SEO Ed Digest
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Vol. 2, Issue 11
November 2005
Bringing urban P-16 education resources to policymakers, parents, advocates, and district and school staff in the District of Columbia
Research on DC Schools
National Lessons Learned
New Ideas
The State Education Office does not endorse the views expressed in the resources and reports contained in the SEO Ed Digest.
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This issue of the SEO Ed Digest covers recent research on the achievement of charter schools. You can also read about the nation’s report card with the National Assessment of Educational Progress’s 2005 scores. This digest also discusses recent reports on teacher quality.
Reports
October 2005
September 2005
April 2005
September 2004
Book
2005
October 2005
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), which is also known as the Nation's Report Card, is a nationally representative and continuing assessment of what America's students know and can do in various subject areas. The results include data on national trends, state comparisons, and national student groups. Data is provided for all 50 states, the District of Columbia (DC), and the Department of Defense (DOD) schools for students in fourth and eighth grade in the subjects of reading and mathematics. Every state has an average scale score and lists the percentage of students at each achievement level (below basic, basic, proficient, and advanced).
The results show that in reading, on a 0 to 500 point scale, fourth graders’ average score was 1 point higher and eighth graders’ average score was 1 point lower in 2005 than in 2003. Between 2003 and 2005, at Grade 4, average scores increased in 7 states and in the DOD schools and decreased in 2 states. The percentage of students performing at or above basic increased in 3 states and in the DOD schools and decreased in 2 states. Black, Hispanic, Asian/Pacific Islander (API), American Indian/Native Alaskan (AI/NA), and white students each scored higher on average, and the white-black and white-Hispanic score gaps narrowed during this same time.
Students who were eligible for free or reduced-price school lunch showed a 2-point increase, and students with disabilities and students identified as English language learners (ELL) who could be assessed had higher average scores in 2005 than in 2003. At Grade 8, no state had a higher average score in 2005 than in 2003, and 7 states had lower scores. The percentage of students performing at or above basic level increased in 1 state and decreased in 6 states. Hispanic, AI/NA, and API students scored higher, on average, in 2005 than in 2003, whereas white and black students scored 1 point lower. Scores for students eligible for free or reduced-price lunch remained the same. Students with disabilities and students being identified as ELL who could be assessed had higher average scores in 2005 than in 2003. In mathematics, fourth graders’ average score was 3 points higher and eighth graders’ average score was 1 point higher in 2005 than in 2003.
From 2003 to 2005, when all 50 states and the DC and DOD Schools were assessed, average scores for students at Grade 4 increased in 31 states and both jurisdictions. The percentage of students performing at or above basic level increased in 23 states and DC. At Grade 8, there were 7 states with higher average scores, and the percentage of students performing at or above basic level increased in 5 states. White, black, Hispanic, AI/NA, and API students at both Grades 4 and 8 had higher average scores. Similarly, fourth and eighth grade students who were either eligible for free or reduced-price school, had learning disabilities, or identified as ELL had higher average scores in 2005 than in any previous assessment year.
October 2005
This report examines the District of Columbia’s charter school system and finds that in 2004-2005 assessment of the SAT-9 test, charter school students (98% who are African American or Hispanic and 74% who come from low-income families) outperformed their peers in the city’s traditional schools. Approximately 54.4% of the District charter school students are proficient in math compared to 44.19% of students in traditional schools. In reading, 45.37% of charter school students are proficient, versus 39.14% for other public schools. However, the report also points out the challenges that charter schools face, including the difficulties that charter school authorizers have in monitoring charter schools, the ability for charter school operators to obtain facilities, and the political opposition charter schools face from some quarters.
