AVID UPDATE
ENROLLMENT AND COLLEGE-GOING

As we noted in December, it's the 10-year anniversary of the Boise District's AVID program.Here's a spring update on the program . 

If you are not familiar with AVID, here's a brief description:

HISTORY

AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) is a program that began in San Diego, California back in the early 70's. Its mission is to "close the achievement gap by preparing all students for college readiness and success in a global society."

When current Owyhee Elementary Principal Dr. Stacie Curry Became principal at Fairmont Junior High via a California district, she shared her experiences with AVID in her home district and asked if she might start a program at Fairmont. 

In the first year, 85 7th and 8th grade Fairmont students enrolled in the program; those 8th graders later became the first AVID graduating class at Capital High School. Today, the AVID program serves over 1300 students, and we have AVID students at every junior high and high school in the Boise District.

What's also encouraging is that other districts are seeing the value of AVID. Vallivue has been at it a while, and the district is just beginning to see its first AVID graduates. Emmett and Mt. Home have fledgling program, and West Ada is getting started with programs for students at Mt. View and Meridian High Schools.

COLLEGE-GOING

Of course, the proof is in the college-going results, because the goal of AVID is that many students who might not have been college-bound a few years ago not only attend, but show persistence in working toward a degree.

The most recent college-going percentage for the state of Idaho was 52% for the class of 2014.  As you can see from the chart, the Boise District rate for classes of 2011-2016 was 60%, and the AVID rate of college-going was 77%.

As for persistence, 55% of Boise District high school grads in the classes of 2011-16 are either still in college or have graduated. For AVID high school graduates, the percentage is 64%.

If we take a look at only AVID high school graduates who went on to college, 84% are still enrolled in college or have graduated.

COLLEGE CHOICES

AVID students continue to attend mostly in-state colleges, which is to be expected.

In fact, 81% of AVID students attend Boise State University, College of Western Idaho, University of Idaho, Idaho State University, and the College of Idaho. 

However, students from the AVID program continue to find opportunities out of state, as well. With the class of 2016 alone, AVID students are attending the University of Southern California, Baylor University (TX), George Fox University (OR), Northern Arizona University (AZ), and the University of Utah.

ADVANCED DEGREES, AVERAGE SALARIES, AND STUDENT-TEACHER RATIOS (Part 3)

In the third part of this series, we'll examine districts' efforts with salaries considering their per-pupil expenditures.

District Efforts with Salaries

We again conducted this analysis using data from the State Department of Education from the 2014-15 school year. We used district financial summaries to calculate average salaries for elementary and secondary teachers and to generate general fund per pupil expenditures for districts with 100 or more full time equivalent staff (FTE).

And once again we omitted Blaine County and McCall-Donnelly from the analysis because their per-pupil expenditures are so much higher than any other large district. However, it's worth pointing out that, while Blaine's average salary is an outlier ($71,622), McCall-Donnelly's average salary ($51,704) is actually lower than that of the Boise District.

For the remainder of the districts, we ran a scattergram comparing the two factors which allowed us to assess the teacher salary efforts of these districts considering their PPE. The results are interesting.

First, it's important to understand two points:

• this chart shows salaries and expenditures compared to the Idaho average; we made no attempt herein to compare to other states.

• the salaries used in this comparison are base salaries, and do not include any extra pay.

So, general fund per-pupil expenditures and average salaries were positively correlated - that's no surprise. However, when we get down to the district level, we can see some interesting comparisons.

• Boise, Lewiston, Teton, Moscow,and Lakeland all fall in the "High PPE/High Average Salary" category. But Lake Pend O'reille has much lower average salaries, even though the district's PPE is high for the state of Idaho.

• Madison and Jefferson County are the two lowest PPE districts in the study, and their average salaries are very low, as well. But Preston has low funding and its average salary is about $1500 higher.

• Post Falls and West Ada have relatively low funding, but higher average salaries than might be expected.

The Role of Experience

Average experience levels among districts likely vary greatly. For example, Boise's average experience is probably greater than West Ada's, since a relatively high number of West Ada teachers bring their experience to Boise. However, the state of Idaho does not have reliable data in this area. We have asked for a spreadsheet showing experience among district staffs, and will do a post about experience when we receive a good set of data.

Going Forward

Districts have taken different approaches to implementing the Career Ladder distribution formula, as we indicated in the first post in this series. The approaches taken will influence the average salaries in those districts.

For example, the Post Falls District kept its salary schedule after the implementation of the Career Ladder. Here's 2011-12:

And 2015-16:

Post Falls' starting teacher salary increased by $1000 (3%), and their top salary by $2790 (4.8%) between 2011-12 and 2015-16.

However, the West Ada District, seeking to build a fund balance that suffered during the recession, changed its approach and implemented the Career Ladder as its salary schedule for new teachers beginning in 2015-16.

