Estados Unidos: New state public school ranking system to take effect in 2018

Estados Unidos/Enero de 2017/Autor: Katherine Schaeffer/Fuente: The Times

RESUMEN: El Departamento de Educación de Pennsylvania ha estado trabajando para renovar la forma en que evalúa las escuelas del estado, y si todo va según lo planeado, esos cambios surtirán efecto en el otoño de 2018. El nuevo sistema de tarjetas de calificaciones del estado, llamado The Future Ready PA Index, tiene como objetivo proporcionar un indicador más completo del éxito escolar, dijo Matt Stem, subsecretario de educación primaria y secundaria. El Departamento de Educación pasará los próximos dos años clavando los detalles antes de que pueda ser implementado.«Nuestra meta era establecer un sistema de medidas de desempeño escolar que se moviera más allá del punto en el tiempo (puntajes de pruebas estandarizadas) y valore los esfuerzos de las escuelas para ayudar a los estudiantes a tener éxito en el aula y más allá», dijo Stem. El índice está en la segunda fase de un proceso de planificación en tres fases, cuyo primer paso comenzó hace aproximadamente 18 meses, ya que el departamento recopiló información de aproximadamente 1.000 interesados ​​en todo el estado sobre cómo mejorar el sistema de calificación.

The Pennsylvania Department of Education has been working to revamp the way it evaluates the state’s schools, and if all goes as planned, those changes will take effect in the fall of 2018.

The state’s new report card system for its schools, called The Future Ready PA Index, is intended to provide a more comprehensive gauge of school success, said Matt Stem, deputy secretary for elementary and secondary education. The Department of Education will spend the next two years nailing down the specifics before it can be implemented.

“Our goal was to establish a system of school performance measures that moves beyond point-in-time (standardized test scores) and values schools’ efforts to help students succeed in the classroom and beyond,” Stem said.

The index is in the second phase of a three-phase planning process, the first step of which began about 18 months ago as the department gathered feedback from about 1,000 stakeholders across the state about how the rating system could be improved.

Based in part on that feedback, the department tentatively identified a series of success indicators. During the second phase of the process, it will seek additional responses as it works to finalize them.

The final step of the process will involve determining an overall formula and a weight for each factor.

The state Department of Education has since 2013 used School Performance Profiles to rank schools in its 500 districts. The performance profiles rate schools on a scale of 0 to 100 using a formula that takes into account a variety of factors, but most heavily weight state standardized test scores — Pennsylvania System of School Assessments for grades three through eight and Keystones for high school students.

Critics of the SPP scoring system say that it places too much emphasis on just a few days of testing and doesn’t provide a holistic assessment of individual schools.

Governor Tom Wolf’s administration tasked the Department of Education with addressing those criticisms, and in December, State Education Secretary Pedro Rivera announced the basic framework for the Future Ready PA Index, a new system which will attempt to address the SPP’s deficiencies by weighting success indicators differently.

Standardized tests will still factor into school’s overall scores, but they will carry less weight.

Instead, the new system will emphasize academic growth, a measure of how well students improve their skills from year to year, whether they typically score higher or lower on the state exams.

The new formula will evaluate schools on students’ college and career readiness, rewarding schools for offering and enrolling students in advanced placement and international baccalaureate courses, graduating students with industry-recognized credentials and on students’ post-secondary transition to school, work or the military.

These indicators are especially critical as the country reshapes the conversation about what it is that parents and communities should expect schools to do, Stem said.

“We’ve heard almost universally from (business and industry) partners, they want those future employees to have a well-rounded skill set beyond the math, English and science reflected on those standardized tests,” he said.

For schools with high populations of students learning to speak English, their progress is currently expressed using the same grade-level standards applicable to native speakers. Moving forward, those will be indicated in another way that better indicates the students’ progression.

The timing for Pennsylvania’s public school rating revamp aligns with the passage of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act, which in December 2015 replaced the No Child Left Behind Act as the guiding framework for United States education policy.

As the Future PA Accountability Index moves into its second phase, the Department of Education will be seeking input from schools across the Commonwealth — including those in Beaver County. Rivera plans to visit Aliquippa School District Friday to gather feedback about the new system as part of his Schools That Teach Tour.

Fuente: http://www.timesonline.com/news/education/new-state-public-school-ranking-system-to-take-effect-in/article_c34efbe2-ddd0-11e6-8254-7fbac58b6d1a.html