In the Fall of 2018, schools throughout Louisiana will receive their School Performance Scores (SPS). A school’s SPS is supposed to be a valid indicator of how well each school serves its students. There is much opposition to the use of an SPS derived from the results of student achievement on state assessments because the influence of factors contributing to the outcome (scores) can’t be quantified. In addition, there is no level of trust in the assessment instrument because 1.) the expected level of achievement (cut off score) is arbitrary. 2.) the scaled score represents a different level of achievement, each year. 3.) SPS can be drastically affected simply by changing the points that each achievement level contributes to the score.
For example, the scores that will come out in the Fall are expected to reflect a large drop in the number of A and B schools, and a large increase in the number of F and D schools. Why is that? Well, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) approved a new set of “points” assigned to achievement levels. In summary, the test remains the same. The students, even though cut-off scores change, will be expected to perform at approximately the same level. The level of achievement is expressed in five levels, instead of four, but add to that, students only contribute 100, or more, points if they score “Mastery.” In previous years, “basic” was enough. Essentially, students can perform at the same level, teachers can work just as hard, but outcomes will be lower. The impact will be tremendous.
For this very reason, Senator Dan “Blade” Morrish submitted SB-152 in the 2018 Regular Session. This bill, passed by the Senate and the House, and signed by the governor, requires BESE to provide two SPS scores and letter grades, to every school, anytime the method of calculating the SPS changes.
The scores to be issued in the Fall, if standing alone, would lead most people to believe that our education system got really crappy from last year to this year. The public is entitled to know that this is not the case, and now, they will. Thanks to Senator Morrish.
Thank you, Rep Morris!
I’ve often wondered why we always hear about how bad our public schools are and how bad the teachers are, but I’ve never heard anyone say that teachers should do x, y, z and they have not. How can they quantify teachers’ performance if there is no clear definition on what the teacher should be doing (i.e. what makes a good teacher)? It’s been proven that test scores are directly correlated to the poverty level of students, how are test scores a fair representation of the quality of the teacher?
The other thing that I often wonder about is why haven’t the teachers unions filed suit against the state for using faulty metrics to evaluate teacher performance? Has anyone ever certified that the formulas used to calculate SPS valid? It seems to me that the teachers unions are not doing their job.