Dive Brief:
- In California schools, a new system is being implemented that will rely less on standardized testing and API scores to evaluate schools, instead using multiple indicators to better assess a school overall using metrics like attendance records and graduation rates.
- Eric Heins, president of the California Teachers Association, tells NBC that the API numbers weren't reliable because they didn't paint a full picture of what happened within a school.
- The state's school board is expected to debate the issue in the next few months, and some education advocates are asking for a solution that would still use a simple number score while also digging deeper with additional metrics.
Dive Insight:
"There won't be a ranking system because there is no point in comparing one school to another school," Heins said. NBC reports that the shift away from reliance on API scores is because of a new state law. Recently, Ed Source also reported that six California districts ("CORE" districts) are now using a blended index called the School Quality Improvement System, which measures things like school climate, culture, and students' social skills. The results of that experimental system, which awards a ranking on a scale of 0 to 100, are expected in February 2016.
In North Carolina, school rankings are linked to student performance. That kind of controversial policy has led to high-profile scandals in at least 40 other states, including Georgia, where an Atlanta cheating scandal involved dozens of educators.
The new rewrite of the ESEA, the Every Student Succeeds Act, will shift power over accountability to individual states instead of the federal government, meaning that more states may soon follow California's lead in developing new evaluation methodologies. A Senate vote on the proposal is expected this week.