Here's 2011-12, when the district was still called Meridian:

And here is 2015-16, for the West Ada District:

West Ada took a different approach toward salaries, implementing the career ladder as a salary schedule for new teachers beginning on July 31, 2015, and "grandfathering" teachers hired before that date. The salary for beginning teachers improved by $1000, just as it did in Post Falls, and veteran teacher salaries (with master's degree) increased by about $1500. However, the top salary possible for a new teacher hired after July 31, 2015 was $48,303 with a master's degree (this will increase to about $53,500 if the Career Ladder is fully funded in a couple of years). That's considerably lower than the top salary in 2011-12.

Addendum: According to the negotiations chairperson for the West Ada School District, beginning in 2016-17, all district teachers could move to the "legacy" rungs on the district salary schedule, and there are no longer any "grandfathered" teachers in the district. Good news for new teachers in the district!

THIS AND THAT FOR APRIL

We found some interesting articles from around the internet for your reading enjoyment. Most of these have been referenced elsewhere by bloggers - Peter Greene at Curmudgucation, the Atlantic, and others.

More on Secretary of Education Devos

Rolling Stone Magazine recently forayed into the education arena, profiling Betsy Devos in a recent article by Janet Reitman. Betsy Devos' Holy War is an interesting portrayal of the new Secretary of Education. This article covers much of the same ground as The Red Queen from Edushyster author Jennifer Berkshire. Reitman writes:

'(But) criticisms of the new secretary of education, based on her poor knowledge of and lack of support for public schools, arguably miss the point. "Public education is the biggest opportunity for those who believe they have to save souls," says Rachel Tabachnick, a researcher of the religious right's impact on policy. "If you're looking at the merger of free-market ideology and the religious right, that is the plum to be picked."'

Economic growth in the United States: A tale of two countries

On the Washington Center for Equitable Growth website, there's a fascinating analysis of economic growth since the early 60's by Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman, who write:

"It’s a tale of two countries. For the 117 million U.S. adults in the bottom half of the income distribution, growth has been non-existent for a generation while at the top of the ladder it has been extraordinarily strong. And this stagnation of national income accruing at the bottom is not due to population aging. Quite the contrary: For the bottom half of the working-age population (adults below 65), income has actually fallen. In the bottom half of the distribution, only the income of the elderly is rising."

Pre-kindergarten vs. full-day kindergarten

One of the discussions that has taken place around the statehouse and among superintendents is with regard to whether pre-k programs are more effective than full-day kindergarten. Fortunately, there's a 2011 study (this is the link to the summary) by Jim Hull from the Center for Public Education that gives us information about the impact of the two programs.

The study indicates that both pre-k and full day kindergarten programs have a positive effect on student achievement. However, 

"Students who attend pre-k and half-day kindergarten are more likely to have higher reading skills by the third grade than students who attend full-day kindergarten alone. "

Here's the link to the full study.

Gary Rubinstein's Blog

If you have not had a chance to check out Rubinstein's blog, and you enjoy statistical treatments of school data, you should give it a read. Rubinstein has made a habit of debunking "miracle schools", which are schools which have suddenly shown incredible growth in achievement, and are often celebrated as successfully battling the odds.

In his most recent post, Rubinstein examines the data about the Eagle County School District in Colorado, which was celebrated by Bill Gates in 2013.


The Call to End Teacher Tenure

Here is an article by Diane Ravitch, noted educational historian, about Checker Finn's call for the end of teacher tenure. Ravitch states her opinion on Finn's position, and explains why teacher tenure is different from the practice in many colleges around the country.

Ravitch differentiates the concept of teacher "tenure" (actually called "continuing contract status"), which provides additional due process rights for teachers beginning with their fourth annual contract, from tenure, which comes with additional protections, typically at the college or university level.

Leaders, Character, and Policy

Peter Greene (Curmudgucation) wrote a thoughtful piece about administrators and policy last week that is worth a read. From his post:

"A good manager in any business or institution really has just one job-- to create conditions in which her people can do their best work. If it's raining, a good manager is out there holding an umbrella over the front-line worker; not yelling at that worker for being wet.

It's important to have an administrator who has classroom experience, who knows the regulations, who has a broad understanding of education, and all the other things search committees look for. But one of the most critical issues is character.


At this point in my career, I've worked for many administrators, and I don't remember the various policy decisions and implementations nearly as well as I remember whether they were decent people or not."

ADVANCED DEGREES, AVERAGE SALARIES, AND STUDENT-TEACHER RATIOS (Part 2)

One way to understand the effort a district puts into class size is to compare general fund per-pupil expenditures compared with average student teacher ratios. Districts in the state have different per-pupil expenditure amounts, depending on the amount of local support they receive in addition to state funding. These amounts do not include expenditures from school plant or bond funds, which are typically used for maintenance and repairs or for construction of buildings.

