Photo by Hans Gerwitz

Photo past Hans Gerwitz

UPDATE:  The State Board of Education approved seeking an NCLB waiver under Section 9401 of the law on May x, 2012.

As land education leaders consider whether to seek a waiver from the well-nigh onerous provisions of the federal No Child Left Behind law, they are besides proposing a "comprehensive review" of the country's accountability system put in place in 1999. The State Board of Education volition start discussing what an updated state accountability system might expect like at its meeting in Sacramento today.

The outline of an updated land accountability system is spelled out in a draft alphabetic character signed past State Board of Education President Michael Kirst and Country Superintendent of Public Education Tom Torlakson "on behalf of all California districts" to the Obama administration seeking exemption from key provisions of the NCLB law that labels increasing numbers of schools every bit declining.

For the past decade, California has operated under two often conflicting accountability systems — the land's accountability system put into place through the Public School Accountability Deed of 1999, and the federal No Child Left Behind Act signed into constabulary past sometime President George W. Bush in 2002. As a consequence, the aforementioned schools tin be simultaneously labeled as succeeding or declining, depending on the accountability measures existence used.

The state'due south system has emphasized to a far greater extent whether a school'southward or district'south scores improve from i twelvemonth to the next. The federal arrangement, while as well demanding improvements, requires states every twelvemonth to prepare ever-college accented benchmarks that schools must attain in society to avoid being labeled equally in need of "plan improvement."

In their draft letter to Acting Assistant Secretary of Education Michael Yudin, to be reviewed by the State Board today, Torlakson and Kirst said "we are seeking to return to a unmarried system of schoolhouse accountability that is both understandable and rigorous."

Under the programme they propose, the Bookish Performance Index — the main state measure of schools, which ranks them on a scale ranging from 200 to 1,000 — would remain "at the core" of the state'due south accountability system. But a revision of the constabulary would address one little-noticed outcome of the country system that sets reaching an API of 800 as the main goal schools take to reach. Once a schoolhouse achieves an 800 API, it no longer is required to come across whatsoever further annual growth targets.

In 1999, the beginning yr California'south accountability system went into outcome, 787 schools had API scores of 800 or more — xi percent of all California schools. Past 2011, the figure had soared to four,103 schools, or 40 percent of all schools, pregnant that thousands of schools are finer outside the state'southward accountability arrangement. As Torlakson and Kirst explicate in their draft letter to Yudin:

We need to carefully examine the effects of the target structure, particularly for schools that accept long met the statewide target, to encourage connected focus on students who are non proficient.

Moreover, in the plan outlined by Torlakson and Kirst, California's updated accountability system would "focus attention on the schools with the most intractable problems" rather than on schools that "bounce in and out of improvement status from year to twelvemonth." One of the virtually novel ideas proposed by Torlakson and Kirst is to introduce a multiyear "rolling" accountability measure "to smooth out fluctuations in scores from year to year."

According to a summary of a coming together of representatives of numerous pedagogy organizations convened by WestEd to hash out the overhaul, "the criteria should differentiate betwixt schools and districts that are non improving and those that are slowly just steadily improving, and offering those that are improving a way to exit underperforming status."

The Country Board would also review the numerous sanctions currently imposed on schools under the land system for those that failed to meet their growth targets.

Under current state police force (Education Code Department 52055.v), the California Department of Educational activity tin can impose a range of sweeping sanctions on schools and districts that fail to meet state growth targets within a certain menstruum of fourth dimension, including replacing district personnel, removing schools from the jurisdiction of the district, and establishing  alternative governance and supervision. It tin can appoint a state receiver or trustee, abolish or restructure the commune, or allow students to transfer to college-performing schools.

The state wouldn't abolish these sanctions, but would as well consider a range of "improvement activities" called "based on the needs of the school and commune, as adamant past local data assay and the qualitative judgments of individuals who are familiar with the schoolhouse and commune."

Equally Kirst explained in an interview, "This does not mean in that location won't exist punitive action, merely that the board volition effort to build more homo judgment into the process, so that the decision is not driven by numbers solitary. The idea is to have a more nuanced and knowledgeable approach to assigning both improvement activities and sanctions."

The improvement activities would "largely focus on education, including activities that promote instructor collaboration and instructional coaching."

What'southward more, rather than basing country interventions and sanctions solely on examination scores, an updated state accountability system might also comprise an idea proposed terminal fall past Gov. Jerry Brown to  utilize "local review panels" to identify problems and follow-up activities at a particular schoolhouse.

Kirst says that a thorough review of the state'due south accountability organization is needed, if simply because the passage of time demands it. "The constabulary was passed in 1999, and it is now 2012," he said.

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