Acknowledgements

The State of Education in Delaware: A Primer on Standards, Assessments, and Accountability primer was adapted from the 2008—2009 Education Policy Primer by the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education by Amy Jerrett and J. Domenic Giandomenico of the Institute for a Competitive Workforce for use by the <insert your organization’s name here>. Special thanks to Dr. Stephen Dolinger and the Georgia Partnership for Excellence in Education for their cooperation in granting permission to adapt their report.

Standards, Assessments, and Accountability

Various types of assessments are used to measure the progress students make in meeting academic standards. Assessments can take many forms—from norm–referenced tests that compare each student’s performance to that of their peers to standards–based assessments that compare each student’s performance to academic standards. Assessments can range from mostly multiple–choice items to short–answer questions or longer performance tasks engaging students in real–world problems. When coupled with other key indicators (e.g., graduation rates and attendance), assessments form the basis of state accountability systems.

No Child Left Behind Act

Overview

Since the 2001 introduction of the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation, rarely has a conversation among educators and policymakers occurred without mention of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), standardized tests, Highly Qualified Teachers, or proficiency standards. While many states had their own accountability systems in place long before the implementation of NCLB, legislation brightened the spotlight on public education, created a common educational language, raised awareness of achievement gaps among student subgroups (e.g., Latino, African–American, English language learners, and students with disabilities) boldly raised the performance bar for students in all states by setting a goal of 100% proficiency in core academic subjects by 2014. NCLB was signed into law by former President George W. Bush on January 8, 2002, as a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), the central federal law in K—12 education. The ESEA was first enacted in 1965 and most recently reauthorized in 1994. As the latest incarnation of the ESEA, NCLB has expanded the federal role in education and become a focal point of educational policy. The legislation, coming at a time of wide public concern about the state of education, sets in place requirements that reach into every public school in America. It takes particular aim at improving the educational attainment of disadvantaged students.

At the core of NCLB are several measures designed to improve student achievement and increase statewide accountability for educational excellence. Figure 1 illustrates key components of the legislation.

Figure 1: Major Provisions Of NCLB

Early in 2007, conversation about the law’s reauthorization began, with lawmakers and education policy experts weighing in on the changes necessary to improve NCLB. However, as debates over the landmark legislation continued in Congress, prospects were fading that the law would be reauthorized before President George W. Bush left office. Now, experts believe that the act may not be reauthorized until 2011.

No Child Left Behind in Delaware

Please describe in this section how NCLB has been implemented in Delaware. Each state submitted a plan to the U.S. Department of Education outlining procedures for developing standards and an accountability system. As part of that plan, each state defines what constitutes Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in increasing student achievement toward the goal of all students reaching proficient levels on state assessments by 2014. States must set the same goals for all schools and students. You can obtain a copy of your state plan through your state department of education.

Schools / Districts (Local Education Agencies)
A school shall be identified as in Needs Improvement status if the school has not made AYP in the same subject for two consecutive years. / A Local Education Agency (LEA) shall be identified as in Needs Improvement status if the LEA has not made AYP in the same subject for two consecutive years at the elementary, middle, and high school levels.
A school shall be removed from Needs Improvement status if the school has made AYP for two consecutive years. / An LEA shall be removed from Needs Improvement status if the LEA has made AYP for two consecutive years.
Escalation in levels of Needs Improvement status shall be based on the school’s failure to make AYP in the same subject for two or more consecutive years. / Escalation in levels of Needs Improvement status shall be based on the district’s failure to make AYP in the same subject for two or more consecutive years.

Figure 2: Identification of Needs Improvement Schools and Districts

As a result of NCLB, each state has developed a plan for improvement in measurable terms of student performance that Local Education Agencies (LEAs) must achieve within the given time frames specified by the NCLB Act. Adequate yearly progress refers to the timeline set by states such that all students will make gradual progress towards the goal of achieving 100% proficiency on state assessments by the 2013—14 school year. Schools that fail to meet that adequate yearly progress timeline for two consecutive years are labeled “in need of improvement.” Schools within an LEA or a state must also collectively meet the agreed–upon adequate yearly progress measures or will similarly be labeled “in need of improvement.”

Standards

Of all the education reforms that have emerged over the past fifteen years, none has been more powerful and enduring than the push to establish challenging academic standards for students. Today, the standards–based approach constitutes the primary reform strategy of most states and school districts. They are establishing higher standards, to improve efficiency, generate challenging curricula, create greater system coherence, and serve as the basis for new ways of measuring the performance of students, teachers, and schools.

The 1983 report A Nation at Risk[1] is largely cited as the catalyst for the modern–day standards–based reform movement. The report renewed focus on the preparedness of America’s public school students for life after high school and their ability to compete in a global economy has underscored the importance of having rigorous academic standards for all students. Standards are central to realizing the aims of America’s public schools as a core element of the country’s economic future by delineating what students are expected to know and be able to do. As such, they are the foundation of education reform.

In the 1990s, states established statewide content standard documents that set out the goals for what students should know and be able to do in core academic subjects in K—12 education. Today, every state has academic standards that articulate the core knowledge and skills that students should learn from kindergarten through grade 12. These standards play an important role in states’ education systems, as seen in Figure 3.

Figure 3: Standards–Based Reform: Aligning Standards, Assessments, and Accountability[2]

Common Core State Standards Initiative

The Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices, in partnership with Achieve, Inc.; ACT; and the College Board, have initiated a state–led process of developing and adopting a common core of state standards (Common Core State Standards Initiative). The main concepts of this initiative revolve around increasing the rigor and relevance of standards across all participating states by creating a common core of standards in English–language arts and mathematics for grades K—12. Taking into account and building on current educational reform, standards will be available for review by the states throughout the entire process and a third party validation group will analyze the final standards.

