End of the WKCE

In a potentially important move, State Superintendent of School Tony Evers today announced plans to scrap the flawed WKCE exam. I say "potentially" because we have yet to see what form the replacement will take, however the state has been studying this issue for a couple of years and has solid set of recommendations from a task force appointed last year. The task force report can be found here.

The WSJ article on the subject can be found here.

ACT scores

Wednesday the board will hear a report about the district's ACT scores. As you may be aware our district now requires all juniors to take the ACT as we believe that the ACT is a more useful measure of academic progress than the state mandated WKCE. In the past the MG district has had ACT voluntary participation rates of about 60-70%, this compares to results for 92% of students reported for 2008-9 under the new policy. No other district in Dane county or CESA 2 reports participation rates higher than 75%. Without mandatory participation there is a significant selection bias in the reported results.

With the higher participation rate last year's data shows a drop in our average scores (Composite is 21.7 v. 22.5 in 2007-8), but we don't have a good basis for comparison with other district that use mandatory ACT testing.

Personally I think comparison with other districts is not important. What is important is how well prepared our students are for life, and how well we are improving on that mission. Toward those ends the ACT rates students to a "college readiness benchmark" in 4 content areas: English, Algebra, Social Science, and Biology. Students meeting the benchmark have a 50% chance of obtaining a B or higher in corresponding college course work. How do we stack up? The results, which I find disturbing are:

% of MG students meeting benchmark:
English Composition 68%
Algebra 49%
Social Science 52%
Biology 35%
All 4 28%

When only 30% of our students are prepared for college in all area it is clear we have significant work to do, but with the EPAS testing program in place we now have a better framework to understand our strengths and weaknesses and on which to build improvements.

A history of MG students post graduate plans can be found by clicking here.

Gigs again

Jack Henrich comments in last week's H-I on the issue of Gigs. Jack quotes an email that went around a few months ago expressing parent concerns around small guided instruction groups (GIG's) in the middle school.

GIG's are 25 minute weekly lessons held in addition to the regular music classes. They are usually conducted with a few students at a time, all with the same instrument. In order to accommodate these lessons students may be pulled out of other classes once a week for each instrument they study. According to Band Instructor Pat Dorn's presentation to the board last spring, the GIG schedule is arranged to ensure that students only miss time in classes in which they are doing well, that they may be excused from GIG's if there is an important topic/discussion or a test/quiz in their class, and that GIG's are not scheduled during math classes.

I'm a strong believer in the importance of arts education in our schools and I really don't think anyone I have heard from on this issue would disagree with that. However the email Jack mentions stems from concern some have about the amount of time missed from core classes due to the GIG's and the lack of information or opportunities for input available to parents.

I would be interested in hearing from parents on this issue.

This and that-

For the most part minor business was before the board last night. Although the district goals came up we only had limited discussion about them.

A proposed policy to establish a fund balance goal was tabled to give board members time to think about my proposal to add a few teeth to it. The district fund balance has been running between 15 and 20%. We are advised that keeping it above 15% or so reduces our short term borrowing needs and our cost of borrowing, however there is always a temptation to raid the fund balance in a financial pinch.

We did approve a transportation agreement with Kid's Safari where the district will provide afternoon bus service and charge actual costs (~$6300) back to Kid's Safari. I think this is a reasonable solution that leverages the district's ability to provide lower cost transportation in the public interest. I suggested this solution several month ago when the issue first came up.

The board also approved Paul Brost's proposed language for the student handbook concerning an after school tutoring program in the high school. His plan would be to make staff available after school for 2 hours twice a week. This would be available to all students, but some students could be assigned to the program based on academic factors. I like the individual attention this program would provide to students in need, unfortunately this program is not funded at this time.

Tentative goals...

The board met 7/22 to discuss district goals for the coming year. The tentative goals, which we will be discussing at Wednesday's board meeting are currently:

1) Achieve measureable increase in student achievement in core academic areas using these assessments: DIBELS, MAP , WKCE, EXPLORE, PLAN and ACT.

2) Develop measures ot assess student achievement in Encore areas and electives.

3) Align curriculum, instruction and assessment wiht standards/skill in core academic areas as defined by DIBELS, MAP , WKCE, EXPLORE, PLAN and ACT.

4) Close the achievement gaps with attention to race, ethnicity and socio economic status, using measureable assessments provide DIBELS, MAP , WKCE, EXPLORE, PLAN and ACT and reduce disproportionality with regard to placement of minority students in special edcuation.

5) Improve education environment, discipline, and school completion for all students, with special attention to race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status and disability.

6)Select and implement a continuous improvement process that includes development of a strategic plan.

7) Identify and implement outreach strategies with the goal of communicationg more effectively with our constituents.

8) Continue to provide excellent education services to students in a fiscally responsible mannter than continues to monitor the current budget, utilizing a forecasting model that enables anticipating and planning within a responsible budget process.

Pie Party III

This baker's kits for this year's pie party fundraiser are ready to go (and stacked in piles 20 high in my living room.) So if you need one for your entry its not too soon. I'm already contemplating my entry. Contact information can be found at www.bestpieparty.com.

Doyle's plans for reform

I've been mulling over Governor Doyle's announcement of reform plans that appeared in last Sunday's paper. In brief this is what the Governor is proposing:

1) Track student performance from kindergarten through college.

Well implemented I think this could be a real boon to improving educational outcomes, it is something I have advocated for at every opportunity. Test results can be useful if well designed, but the real measure of the success of our schools is in how well prepared our students are for post-secondary education (and for life.) A really comprehensive evaluation of our student's performance in state colleges could be of immense value in improving our programs.

2) Require 3 years of Math and Science to graduate from high school.

MG would have to increase its graduation requirements as we currently require only 2 years of each. And while I do think this is a good idea this falls under the category of incremental change and not comprehensive reform.

3) To quote the WSJ article: "Revamp school finance and teacher pay. Doyle wants to let districts get out from under state revenue caps, imposed since 1993, if they work together on union contract negotiations, make employees use the state health plan unless they already use a cheaper plan, and revamp teacher pay, among other things"

Yes we need comprehensive school finance reform, but this is too vague a statement to evaluate.

One other thing in the article is an apparent commitment to change the law that prevents standardized test results to be considered in teacher evaluations. I understand the concerns teachers might have about standardized tests, particularly with the limitations of the WKCE. Given what I know about it and my conversations with the DPI, I wouldn't consider using it for evaluating teachers. However I have discussed some of our own assessment tools (like the MAP test) with our administration and done significant statistical analysis on my own. Based on that work I believe that carefully designed growth measures can be developed that give a fair and accurate assessment of the effectiveness of teaching in at least some of our content and age areas over time. Carefully designed and administered outcome based evaluations may prove a useful tool in improving academic achievement. The best teachers are already using the information available to improve their effectiveness.