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More hocus-pocus isn't reform
(by Dave Lange - November 30, 2011)
COUNTY LINE, BY DAVE LANGE
More hocus-pocus isn't reform
For more than a decade, Ohio's public schools have been rewarded or stigmatized by the annual release of State Board of Education report cards.
Often referred to in the media as "poor-performing" school districts, those at the bottom of the state reporting list, based mostly on students' proficiency test scores, officially are listed on "academic watch" or in "continuous improvement." Those at the top of the list are said to be "excellent," while those falling in between are called "effective."
Assessments of these supposed proficiency levels most typically give a great deal of credit or blame to the educators within the various school districts, although occasional reports do note the direct and unmistakable relationship between test scores and demographics.
According to the most recent report cards, released in August, of the 97 public school districts in the seven-county region, 39, including Solon, Chagrin Falls, Kenston, Orange, West Geauga and Chardon, met all 26 standards set by the state. Most of those top-ranked districts have comparatively high household incomes. None of them are urban in any true sense of the word.
The three school districts in this region relegated to "academic watch," Cleveland, East Cleveland and Warrensville Heights, are urban and have high poverty levels. The nine districts in this region listed under "continuous improvement," including Akron and Lorain, also are more urban than their "excellent" counterparts.
In recent years, a new ingredient called "value added" has been injected into the ratings system, ostensibly to level the playing field, although the number of state standards met and the "performance index" still clearly differentiate between wealthy, or "excellent," and poor, or less than "effective."
By some formula that no one fully understands, improvement by individual students from year to year is intended to indicate whether schools surpassed expectations, simply met expectations or were below expectations. Calculations for the "value added" are done secretly by a private out-of-state corporation.
Leveling the playing field between school districts with affluent, educated residents and ample resources and those with high poverty, high crime rates and limited resources is a welcome objective. But it's becoming evident that the real objective is to expose individual teachers for public censure, salary deprivation and possible future dismissal.
A recent pilot study using the secret "value-added" formula to compare 20 Ohio school districts bears that out.
The study decided that 33.9 percent of the teachers in the Green School District in southern Summit County were "most effective," the highest proportion among the 12 districts reviewed in Northeast Ohio. It found only 3 percent of the teachers in the Beachwood School District to be "most effective." It found just 6.7 percent of the teachers in Green but a whopping 18.2 percent in Beachwood to be "least effective."
Although those two districts are demographically similar, Beachwood has a higher state performance index, higher graduation rate and higher ACT and SAT test scores than Green. But the secret calculation would have us believe that the best teachers are 10 times more likely to be found in Green than in Beachwood.
Apparently, "value added" is just more hocus-pocus substituting for real reform.
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