WASHINGTON 鈥� A group of education policy experts said Tuesday they had reservations about 惭补谤测濒补苍诲鈥檚 plan to improve schools 鈥� and serious problems with 痴颈谤驳颈苍颈补鈥檚 plan.
The two states are among the 36 whose plans are still being reviewed by the U.S. Department of Education as part of the Every Student Succeeds Act, passed in 2015. The independent nonprofit Collaborative for Student Success, in conjunction with Bellwether Education Partners, has looked at and rated the plan of each state still awaiting federal approval (D.C.鈥檚 plan, along with those of 14 other states, has already been approved).
鈥淰irginia has some work to do,鈥� said Chad Alderman, with Bellwether Education Partners.
He gave as an example the commonwealth鈥檚 goal-setting process lacked ambition: 鈥淚n some cases, the goals were already met.
” 鈥� Rather than having some ambition going forward, they didn鈥檛 have any progress envisioned for the state for the future,鈥� he said. 鈥淭here鈥檚 no sort of clearly defined indicator of overall school quality.鈥�
惭补谤测濒补苍诲鈥檚 plan scored higher, Alderman said, in part because the state has 鈥渁 very strong set of standards and assessments. They鈥檙e going to look at how subgroups are performing on their goals. They鈥檙e also building in science and social studies.鈥�
Also, the states stuck with the 2010 Common Core curriculum and the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers tests, the collaborative said in a statement.
As for weaknesses, he cited 鈥渁 concern that some of the traditional academic measures like math and reading, and proficiency in hitting grade-level standards in growth on math and reading, were given some pretty low weights.鈥�
In the case of both Virginia and Maryland, Alderman said, both states are using 鈥渁 rank system,鈥� rather than a standard, 鈥渨hich means that we鈥檙e entering a place where schools are competing against each other, as opposed to competing to meet some objective standard or bar.鈥�
He added that neither state could estimate how many schools might be low performing. In particular, 鈥淰irginia will be identifying low-performing schools, but it hasn鈥檛 given much indication yet of what will happen in those schools, and how they will be asked to improve.鈥�
That鈥檚 a nationwide problem, he said.
鈥淭here鈥檚 a lot of uncertainties about what will happen in the case of low performance 鈥� what intervention those schools would pursue, and what we will do as a country if low performance continues.鈥�
Federal law
The Every Student Succeeds Act was passed on a bipartisan basis in 2015, as a replacement for the No Child Left Behind Act. It gives each state more input into forming its own plan, though each plan has to be approved by the federal authorities. States need to start identifying schools that need interventions in the summer of 2018.
鈥淥ne of the lessons from No Child Left Behind was that schools do respond to the incentives that are set up for them,鈥� Alderman said. 鈥淎n accountability system works best when people know what they鈥檙e being [held] accountable for and can respond in positive ways. And there are times when that leads to unproductive results 鈥� if the measures can be gamed in unhelpful ways, or other things. But the key then is to create an accountability system where schools are working in a positive direction on things that we all care about 鈥� math and reading and progress year-to-year, graduation rates and so forth.鈥�
It鈥檚 鈥渢oo early to say鈥� whether the law will succeed in pushing school systems into setting up students for better educational outcomes, and the details of the implementation of each state鈥檚 plan, once it鈥檚 approved, will make a huge difference.
The plans were reviewed by a group of more than 40 state and national education experts, the collaborative said. Their are on the Bellwether site.
You can check out and plans on their respective sites, as well as the full review for and (or ) on Bellwether鈥檚 site.
草莓传媒’s Mark Lewis contributed to this report.