The goal of the Initiative is to release the core of high school standards and develop K—12 grade–by–grade standards by late 2009.

As of September 2009, two states—Alaska and Texas—have not signed on to the Common Core State Standards Initiative.

Assessments

Student assessments, a crucial part of an accountability system, measure whether or not students are learning the curriculum that the state’s standards are based upon. While various types of assessments have long been used by classroom teachers to provide evidence of student learning, they have become an increasingly critical component of state and educational systems nationwide. Policymakers are relying more than ever on large–scale tests to make high–stakes decisions about students and schools. States are using assessments to motivate students and schools and to hold teachers and administrators accountable for raising achievement. Throughout the country, parents, businesses, and elected officials are using test scores as indicators of the quality of our educational system.[3]

NCLB increased states’ focus on assessments with its requirement that states annually test students in reading and mathematics in grades 3–8 and once in high school. The law requires that states use tests aligned with their academic–content standards either by building assessments specifically designed to reflect those standards or by modifying commercially produced, off–the–shelf tests.

Proficiency in terms of Assessments

The 2007 National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) (for a more in depth explanation of the NAEP Assessment see “National Measures of Student Achievement”) uncovered that every state has its own interpretation of what constitutes as a student being academically “proficient.” Due to these differences in assessments and the determined levels of proficiency, it becomes impossible to directly compare one state’s proficiency levels to another. When the NAEP assessment created standards for academic proficiency based on what students should know by grade four as well as by grade eight, it found that the majority of states did not reach the standards but still reported to have high levels of proficiency. In Figure 4, you will see a graphical representation of the discrepancy between states, versus NAEP in what constitutes as “proficient”.

Figure 4: Average Difference Between State and NAEP Proficiency Rates, 2007

For instance, a Wisconsin 4th grade reading student scoring at the state’s proficient level would be able to answer the question in Figure 5, while a Massachusetts “proficient” student would be expected to answer the substantially more difficult question. Because of this considerable difference on the meaning of the term, state comparisons run the risk of not being valid or reliable.

Figure 5: Different Meanings of “Proficiency” [4]

Accountability

The standards–based educational reform movement has allowed accountability systems to become performance–based. Once academic content standards are defined, and school and student progress are measured against them, performance can be measured and evaluated. As a result, state leaders are closer to having a better picture of student, school, and system performance as well as the ability to change and improve the way education policy and practice decisions are made.

Performance–based accountability systems are, however, highly complex and involve a range of interconnected design and technical issues from test reliability and validity, to incentives and interventions, to how data are collected, analyzed and reported. Policymakers must determine, among other things, whose performance should be judged, the level of performance expected, relevant measures of performance, what constitutes satisfactory progress toward established goals and what rewards and consequences will be imposed for superior or inadequate performance. Furthermore, NCLB has significant implications for state accountability systems in terms of student testing, reporting requirements, and increasing interventions in persistently low–performing schools.

With the increased accountability mandated by NCLB, all states are now moving toward statewide systems to meet the goal of all students achieving proficiency by 2014. Today, all states have accountability systems that meet the requirements of NCLB for reporting school and district Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) determinations.

The development of a statewide accountability system requires a lot of time and an extreme amount of work on the part of state and local educational policymakers. Planning and developing must address numerous dimensions—policies, assessment measures, data systems, consensus on indicators, definition of AYP, data reporting design, rewards, sanctions, federal requirements, and plans for assistance to schools in need of improvement.

Due to increased federal requirements, state accountability systems have common elements—assessments, standards, performance reporting, and, in most cases, consequences of performance. As was exposed in the 2007 Leaders and Laggards: A State–by–State Report Card on Educational Effectiveness by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce[5] and the Center for American Progress, states have found different ways to define what it means for schools to succeed, what indicators to include in their definition of success, and what the consequences will be.

Consequences

In compliance with state and federal law, schools and districts that fail to meet certain accountability requirements are subject to consequences and must develop plans to help improve student achievement. Schools and districts receive consequences based on their AYP determination. Analysis of unmet AYP along with guidance from the state department of education, dictates the nature and degree of the required improvement plans (e.g., school improvement, corrective action, or restructuring). In accordance with NCLB, the U.S. Department of Education provides a system of intensive and sustained support for those schools and districts identified as Needs Improvement, a designation that stems from AYP status.

Under NCLB, public schools and districts that do not meet AYP in the first year face no consequences. However, the school or district faces escalating consequences if they fail to meet AYP for consecutive years. Districts in the Needs Improvement category must first explain to the parents what the label signifies, how the school compares, and what it’s doing to improve. A school improvement plan must be created to cover a two–year period. This plan is a written document that is based on scientifically based research, focuses on core subjects, mandates increased professional development, and stimulates greater parental involvement. In addition to creating and implementing the school improvement plan, the school must offer students the option of transferring to another school in the district not under the title of “Needs Improvement.” Not meeting AYP for three years requires the school to provide supplemental education services or free tutoring to needy students. A fourth year of failure triggers corrective action, which could entail staffing changes, curriculum reform, or the extension of the school day and year. Finally, if the school fails for a fifth consecutive year, the district must restructure that school, either by turning it into a charter school, replacing the majority of the staff, hiring an educational management company to operate the school, turning it over to the state, or by adopting another remedy of the state’s choosing. [6]