-
D.C. Schools’ New ‘Scorecards’ Go Beyond Testing
-
New DCPS "Scorecards" Compare College Enrollment, Teacher Retention
-
D.C. School Scorecards Posted Online
The Washington Post
By Bill Turque
January 10, 2012
D.C. officials unveiled newly detailed “scorecards” for public schools Tuesday, designed to give parents a more nuanced look at performance that goes beyond the usual test scores and demographic data.
The revamped profiles offer rates of student growth on standardized tests along with information on attendance, discipline and retention of teachers who received top annual evaluations. High school scorecards also list rates of graduation and college enrollment.
The scorecards represent the school system’s attempt to expand transparency in an increasingly competitive education marketplace. A steadily growing charter school sector now serves more than 40 percent of the city’s public students. Officials expressed the hope that the deeper statistical profiles will compel parents to take a more holistic view of schools they might otherwise overlook.
“We wanted to make sure our families have the information they need to make informed decisions,” Chancellor Kaya Henderson told reporters during a conference call. “These scorecards are going to give families an unprecedented look at what’s going on in our schools.”
Henderson said that although some D.C. schools, such as Banneker High School and Deal Middle School, are well-known for their quality, the scorecards will help introduce families to what she called some of the lesser-known “gems” in the system.
Among them, Powell Elementary in Northwest, she said. Although its overall math and reading scores remain mediocre, rates of growth in median scores show that the school has been successful at helping children below grade level catch up relatively quickly.
Some of the data are organized to paint the rosiest picture. Ballou High School in Southeast, for example, shows a 2011 graduation rate of 76 percent, slightly higher than the citywide average of 73 percent. But the District continues to calculate graduation rates using a formula that the federal government says is not sufficiently rigorous. Using the “adjusted cohort” measure, a 2008 Education Week study placed the citywide rate at 43 percent. The District is scheduled to switch to the cohort method later this year.
The city’s treatment of suspension and expulsion data is also likely to raise questions. It counts only those students who were expelled or suspended for a minimum of 11 days — an unusually long time and perhaps less revealing than a tally of shorter suspensions. The metric also does not include in-school suspensions.
Some of the information on the scorecards has been available, although not always readily so, on other government databases. The new profiles, which went online Tuesday afternoon and were sent home on paper with students, are part of an informational windfall for D.C. families.
Last month, D.C. charter schools introduced annual performance reports that cover some of the same ground. The D.C. Public Charter School Board, which oversees the 98 charter campuses, ranked them in overall quality across three tiers. The District did not rank the 119 traditional public schools it profiled, although Henderson did not rule out such a format down the road.
“This is brand-new for the public school system,” Henderson said, “and we have to make sure our community members and schools are comfortable with understanding and digesting this information.”
The Washington Examiner
By Lisa Gartner
January 10, 2012
D.C. Public Schools released "scorecards" of their campuses on Tuesday, detailing for the first time college enrollment statistics, Advanced Placement data, and the percentage of top teachers that each campus retains.
Other information, such as schools' test scores, attendance rates and community satisfaction survey results, have been included to create a more complete picture of city campuses than DCPS has released before.
Chancellor Kaya Henderson said DCPS will eventually move to a ratings system of its schools, as the D.C. Public Charter School Board sorted its campuses into three tiers last month, assigning each charter school a score on a 100-point scale.
But Henderson said DCPS needed more time, and wanted to "make sure our community members and schools are comfortable with understanding and digesting this information before we bring down an A-rating or an F-rating."
On the district's website, parents can compare up to four schools at a time on a number of measures, including how many top-rated teachers they retain, suspensions and expulsions, parent satisfaction and year-to-year student improvement.
The scorecards tell a story that most parents and teachers already know: Several campuses are succeeding, but many more have a long way to go, and those lines tend to divide by race and poverty.
For example, just 3 percent of Ward 8's Ballou Senior High School students passed an AP exam, and less than one-third of seniors enrolled in college last fall. At Wilson Senior High School in Ward 3, 45 percent of students passed an AP exam, and 65 percent of seniors went on to college.
Lindsay DeHartchuck, a second-grade teacher at Wheatley Education Campus in Ward 5, said she liked the idea of providing a clearer picture to parents, but was concerned that parents' eyes would still be drawn first to test scores. Wheatley's scorecard shows that its scores and year-to-year progress have lagged behind average.
"I'm not sure any of this is reflective of the progress we've had in the last few years for children, especially socially and emotionally," DeHartchuck said. But she wasn't sure how DCPS could reflect Wheatley's efforts to get therapists and medical services to students.
M.C. Terrell/McGogney Elementary's scorecard plainly conveys that the Ward 8 campus, where 23 percent of students show proficiency in math or reading, is well below citywide average on nearly every performance measure.
But Principal Atasha James says she isn't concerned the new results will scare away parents.
"No matter where you turn, there's a school that needs help," James said. "Hopefully, it will create a sense of urgency in parents."
The Washington Times
By Tom Howell Jr.
January 10, 2012
D.C. Public Schools released scorecards Tuesday that grade 119 campuses on safety, student progress and other measures, allowing parents to decide where to send their children in a system attempting to close achievement gaps and rise above past failures.
DCPS promoted the statistics, which were posted online Tuesday afternoon, as a “tremendous undertaking” that allows users to compare each school’s statistics in areas such as reading, math, attendance and discipline with a Districtwide average. Scorecards also were sent home with students this week, officials said.
The D.C. Public Charter School Board released a similar set of data in December, yet it divided its elementary, middle schools and high schools into three tiers based on a 100-point scale. About 40 percent of the city’s public school students attend charter schools, according to the board.
Chancellor Kaya Henderson said scorecards for the city’s traditional public schools build on the “profiles” released last year and serve as a likely precursor to an accountability ranking or rating.
“This is brand new for the public school system as far as being this transparent, sharing this much information,” she said. “This is about both the good and the bad.”
The ratings arrive while D.C. Council Chairman Kwame R. Brown touts legislation to ensure each D.C. student has a “quality seat” and will be competitive in the modern workplace. A recent report from the Center for Education Statistics said the District has the biggest black-white and Hispanic-white gaps in the country by every measure used in the study.
Legislation from Mr. Brown’s office would provide incentives for highly effective teachers to work at low-performing schools and crack down on Maryland and Virginia residents who send their children to D.C. schools without paying tuition. Another, more radical proposal would require D.C. high school students to take the SAT or ACT college entrance exams and apply to at least one college.
Ms. Henderson said she hopes parents will use the recent ratings to shirk pre-conceived notions and “uncover some of the gems in DCPS.”
Ms. Henderson cited MacFarland Middle School and Powell Elementary School, a pair of Ward 4 schools that have seen marked upticks in safety and community satisfaction since 2009, as examples of such gems.
The District is not the only city school system to offer scorecards. The Chicago Public Schools website also allows users to compare as many as four schools at a time, while New York City schools post surveys and progress reports about its schools.
“To our knowledge, our online tool is one of the most robust out there,” DCPS spokeswoman Melissa Salmanowitz said.
Mailing Archive: