their own differentiated accountability systems that do not revolve around the original goal of 100 percent proficiency for all students in math and reading by the end of the 2013-14 school year.
In exchange for having significant parts of the original law waived, states have to commit to intervening in the 15 percent of the lowest-performing schools, focus on closing achievement gaps, and implement teacher- and principal-evaluation systems that are based in part on student performance.
The flexibility offered to states, which comes as Congress remains overdue in reauthorizing the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, of which the NCLB law is the current version, did not waive the 2008 graduation-rate regulations.
- According to the regulations put in place by then-Education Secretary Margaret Spellings, who served in the George W. Bush administration, the graduation rate is defined as the number of students who finish high school with a regular diploma within four years.
- The regulations allow for the addition of an extended-year graduation rate so schools could receive credit for getting students over the finish line in more than four years. But generally, the department also required states to set more ambitious goals for those extended-year rates. And most states didn't exceed a five-year rate anyway, policy advocates say.
- In addition, the regulations made graduation rates a crucial factor in accountability. Schools had to meet their state's graduation goal for all students and subgroups of at-risk students, or make improvement, in order to make adequate yearly progress under the NCLB law.
"What's most concerning is the number of states and the variety of ways in which graduation-rate accountability is being implemented that is different from graduation-rate accountability as envisioned under the 2008 regulations," said Phillip Lovell, the vice president of federal advocacy for the Washington-based Alliance for Excellent Education, which works on high school issues and signed on to the September letter.
"The states would only have to make, in most instances, modest modifications to their accountability systems to fix these graduation-rate problems. Little changes could have a big impact."
What the Plans Show
The waiver plans show that states are, for the most part, reporting their four-year graduation rate as required-but that in many cases, these graduation rates may be watered down by other factors, such as when states use extended-year rates or introduce separate measures that allow schools to get credit for GED recipients.
- In Colorado's case, college- and career-readiness indicators count for 35 percent of a high school's grade, and graduation rates are a part of that broader indicator. The state includes schools' and districts' four-year graduation rates, but also counts five-, six-, and seven-year graduation rates in its accountability system.
"It's not just about giving credit, but making sure we've created an accountability system that incentivizes schools and districts to ensure students are postsecondary and workforce ready, regardless of the time they need to get there," said Colorado department of education spokeswoman Megan McDermott. "We don't want an accountability system that says, 'If you can't do it in four years, then it doesn't count.'
"In the more than a dozen states that have adopted letter grading or point systems for evaluating schools, graduation rates count for less than a third of a school's grade.
- Michigan, in its waiver application, explained the 10 percent weight it gives to graduation rates this way: "Although graduation rate is an important indicator, [the state] feels that placing too much emphasis on graduation incentivizes schools and districts to graduate students who are not proficient, and therefore not considered career- and college-ready."
When states submitted their initial waiver applications, outside peer reviewers found significant problems with many of the states' graduation-rate accountability plans.
The Education Department, however, didn't always adhere to the reviewers' suggestions.
- In South Dakota, for instance, the peer reviewers recommended that the state forgo using a "completer" rate that included those who earned a GED diploma or another certificate of completion (such as those who fulfilled the requirements of an Individual Education Plan). South Dakota made some changes, but the department allowed the state to keep its completer rate and include only GED certificates.
- And in Michigan, although peer reviewers were concerned about the low weight given to graduation rates, the department allowed the state to keep the weighting at 10 percent.
Calculating Completion
A number of states that have received waivers from provisions of the No Child Left Behind Act are using graduation rates in different ways as part of their accountability systems. A sampling:
Colorado
Allows schools to use a four-, five-, six-, or seven-year graduation rate-whichever is highest-in the state's new performance framework. Graduation rates are-for all students- one of four college- and career-readiness indicators that in total make up 35 percent of a school's grade.
Louisiana
Twenty-five percent of a school's grade is based on the four-year graduation rate, and 25 percent is based on a "graduation index" that awards points for students who get advanced diplomas but also who earn GEDs.
Michigan
Graduation rates will account for 10 percent of a school's total score. Schools will be able to use the highest of a four-, five-, or six-year rate once enough years are available to make those calculations.
New York
Schools that are not already "priority" or "focus" schools will have to meet the 80 percent statewide graduation goal or make progress toward those goals, based on a four- or five-year graduation rate. If at least one student subgroup in a school does not meet those targets, the school will qualify for interventions as a "local assistance-plan school."
South Dakota
A school's four-year graduation rate makes up 12.5 percent of a school's grade and a high school "completer" rate that includes students who earn GED certificates makes up 12.5 percent.
-Source: Approved Waiver Applications
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Washington DC/ Revise Teacher-Absence Policies: Improve Student Achievement, Save School Districts Money
Huffington Post
November 5, 2012
A new report out of the Center for American Progress urges state policymakers to revise their teacher leave policies in an effort to improve student achievement and usher in significant savings.
With teachers largely considered the most important school-based determinant of students' academic success, it is not surprising that excessive teacher absence negatively impacts student achievement.
- Research has found that every 10 absences lowers average mathematics achievement to a degree equivalent to the difference between having a novice teacher and a slightly more experienced one.
- Furthermore, with 5.3 percent of teachers absent on a given day, stipends for substitute teachers and associated administrative costs amount to a minimum of $4 billion annually.