September 2005
The Governance Divide: A Report on a Four-State Study on Improving College Readiness and Success
http://www.highereducation.org/reports/governance_divide/index.shtmlThis report is based on findings from Partnerships for Student Success (PSS), a four-state study that analyzed K-16 educational governance and policies at the state level, such as organizational structures, leadership, finance, curricula and assessment, accountability, and data systems. Currently, K-12 and postsecondary education exist in separate worlds in the United States. Policies for each system are typically created in isolation from each other so that when students finally get to college, they do not know what to expect and do not have an understanding on how to prepare for college. This report proposes a set of state policy levers that can be used to create meaningful changes for students. It also identifies the role of other factors – such as leadership and state culture and history – in implementing and sustaining K-16 reforms within states in order to improve transitions between high school and college.
Fall 2005
Findings from the City of Big Shoulders by Caroline M. Hoxby and Johan E. Rockoff
http://www.educationnext.org/20054/52.html
This paper finds that attending a charter school in Chicago significantly improves reading by 5.6% and significantly improves math scores by 6.4%. In the study, the researchers looked at three different charter schools in Chicago and compared student test scores to those in the area public schools. They were able to use a random sample by choosing charter schools that had more applicants than spaces in the school. The treatment group comprised of charter school applicants who drew a lottery number that earned them a place in the charter school and the control group was comprised of the students who were lotteried out.
Fall 2005
Results from the Tar Heel State by Robert Bifulco and Helen F. Ladd
http://www.educationnext.org/20054/60.html
This paper studies the impact that charter schools in North Carolina have on math and reading
performance of students in grades 4 through 8. The researchers found that although charter
school students’ parents have higher education levels, they exhibited lower levels of performance
on end –of-grade tests in both reading and math. The gap between students in charter schools and
students in traditional public schools is .12 standard deviations in reading and .22 standard
deviations in math. In their study, the researchers compare the test-score gains of individual
students in charter schools with the test-scores gains made by the same students when they were
in traditional public schools. They found that students make considerably smaller achievement
gains in charter schools than they would have in traditional public schools, and the negative
effects are not limited to schools in their first year of operation.
April 2005
Lifting Teacher Performance
http://www.ppionline.org/ppi_ci.cfm?knlgAreaID=110&subsecid=135&contentid=253286
This paper analyzes promising new research about teacher quality and the incentives for teachers
to do better. The authors look at current teacher quality approaches and offer recommendations
to help policymakers modernize how teachers are prepared, hired, evaluated, and compensated.
Recommendations include: carefully designing systems of performance-based teacher pay; rewarding
teachers who choose to work in the schools that need them most; and streamlining or expediting
certification requirements to expand the pool of individuals who can be hired as teachers.
2005
Education at a Glance 2005
http://www.oecd.org/document/34/0,2340,en_2649_37455_35289570_1_1_1_37455,00.html
This book is a compilation of statistics on the educational performance of all the countries that
are members to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). There are
currently thirty member countries: Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark,
Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Korea, Luxembourg,
Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Slovak Republic, Spain, Sweden,
Switzerland, Turkey, United Kingdom, and United States. The statistics of the countries are
compared against each other, and the book provides an up-to-date array of indicators on the
performance of education systems. These indicators look at who participates in education, how
much money countries are spending on education, how education systems operate, and at the results
achieved.
The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS) is an organization whose mission is to advance the quality of teaching. Upon extensive research, NBPTS defined what they think makes an excellent teacher and began a certification program so that teachers would meet a certain set of standards. Little research has been done to determine whether this certification process is effective. This report compares the academic performances of students in the elementary classrooms of 35 National Board Certified (NBC) teachers and their non-Board certified peers in 14 Arizona school districts. When analyzing the test scores of both groups, the researchers found that in three quarters of the comparisons, the students of NBC teachers scored higher than their non-Board certified peers, and one third of these differences were statistically significant. When the students of non-Board certified teachers outperformed students with NBC certified teachers, none of the differences were found statistically significant. They calculated that the gains made by students with NBC teachers were one month more than the gains made by non-Board certified teachers. This report then concludes that teachers identified through the assessments of the National Board for Professional Teaching Standards are, on average, more effective teachers in terms of academic performance.
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