- Link Between Value-Added Ratings and Classroom Observations is Modest at Best, Studies Show
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D.C. Expects School Buses to Leave Court Supervision
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Jonetta Rose Barras: Libraries and Innovation
The Washington Post
By Bill Turque
April 27, 2012
Here’s a statistical postscript to the story of Sarah Wysocki , the MacFarland Middle School teacher fired by DCPS last year after she earned good classroom observation scores on IMPACT’s Teaching and Learning Framework, but low value-added marks on student test results.
Ideally, there would be a healthy statistical link between the value- added and TLF scores. That would provide some solid evidence that following DCPS prescriptives in the classroom leads to higher student achievement on standardized tests.
“Nationally the hope is that there is a strong correlation between a teacher’s score on an instructional rubric and his or her value-added score,” Rachel Curtis, former assistant superintendent in the Boston Public Schools, wrote in her 2011 study of IMPACT for the Aspen Institute. “This would validate the instructional rubric by showing that doing well in instruction produces better student outcomes.”
So far, after two full years under IMPACT, the correlation is modest at best. An analysis of scores by DCPS consultant Mathematica shows that it was 0.34 (+1 indicating the highest possible positive correlation, and 0 indicating no correlation) in 2009-10. Last year it was 0.35.
Jason Kamras, DCPS human capital chief, said two years of data is not enough to draw strong conclusions. The correlation was comparable, and in some cases a little higher, than in other studies. For Cincinnati’s value-added system, which covers the same grades as D.C., a study showed a three-year correlation of 0.35 in reading and 0.33 in math. A study by the Gates Foundation called Measures of Effective Teaching, while less comparable methodologically, found correlations of 0.12 to 0.34 in math and 0.09 to 0.24 in reading.
“Would we like to see it higher? Yes,” Kamras said. “The reality is that these things are complicated and nuanced. They’re not measuring the exact same things. One is a measurement of the practice, the other is the product of that practice.”
Kamras, whose team is working on a series of changes to IMPACT to be announced sometime this summer, said the low correlation “is something we continue to wrestle with and question.”
The Washington Examiner
by Lisa Gartner
April 29, 2012
The D.C. agency that supervises school buses is expecting to leave federal court supervision after more than 15 years of problems, including transporting special needs students last year on poorly maintained buses, the state superintendent said.
The Office of the State Superintendent of Education's transportation department "has had one of the most significant turnarounds of any department in OSSE's history," State Superintendent Hosanna Mahaley told city leaders at a budget hearing.
School leaders have made multiple attempts to buck court supervision of their 790 buses, which transport 3,500 special education students whose neighborhood schools aren't equipped to meet their needs.
In 1995, a class-action lawsuit against the District installed a court monitor at the school transportation department to monitor 34 performance factors.
As recently as last fall, Judge Paul Friedman decided OSSE wasn't ready to operate alone and extended its "transition period" to Oct. 31. It was the fifth time the court monitor or OSSE requested a delay because of troubled service.
In July, supervising court master David Gilmore said OSSE "knowingly" transported students on buses that had not been properly inspected or maintained. He accused leadership of being "in complete disarray" and said the District failed to get students to school on time.
But Mahaley told the D.C. Council in the budget hearing, "I am happy to report that last month, [the transportation department] fulfilled the final performance metric out of the original 34 that were ordered, and is on course to exit oversight this year."
The agency has been replacing its fleet with new, GPS-equipped vehicles, and OSSE says it's now achieving a 95 percent on-time school arrival rate.
Jennifer Lav, a lawyer representing the families in the lawsuit, said OSSE's luck will hinge on how smooth the start of summer school and the next school year go, transitions the District has struggled with. "It remains to be seen," Lav said.
Yetta Myrick, the mother of a young special needs child using the buses, said recent experiences have been "hit-or-miss."
"We were lucky to have a great bus driver and a great aide this school year," but have had difficulties when substitutes step in.
"There was a situation last year when they couldn't find my son's school and I didn't know where my son was for over an hour," Myrick said. "If they decide to take them off supervision, they need to ensure service continues to be maintained and improved."
The Washington Examiner
By Jonetta Rose Barras
April 29, 2012
"If this goes forward, libraries in [D.C. Public Schools] are just going to die," predicted Peter MacPherson with the Capitol Hill Public Schools Parents Organization, which opposes Mayor Vincent C. Gray and Schools Chancellor Kaya Henderson's plan to cut funding for librarians at schools with populations of 299 or fewer beginning 2013. "We have incredibly solid academic research about the benefits of libraries."
Gray and Henderson have ignored that data. They think DCPS has not received return on its investment.
That's because there has been no real investment. It's time to rethink school libraries: They should be shifted to the D.C. Public Library, placing them Ginnie Cooper's authority.
"We can do things to help kids learn to love to read," Cooper told me recently when I discussed my idea with her. She cited programs in other cities -- Nashville, for example -- where libraries are intricately involved with schools.
"It would be great to put them with an agency that cares about libraries," said MacPherson, who is most concerned about how the Gray-Henderson plan might affect communities in Wards 7 and 8, where there are no bookstores and many homes are without books.
That reality has inspired much of my writing on this issue.
Gray, a Ward 7 resident, has seemed unfazed. Sources said D.C. Council Chairman Kwame Brown is worried about micromanaging DCPS. There hasn't been a peep from Ward 7 Councilwoman Yvette Alexander. And Ward 8's Marion Barry has been too busy attacking Asian immigrants.
When elected officials approved mayoral control of public education, they promised increased support for schools, including adequate funding for the basics. They have reneged on that pledge.
Ironically, Henderson has asserted the problem is that some schools are simply too small. Her funding decisions have starved those institutions, denying them resources critical to academic success.
It's a disgrace.
MacPherson has advocated for more investment; an additional $15 million could put a full-time librarian and library in every DCPS school. Elected officials have not responded. Even as they have decried high unemployment and illiteracy, they have ignored the obvious solution -- better-funded libraries with aggressive and exciting outreach programs.
The council is expected to vote Thursday on DCPS' 2013 budget. Members should just say no to the library/librarian cuts. Instead, they should transfer school libraries -- all funding and personnel -- to Cooper's portfolio.
She has been a terrific manager, breathing new life into the city's public library system -- although DCPL has suffered draconian cuts. Its book acquisition budget, for example, has had a total reduction of 58 percent since 2008.
That has meant a double whammy for District children, especially those from bookless and computerless homes.
The council should approve an increase in DCPL's budget and add the resources Cooper and her team will need to get beyond DCPS' lip service on improving literacy. That can happen now; the city doesn't need to wait five years to improve education outcomes.
"There is so much at stake," said MacPherson. "I don't think it's hyperbole to say this is a defining moment."
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