What should we measure.
John Stevens Tweeted a link yesterday to an excellent article in The Atlantic magazine about a study showing how we're lagging behind other countries when it comes to education ("Your Child Left Behind"). Note I did not say "how much," but "how." This extensive study did something a bit different than the usual rankings of countries we see, attempting to answer the criticisms from those who say such comparisons are unfair or inaccurate because of America's size and diversity ("In the litany of excuses, one explanation is always, ‘We’re a very heterogeneous society—all these immigrants are dragging us down. But our kids are doing fine."). So the researchers dissegregated the data and compared each state to countries around the world, thus slicing and dicing the U.S. by such characteristics as ethnicity, first language, and income, therefore showing us the "how" – in what ways – American students aren't as successful academically as their overseas counterparts.
So how did the states who could claim oft-cited socio-economic "strengths" such as being "more white," or more affluent, or less ethnically diverse, fare in the rankings? I suppose we Virginians can take some pride in our 6th place finish when compared to the rest of the Union; but let's not dislocate our shoulders too quickly before putting that into perspective! The state with the best ranking, Massachusetts, didn't even make it into the global Top 10, coming in at #17. Our commonwealth managed to make it to #23, behind France, Iceland, Germany, and Denmark.
If you are a supporter of measuring education quality in this manner, this study is certainly "very disturbing," as school board chair Stevens says. I agree, although, as with measuring teacher effectiveness using only test results, I balk at placing too much emphasis on the international tests used to evaluate student achievement to measure countries.
A key finding of this research, though, is found in this conclusion explaining why Massachusetts did so much better than the rest of the United States—
What is it that we're measuring when we evaluate education success? If you look at such things as AYP and country (and state) rankings, we are ignoring the true focus of learning, the student; we put far too much emphasis on organizational appearances at the expense of the human. As it stands now, we lack any "meaningful" goals for LCPS students and teachers, instead highlighting average "achievements" of the district that are anchored more in the generally "positive" socio-economic characteristics of LCPS families rather than any "value-add" from our nearly 80 school buildings.
We must begin "demanding meaningful outcomes from everyone in the school building," and stop measuring success by our inputs and meaningless outputs. Instead of running in place with the public education status quo of pumping more money into our school system without really understanding whether how we're spending it does anything meaningful for our children, let's set funding increases aside and question how we can fund smarter and better. Let's be transparent. Let's work for the student rather than our own interests. Let's demand measurable goals for our programs. Let's set real goals for each student's learning and every staff member's development and performance.
Dr. Hatrick is president of the National Association of School Administrators. His responsibility and national prominence represent an opportunity for Loudoun to be a trailblazer in finding solutions to challenges facing thousands of school districts. The upcoming documentary on him, rather than telling a story of a school system with higher than average graduation rates, college acceptance rates, and SAT scores for students from families with higher than average income and educational achievement, should tell about—
So how did the states who could claim oft-cited socio-economic "strengths" such as being "more white," or more affluent, or less ethnically diverse, fare in the rankings? I suppose we Virginians can take some pride in our 6th place finish when compared to the rest of the Union; but let's not dislocate our shoulders too quickly before putting that into perspective! The state with the best ranking, Massachusetts, didn't even make it into the global Top 10, coming in at #17. Our commonwealth managed to make it to #23, behind France, Iceland, Germany, and Denmark.
If you are a supporter of measuring education quality in this manner, this study is certainly "very disturbing," as school board chair Stevens says. I agree, although, as with measuring teacher effectiveness using only test results, I balk at placing too much emphasis on the international tests used to evaluate student achievement to measure countries.
A key finding of this research, though, is found in this conclusion explaining why Massachusetts did so much better than the rest of the United States—
Massachusetts, in other words, began demanding meaningful outcomes from everyone in the school building. Obvious though it may seem, it’s an idea that remains sacrilegious in many U.S. schools, despite the clumsy advances of No Child Left Behind. Instead, we still fixate on inputs—such as how much money we are pouring into the system or how small our class sizes are—and wind up with little to show for it. Since the early 1970s, we’ve doubled the amount of money we spend per pupil nationwide, but our high-schoolers’ reading and math scores have barely budged.The study found that a shift in focus from inputs to outcomes is the key to success. We must consider this as we approach the budget season. Not only must we consider it, we must embrace this issue and make it one of our cornerstones to education in Loudoun. And we must reconsider what we're measuring.
What is it that we're measuring when we evaluate education success? If you look at such things as AYP and country (and state) rankings, we are ignoring the true focus of learning, the student; we put far too much emphasis on organizational appearances at the expense of the human. As it stands now, we lack any "meaningful" goals for LCPS students and teachers, instead highlighting average "achievements" of the district that are anchored more in the generally "positive" socio-economic characteristics of LCPS families rather than any "value-add" from our nearly 80 school buildings.
We must begin "demanding meaningful outcomes from everyone in the school building," and stop measuring success by our inputs and meaningless outputs. Instead of running in place with the public education status quo of pumping more money into our school system without really understanding whether how we're spending it does anything meaningful for our children, let's set funding increases aside and question how we can fund smarter and better. Let's be transparent. Let's work for the student rather than our own interests. Let's demand measurable goals for our programs. Let's set real goals for each student's learning and every staff member's development and performance.
Dr. Hatrick is president of the National Association of School Administrators. His responsibility and national prominence represent an opportunity for Loudoun to be a trailblazer in finding solutions to challenges facing thousands of school districts. The upcoming documentary on him, rather than telling a story of a school system with higher than average graduation rates, college acceptance rates, and SAT scores for students from families with higher than average income and educational achievement, should tell about—
- How Loudoun County Public Schools uses this affluence advantage as a foundation for out-achieving other schools in Northern Virginia.
- How Loudoun County Public Schools overcomes the inherently adversarial political and funding system to sow trust and collaboration in achieving true student learning success.
- How Loudoun County Public Schools demands that each program it implements identifies authentic success goals and measures and justifies itself against them annually.
- How Loudoun County Public Schools eschews the traditional, institutional measures of success, and evaluates its success based on how individual students grow and learn.
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