In 2009, the U.S. Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights began including teacher absences in its biennial Civil Rights Data Collection survey.
- The report's author, Raegen Miller, examined the data for 56,837 schools and determined that on average, 36 percent of teachers nationally were absent more than 10 days during the 2009-10 school year.
- The percentages reported by individual schools ranged from 0 to 100 percent, with 62 percent of variation occurring between districts and one-third occurring within districts.
The state with the lowest average of teacher absence was Utah at 20.9 percent, with Rhode Island owning the highest average at 50.2 percent.
A WPRI report last month found that Rhode Island teachers called in sick an average nine times in a 184-day school year, though teachers in some districts missed as many as 19 days.
Timothy Duffy, head of the Rhode Island School Committee Association, told WPRI that absent teachers have "adverse effects" on students, and union contracts can affect how often teachers in different districts are absent.
- "It's the inner-city districts - the larger districts - where you see a larger percentage of absenteeism," Duffy told the station.
- "That may be due to the fact that the contract language is just loose enough to allow or afford teachers to take time when they may not be legitimately sick."
According to Miller's report, both the type of school and grade level can provide some indication of teacher absence behavior.
- For instance, teachers are absent from traditional public schools more than 10 times per year at a rate that is 15.2 percentage points higher than in charter schools.
- When it comes to grade-level breakdown, 33.3 percent of high school teachers, 36.7 percent of middle school teachers and 37.8 percent of middle school teachers were absent more than 10 days.
The report also found evidence of racial disparities.
- When holding constant grade level and type of school, a school with an African-American student population in the 90th percentile had a teacher absence rate 3.5 percentage points higher than a school in the 10th percentile.
- The corresponding differential based on percentages of Latino students was 3.2 percentage points.
Miller writes that two patterns emerge when analyzing the timing of teachers' absences,
- the first being that teachers are absent most frequently on Mondays and Fridays.
- Second, a high proportion of illness-related absences are for short enough periods as to not require medical certification.
The author recommends that state policymakers revisit statues governing employees' leave privileges, and also ensure that employees have access to family and medical leave insurance.
The report also states school districts "must accommodate some level of teacher absence" by applying a combination of policies and management tools. These include allocating some number of days of paid leave for illness or personal reasons, and offering incentives discouraging frivolous use of paid leave. Additionally, there is a need for an electronic absence management system that records absences, assigns substitutes and produces reports.
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New York NY/ Community College Consortium for Immigrant Education (CCCIE) Report: Dreaming Big
By Joanne Jacobs
Hechinger Report [Hechingerreport.org]
November 6, 2012
In Dreaming Big, the Community College Consortium for Immigrant Education (CCCIE) recommends ways for community colleges to serve a new wave of young immigrants. The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, announced by the Obama administration in June, will let undocumented immigrants who arrived as children stay in the U.S. and work legally, if they meet educational and other requirements. Many are expected to enroll in community colleges.
The report deals with increasing college access, extending financial aid to make college affordable, supporting college readiness and success, offering alternatives for adult learners and improving college retention and completion.
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Washington DC/ OPINION: MOOCs and Entrepreneurial Professors
By Nick Anderson
Washington Post
November 5, 2012
What if two professors at a university launched their own university? Would the first university be pleased?
Surprisingly, it might.
At least that is the case with George Mason University, George Mason economists Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok and the free online education platform they have launched called Marginal Revolution University.
It's another twist in the high-speed development of massive open online courses: Entrepreneurial professors are creating and promoting their own MOOCs.
On Sunday we ran a story about how the MOOC movement is emerging as a disruptive force in higher education. Universities everywhere are pondering how to react and whether the rush to open courses up to the world, free of charge, will threaten the institutions in the long run.
But some professors aren't waiting.
Cowen and Tabarrok have created a Web site, www.MRUniversity.com that will host several MOOCs. Of course, you might argue that MRU is not a university because it is not accredited and it doesn't award degrees of any sort. But these days, even the definition of a university seems up for grabs.
The first course from Cowen and Tabarrok, called development economics, drew more than 3,500 student registrations in its first week, Cowen said. Many are from India: New Delhi and Bangalore ranked among the top 10 cities of origin for visitors to the course.
The course covers geography and development; food and agricultural productivity, water economics and other topics. Videos are short and sweet, about 5 minutes each on average. Cowen said they are designed to be easily viewed on mobile devices.
More courses are coming in early 2013, Cowen said, on the euro zone, Mexico, the economics of media and other topics.
None of which means that Cowen is aiming to ditch his job at GMU. He loves being a professor, hanging out on campus, talking with students.
"MRU will continue to grow," Cowen said. "It's not either/or. I enjoy the face-to-face. I don't want to give that up under any circumstances."
Angel Cabrera, president of GMU, said he doesn't feel threatened in the least by MRU. In fact, GMU and the Mercatus Center at George Mason are listed on the MRU Web site as supporters of the venture.
Cabrera said the role of the university-in this case, GMU-is under constant discussion in this year of higher ed disruption. He envisions a university with numerous faculty entrepreneurs pushing the online envelope.
"It makes me think," Cabrera said, "How do I integrate the MOOC? Not how do I defend from it."
