Reform Drive Looks Beyond Test Scores

Can she trace the path of a comet through space? Did she finish AP History? Did she make it through college? Can she explain how the characters in The Godfather series change from book to film?

Those are some of the ways that the school district may start measuring student performance as it ushers in sweeping reforms. Despite the fears of some critics, the changes New Haven undertakes will not be based purely on student test scores, based on a preview of the plan.

David Low (pictured), a vice president in the teacher’s union, presented those ideas along with school reform czar Garth Harries at Monday’s Board of Education meeting.

Low sits on an eight-person committee tasked with hashing out key details of New Haven’s school reform initiative. The initiative aims to cut the dropout rate in half, close the achievement gap by 2015, and give every child a chance to go to college. To achieve those goals, the district plans to bring in a new system of accountability where teacher evaluations will be tied to student performance, schools will be graded, and low-performing schools will be closed and re-opened as charter schools. The general plan was laid out in a recently ratified union contract, which set up three committees to guide the reforms.

Low sits on the Reform Committee, which is made up of three teachers, three administrators and two parents. For the past few months, they’ve been tackling a question central to reforms: How do you measure a student’s success? That question is essential because it will determine how the other players — teachers, principals, and schools — are graded, too.

The committee aims to find a new way to measure student performance that is based not only on standardized test scores. It plans to meet Friday to finalize recommendations on measuring student performance. Harries and Low gave a sneak preview of those recommendations to the school board Monday.

Harries (pictured) outlined five ways the reform committee would like to measure student success.

One: College success. Are public school graduates going to college? Are they making it through freshman year? Sophomore year? To graduation? The school district doesn’t have the data to know that right now. It’s considering hiring the National Student Clearinghouse to provide that information.

Two: ​“Engagement and attitude.” Use student and teacher surveys to track students’ feelings about their education.

Three: Student transcript. Are students completing courses? Are they making it through honors and AP classes?

Four: Performance assessments. Give students tasks to test their day-to-day learning. For example, ​“Find the parabolic path of a comet as it moves through the solar system.” Or, write a literary essay on this question: ​“How do Puzo’s characters change from book to film in the Godfather series?” The committee suggests curriculum supervisors come up with a ​“systematic performance assessment regime” to test these types of tasks district-wide. Performance would be tracked on the new school database, SchoolNet.

Five: Use standardized tests to measure improvement.

Right now, the federal No Child Left Behind Act measures a school’s performance based on a snapshot of standardized test scores. That doesn’t lend insight into how much students are improving as they move through the system.

New Haven aims to change the way test scores are analyzed so that the district measures a student’s improvement over time. The Reform Committee is drafting new guidelines for a ​“growth model” that would measure student performance from year to year, based on standardized test scores. It would take into account where the student started, not just where he or she ends up.

No school district in Connecticut does this, Harries said.

U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan supports changing to a ​“growth model” that measures student improvement, but there’s no clear timeline for that change to take place, Harries said. Meanwhile, New Haven will go ahead and craft its own version. In drafting New Haven’s model, the reform committee is looking to models like Colorado. That state measures how a student performs compared to peers who had the same test score the prior year.

The Reform Committee plans to submit finalized recommendations to the Board of Education before its next meeting on Jan. 25.

After that, more hard work remains: The committee will turn to the task of how to grade schools into three ​“tiers.” On Feb. 22, the committee plans to decide criteria for grading schools, according to Vice-President Low. Top-performing schools would be placed in Tier I and given more autonomy. Low-performing schools will be placed in Tier III. Some schools in that tier will be dubbed ​“turnaround schools.” Those will be closed and re-opened under new staff, possibly as charter schools, with new work rules.

The district plans to try out the three-tier system this fall. The administration plans to choose eight schools as prototypes to place into tiers: two schools in Tier I, two schools in Tier II, and four schools in Tier III, Mayor John DeStefano has said. Two of the Tier III schools will be dubbed ​“turnaround schools,” meaning they’ll be closed and reopened under new management in the fall.

Race To The Top

In other news, the school district is applying for about $10 million from the Race to the Top program, a $4.35 billion initiative by the Obama administration to support education reform. States are competing for the money, with a first deadline on Jan. 19.

Race to the Top has four general goals: preparing kids for college; building data systems to measure student progress; recruiting and retaining quality staff; and turning around lowest-achieving schools.

Connecticut is applying for $175 million, half of which would go directly to districts and half to a statewide plan that would serve districts, according to Tom Murphy, spokesman for the state education department. The state education commissioner has publicly supported New Haven’s reform plans.

If Connecticut gets the money, New Haven would get $9.7 million in direct funding from the state and ​“probably an additional $1 million as part of the state plan,” Murphy said.

Details of how the state would use the money have yet to be determined, Harries said. Connecticut is not on the ​“short list” of the states likely to win the first phase of the competition for Race to the Top funds, he reckoned. Connecticut will likely reapply at a June deadline for a second round of funding. New Haven’s reform plans will help the state’s chances of winning the second round, he opined.

Some previous stories about New Haven’s school reform drive:

• She Made Time To Get Off Work
• New Leaders Sought For City High Schools
• Report Card Night Revamped
• Parents Challenged To Join Reform Drive
• Where Do Bad Teachers Go?
• Reform Committees Set
• Mayo Extends Olive Branch
• School Board Makes Mom Cry
• Next Term Will Determine Mayor’s Legacy
• Reading Target Set: 90% By February
• Teacher Pact Applauded; Will $$ Follow?
• Mayor ​“Not Scared” By $100M
• Useful Applause: Duncan, AFT Praise City
• Reformer Moves Inside
• After Teacher Vote, Mayo Seeks ​“Grand Slam”
• Will Teacher Contract Bring D.C. Reward?
• What About The Parents?
• Teachers, City Reach Tentative Pact
• Philanthropists Join School Reform Drive
• Wanted: Great Teachers
• ​“Class of 2026” Gets Started
• Principal Keeps School On The Move
• With National Push, Reform Talks Advance
• Nice New School! Now Do Your Homework
• Mayo Unveils Discipline Plan
• Mayor Launches ​“School Change” Campaign
• Reform Drive Snags ​“New Teacher” Team
• Can He Work School Reform Magic?
• Some Parental Non-Involvement Is OK, Too
• Mayor: Close Failing Schools
• Union Chief: Don’t Blame The Teachers
• 3‑Tiered School Reform Comes Into Focus
• At NAACP, Mayo Outlines School Reform
• Post Created To Bring In School Reform
• Board of Ed Assembles Legal Team