Must read — opinion piece in The Hill from AFC founding Board Member Kevin P. Chavous: «Test scores are not enough to
measure school choice success».
The Urban Institute study is the latest research
measuring school choice and the travel necessary for choice programs through the lens of race and class.
Not exact matches
, and by working to lower the occurrence of unwanted pregnancies in the first place — which means better sexual health education in
schools, funding for birth control
measures and education about using that birth control, promoting research into methods of safe male birth control, and creating an environment where the women in your life can come to you to discuss safe sexual
choices.
The industry has taken significant
measures to provide consumers with more options and information to allow informed dietary
choices through developing reformulated products to offer low and no - sugar varieties, voluntarily displaying kilojoule information on the front of labels and restricting sales of regular kilojoule soft drinks in
schools.
Former NYC Mayor Mike Michael Bloomberg is among the nation's top financial backers of the
school -
choice movement, topping the list of New York's political contributors by donating $ 1.8 million to ballot
measures and political action committees focused primarily on
school choice.
For example, your elected officials should be focused on things like equal access to essential public services, fair governmental priorities and policies, city hall policies,
school district
choices, and public health
measures.
The prediction comes from both proponents and opponents of the tuition - voucher
measure, which, by providing parents with $ 900 for each student enrolled in a private or out - of - district public
school, would be the most extensive
choice program yet adopted by any state.
This vacuum stems not only from the difficulty of the endeavor but also from a persistent national clash between an obsession to train students solely for high scores on multiple -
choice tests and an angry disenchantment with
measuring progress of public
schools, educators, or education
schools.
Chronic absenteeism; a mix of attendance indicators;
choice to re-enroll in same
school; standardized observations that take into account factors including classroom organization, emotional support, and instructional support; college - readiness
measured by ACT, AP, and IB participation and scores
There are clear implications for
schools of the
choice of high - vs. low - abstraction
measuring tools for soft skills.
Our
measure of the current level of
choice in the public
school system has no statistically significant relationship with charter support within
school districts.
The strategies of that era — including high academic standards for all students,
measuring academic progress, improving teaching, and introducing
school choice to a monopoly system — found reinforcement in federal law with the passage of the No Child Left Behind Act in 2001.
All of this leads us to
measured skepticism about the merit of merit pay, unless it is coupled with
school choice innovations hefty enough to instigate sustained competition among
schools and
school sectors.
The Citizens» Commission on Civil Rights, along with the Aspen Institute's NCLB Commission and other proponents, have proposed tough new
measures to guarantee public
school choice to children who attend persistently low - performing
schools.
Attitudes: support for diversity (racial integration), a perception of inequity (that the public
schools provide a lower quality education for low - income and minority kids), support for voluntary prayer in the
schools, support for greater parent influence, desire for smaller
schools, belief in what I call the «public
school ideology» (which
measures a normative attachment to public
schooling and its ideals), a belief in markets (that
choice and competition are likely to make
schools more effective), and a concern that moral values are poorly taught in the public
schools.
Research on private
school choice is much better equipped to
measure the effects on participants» outcomes than to offer guidance on policy design.
As the cohorts have aged, it is now possible to
measure the effects of small
schools on college enrollment and
choice, outcomes that have never been examined before.
Nevertheless, there is still a story to be told, and the essential part of it is that the program that education reformers have tried to promote now for decades — introduce more
choices of
schools for students, enable competition among
schools, open up paths for preparing teachers and administrators outside
schools of education, improve
measures of student achievement and teacher competence, enable administrators to act on the basis of such
measures, and limit the power of teachers unions — has been advanced under the Obama administration, in the judgment of authors Maranto and McShane.
In our recent article for Education Next, «Choosing the Right Growth
Measure,» we laid out an argument for why we believe a proportional growth measure that levels the playing field between advantaged and disadvantaged schools (represented in the article by a two - step value - added model) is the best choice for use in state and district accountability s
Measure,» we laid out an argument for why we believe a proportional growth
measure that levels the playing field between advantaged and disadvantaged schools (represented in the article by a two - step value - added model) is the best choice for use in state and district accountability s
measure that levels the playing field between advantaged and disadvantaged
schools (represented in the article by a two - step value - added model) is the best
choice for use in state and district accountability systems.
In tackling this task, Feinberg says, they «backed into» the five essential tenets of the KIPP model: High Expectations (for academic achievement and conduct);
Choice and Commitment (KIPP students, parents, and teachers all sign a learning pledge, promising to devote the time and effort needed to succeed); More Time (extended
school day, week, and year); Power to Lead (
school leaders have significant autonomy, including control over their budget, personnel, and culture); and Focus on Results (scores on standardized tests and other objective
measures are coupled with a focus on character development).
