Using the latest test data, the conservative John Locke Foundation is challenging the argument that the diversity policy is giving an extra boost to Wake County's academic performance.
In a press release today, Terry Stoops, education policy analyst for the Locke Foundation, says the data shows that Wake's academic gains this year lagged behind those of the state's other urban districts. Diversity policy supporters have been trumpeting test gains to argue that the school board majority shouldn't have discarded the policy.
Stoops uses the previously released preliminary No Child Left Behind data. But Stoops said his analysis is also based on an a leaked copy of the state ABCs of Public Education test results.
The ABCs data will be officially released Aug. 5.
In terms of the federal No Child Left Behind program, Stoops notes that 38 percent of Wake's schools met adequate yearly progress standards. That compares to 59 percent in Guilford County, 58 percent in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and 54 percent in Winston-Salem/Forsyth.
As for the still secret ABCs results, Stoops said the data he received shows that Wake's growth on state end-of-grade and end-of-course tests trailed growth in CMS, Guilford and Winston-Salem.
"Wake County's test scores are improving, but no one could look at these numbers and say that Wake is exceeding other large North Carolina school systems in speeding improvement," Stoops said. "People who argue that Wake's recently discarded forced busing policy produced benefits for students might want to rethink their arguments after studying these numbers."
Comments
If Wake
Fri, 07/30/2010 - 10:03 — bluedaisyYes User - If Wake would manipulate congregating like students in same schools, then we would have higher AYPs as well. I would love to see how many targets were in each CMS, GSBO, W/S schools. Once cannot compare our system to theirs, apples to apples, statistically this way. Do you think a more accurate comparison would be to not have a minimum number for subgroups for AYP? I don't know much about AYP. I recall seeing somewhere, that when NCLB came about, the states got to pick the magic number of students that constitutes a subgroup. Am I right? One last thing - does anybody else have a problem with the John Locke Foundation gaining access to not yet published state information? And doesn't it speak so well of them to admit it!!
My preference would be to
Sat, 07/31/2010 - 10:36 — user12345My preference would be to first use a national normed test like Iowa or Stanford which really do not address EOC?? but give the public a benchmark on how the schools are doing. I think one of those test would give people a relative view of how the total education stacks up to other states ... I would pay for AP test which would determine if the kid got "quality" points for their GPA like Fairfax does ... once the total and AP were in place, I would cut across all minorities and incomes looking for anomalies ...are blacks being under served ... finally, I would cut across schools to see who is do well and not so well ... I think that if the information is publically available showing performance of poor and minority kids in comparison to other states, counties and schools it will show when they are being neglected and ignored.
Another one of those...
Fri, 07/30/2010 - 08:43 — bpuli9999vague, meaningless statements from Terry Stoops and the Locke Foundation. Maybe their education policy analysts need some more basic education.
From the original press release:
Stoops takes away another lesson from the new ABC numbers. "During the tight state budget conditions we've seen in recent years, public education cheerleaders have complained constantly that cuts in funding would hurt the North Carolina public school classroom," he said. "These new numbers don't fit that template. Test scores didn't go down as the state tightened its budget belt. In fact, test scores went up in many schools."
"many schools"? What percentage of schools improved their test scores, after facing a cut in their funding? Was it a statistically significant number of schools that did this? If so, we can learn from them. If not, a basic course in statistics is recommended - there are always outliers in any data set. You cannot come to a general conclusion for the entire dataset just because there is an outlier! In the same vein, can I conclude that no one at JLF knows anything about statistics (which actually might be true - bad example) since I know at least one person does not?
Please use facts to arrive at conclusions, not the other way around.
The only statistic that is
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 21:51 — jeffrey1The only statistic that is going to matter is the comparison of the gains that WCPSS made on the ABCs with other counties in North Carolina.
When WCPSS announced a small increase in test scores over last year, lots of diversity supporters were quick to point to the policy as one of the reasons for the increase. PLTs were also given some credit. However, if other counties in NC show similar or larger gains, then we can be assured that the increase in WCPSS was not related to the assignment policy nor the expanded PLTs. Even if other counties do not show similar gains, it is not possible to credit the results in Wake to anything other than great effort by staff and students.
Actually....
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 22:46 — Bob_SconceI'm suspicious of the ABCs also -- there's an awful lot of incentive for the state to fudge them. I'd love to see where Wake Country ranks on the National Assessment of Educational Progress.
You really can't tell right
Fri, 07/30/2010 - 08:29 — KeungHui (author)You really can't tell right now how Wake does on NAEP. With the exception of some districts like Charlotte-Meck which are part of a study in which large numbers of kids take the NAEP tests, only a small number of Wake kids do. What the state is supposed to do is randomly pick students from across the state to take NAEP. This means individual districts don't have as many testtakers. As a result, NAEP and the state don't release districtlevel data, with the exception noted above for CMS. That's part of why there's been more talk in Wake and the state about greater use of national tests to see how kids are actually doing.
National tests
Fri, 07/30/2010 - 08:41 — lferreriI think this would be a good idea. I seem to remember being told that the WCPSS used to do this, at least in some of the grades. Does anyone else recall this?
John Locke Foundation is so right on!
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 21:41 — true_freedomThey are the best! Can't wait for more factual data. Anyways, gotta go... I have a Tea Party protest to attend!
Comment on Funding
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 22:13 — Solon77I like the comment on funding. I think if we cut the funding in half - this should give us a 100% pass rate.
Yeah.
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 22:50 — Bob_SconceI thought that was asinine also, and it bugged me. I've read several things Stoops has written and he's too smart to believe that you can determine anything from a one-year change like that. So, it bugs me to see him imply that schools would do even better if they had even less.
Starting to think...
Fri, 07/30/2010 - 09:11 — bpuli9999that maybe the JLF incentive scheme is based on how many times you are quoted in newspaper articles. Given the fact that JLF adds no value to society in general, there's got to be some metrics to retain employees.
AYP is not the best
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 20:51 — willynillyAYP is not the best measure. Any school that has a very low number of targeted races do not have to meet their quote of pass for that race. I have no idea that make up of every county in the state. I do know that Judge Manning has his eye on Forsythe, Durham and Guilford Counties and they are all "seemingly" doing better by the numbers.
In years past the higher the number of EOG passes has also translated to higher AYP goals met. The best comparison to this would be between Char Meck and Wake if looking only at the state.
Now before placing too much stock in the EOG rising scores remember two things:
1) On a 60 question test one need only 31 to 33 questions correct to be "proficient."
2) DPI is helping to create a win/win (to quote some more edu jargon BS) situation by posting the actual test questions online for schools to use. Come on now, we get to say to the FEDS...."looky here, what we be doin!" The FEDS are on to the game, too.
In terms of the federal No
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 15:29 — user12345In terms of the federal No Child Left Behind program, Stoops notes that 38 percent of Wake's schools met adequate yearly progress standards. That compares to 59 percent in Guilford County, 58 percent in Charlotte-Mecklenburg and 54 percent in Winston-Salem/Forsyth.
I am not sure I care about AYP. In other posts we talked about how the bigger the school (Wake has 2000 pop HSs vs. State Avg or 800) and more diversity, the more targets you get .... I thought Wakefield got 30 targets because it is ginormous .... I am thinking Wake with with big diverse schools is at a disadvantage on the AYP program ... I would much rather use EOC/EOG data to compare and contrast.
In terms of the federal No
Thu, 07/29/2010 - 18:21 — youthinkso@user12345, You are on target!
The comparison to any urban area w/o the recognition of the diversity of WCPSS during 2009/2010 is purposely disingenuous!