When they insist that ideas like
school choice, performance pay, and teacher evaluations based on value - added
measures will themselves boost student achievement, would - be reformers stifle creativity, encourage their allies to lock elbows and march forward rather than engage in useful debate and reflection, turn every reform proposal into an us - against - them steel - cage match, and push researchers into the awkward position of studying whether reforms «work» rather than when, why, and how they make it easier to improve
schooling.
U.S. Students Know What, But Not Why Science Insider, June 19, 2012 «The computer simulations offer NAEP a much better way to
measure skills used by real scientists than do multiple -
choice questions, says Chris Dede, a professor at Harvard Graduate
School of Education.
Noted in the paper, ministers say they will update
school and college performance
measures in order to make sure that when the new T - level qualifications come into force in 2022, students can make an informed
choice between an academic or technical education.
The debate over
school integration now requires discussion of
school accountability, parental
choice, and
measures designed to enhance the quality of the teacher workforce.
As we continue to study
choice - based policies in K — 12 education, one challenge we must confront is the push - pull created by high - stakes accountability
measures designed to assess
schools, students, and educators, based solely on test scores — an area where
choice proponents and opponents often find common ground.
The Brown Center on Education Policy at Brookings will host a live webcast of an event in conjunction with the release of its report, «
Measuring the Influence of Education Advocacy: The Case of Louisiana's
School Choice Legislation,» on Tues., Dec. 10 at 10 am.
While the
choice sector as a whole looks pretty good on test scores and other
measures, the averages mask poor performance from a significant minority of
choice and charter
schools.
The next three mini-courses explore contemporary proposals to save our
schools — via new teacher policies, accountability
measures and
school choice.
With automated gates now an increasingly popular
choice for
school and educational buildings, it is absolutely crucial that the strictest safety
measures are upheld to protect our children, whilst in the care of others.
And the benefits of
school choice for these students extend beyond what tests can
measure.
On the left, some of the opposition to Common Core and its assessments is related to broader resistance to high - stakes testing, the linking of student scores to teacher evaluations, and other reform
measures such as
school choice, which some see as «corporate
school reform.»
Debates about
school choice policies often focus on their impacts on student achievement, typically as
measured by standardized tests.
«Using
School Choice Lotteries to Test
Measures of
School Effectiveness.»
More important, however, is the larger implication I take from Mr. Bedrick's thesis: that private
school choice advocates in America, Mr. Bedrick among them, have failed to establish a coherent, prevailing belief system about the role of private
schools in providing an education of
measured quality, at scale, for the nation's most disadvantaged youth.
To the extent that better information improves the match between families and
schools or leads to pressure on
schools to increase
measured achievement, this effect can augment the impacts of
school -
choice policies.
Finally, we also gather data on the number of charter
schools in each search unit as an additional
measure of
school choice.
, Standards for Our
Schools: How to Set Them,
Measure Them and Reach Them; Thinking for a Living: Education and the Wealth of Nations; The Principal Challenge; and Tough
Choices or Tough Times.
This
measure is well established for studying the integration impacts of
school -
choice programs.
Reblogged this on Afield in Iowa and commented: A great article on
School Choice and «accountability»
measures.
Recent work has included several studies related to value - added
measures of teacher performance, teacher effectiveness in the early grades,
school choice, teacher mobility and special needs identification.
In 2013, Alabama adopted the Alabama Accountability Act, an education reform
measure that includes two new
school choice programs that extend a lifeline to Alabama students trapped in failing public
schools.
At some point, however, that wide range of
choice sabotages attempts to
measure the effectis of
schooling.
«All
schools, but
schools of
choice particularly, are well - served by implementing tests that accurately
measure the quality of that
school's curriculum and program,» said Peter Bezanson, CEO of BASIS, a charter
school network that started in Arizona.
To
measure the effects of private
school choice, we compare the long - term outcomes of more than 10,000 low - income students who first used FTC vouchers between 2004 and 2010 with outcomes of students with similar characteristics who never participated.
Perhaps 2011 was an unusual year for
school reform only because of the number of
school -
choice programs enacted, which was significant by any
measure, but not because students swarmed to the new programs (Indiana is a notable exception).
Whether the
measure is graduation rates, improved instructional quality, last year's improvement in the lowest - performing
schools targeted for special intervention, a nation - leading new collective - bargaining agreement, the addition of many new high - quality public
schools, increased parental
choice, or a material increase in the proportion of effective teachers, the arrow is pointed decidedly up in Newark.
These are much better
choices than «growth - to - proficiency» models, which do not estimate the impact of
schools and again mostly
measure who is enrolled.
The
measure was based on the share of students attending
schools of
choice, the strength of charter laws in each state (including, of course, the strength of the authorizing and quality control system), and a gauge of parent influence on policy.
The
measure would have allowed residents of districts to vote to make them «renewed
school districts» in which «nonprofit organizations may operate publicly funded independent public
schools with parental
choice and revised state regulation.»
New Hampshire uses multiple -
choice and short - answer questions to
measure students» performance in high
schools for the 2004 - 05
school year.