District Efforts with Student-Teacher Ratios

We conducted this analysis using data from the State Department of Education from the 2014-15 school year. We used district financial summaries to calculate the number of elementary and secondary full-time equivalent (FTE) positions by districts with over 100 FTE, and compared with general fund per pupil expenditures (GFPPE).

The analysis did not produce average class size figures. The elementary and secondary FTE include a number of positions that did not provide direct instruction in the regular classroom - elementary reading specialists and elementary music teachers, for example. In fact, the analysis produced student-teacher ratios instead, but in general provided a stable comparison showing effort on the part of the district to control ratios.

We decided to omit data from the analysis  for two districts whose funding levels are much higher than the norm in Idaho - Blaine County and McCall-Donnelly. Idaho's average per-pupil general fund expenditures in 2014-15 were $6302. Blaine County's GFPPE were $17,174 and McCall's were $12,426. Average student-teacher ratio (STR) in the two districts were 12.7 and 13.6, respectively - very low, as you might expect.

For the remainder of the districts, we ran a scattergram comparing the two factors which allowed us to assess the average student-teacher ratio efforts of these districts considering their PPE. The results are interesting.

It's important to understand that the chart shows STR and expenditures compared to the Idaho average; we made no attempt herein to compare to other states.

PPE and student-teacher ratios are negatively correlated (about -.7), as you might expect. In general. higher PPE districts have lower student-teacher ratios.

• Sandpoint (LPO), Boise, Lewiston, and Moscow all have low STR and high PPE. 
• Weiser and Caldwell, with low PPE compared with the state average, have surprisingly low STR, below the state average.
• Vallivue and Preston have the highest STR among the districts in the comparison.
• West Ada, and Nampa's average STR are higher than Kuna and Post Falls, which have comparable general fund expenditures.

So that's a broad brush picture of how districts use funding to deal with student teacher ratios. It's important because class size is viewed as an important factor in student success in most studies. Here's an entire website devoted to the research on class size.

Next - the third part of this series - how districts pay teachers considering the funding they have.

ADVANCED DEGREES, AVERAGE SALARIES, AND STUDENT-TEACHER RATIOS (Part 1)

In 2015, the legislature approved funding for the first year of the Idaho Career Ladder. House Bill 296 was a monumental achievement, into which the state has allocated over $130 million fr teacher salaries through the 2017 session, as part of the Governor's plan for K-12 public education.

The Career Ladder legislation included some important departures from the old funding distribution formula that had been in place for some time.

It was important to legislators and the Governor to have some sort of accountability built into the process of distributing funds. Accordingly, the legislation included a requirement that a teacher receive a mark of "proficient" on his/her evaluation in order for increases in funding for his/her position to be distributed to the district. It's actually a whole lot more complicated than that, but for the purposes of this article, the above explanation will have to suffice.

One piece of the legislation that still is not well-understood is compensation for advanced degrees. School district salary schedules (and the state salary distribution formula) had long given credit for two factors which formed the salary matrix - experience (years served) and education (credits earned in continuing education coursework).

The distribution formula prior to 2015-16 did not have a "Master's barrier", except at the very end of the schedule (Master's degree +36 credits or Ed Specialist or Doctorate). In other words, funds were distributed to districts based on credits earned by teachers beyond the Bachelor's degree, but not for achievement of a degree. So a teacher might have a Bachelor's degree and 36 credits, but the distribution formula rewarded the district the same amount for that teacher as for one who had earned a Master's degree. Thus, incentives for teachers to earn a Master's Degree came at the local district level, if at all.

The vast majority of districts mimicked the state distribution formula for their salary schedules, and allowed teachers to accumulate credits beyond the Bachelor's degree in order to get raises. In 2014-15, we found only a few that had a built-in Master's barrier; Moscow, Boise, Lapwai, and Avery (a tiny northern Idaho district with only 2 teachers).

As examples, here are the 2014-15 schedules from Moscow and Post Falls:

Note that Moscow's schedule required that teachers have a Master's degree to advance beyond lane 4...

while Post Falls' schedule allowed teachers to accumulate credits or get a Master's degree.

The introduction of the Career Ladder changed the advanced degree landscape. The original version of the bill had no education increments at all, and was based purely on evaluation proficiency and years of service.  But the final Career Ladder bill contained phased-in rewards for two levels of continuing education - Bachelor's degree + 24 credits and Master's degree. For these two levels of education, the distribution to districts (not cumulative) are/will be:

Since the law rewarded districts for all teachers who had reached the BA +24 credits or had attained a Master's degree, districts were faced with a choice - use the money as a pass-through (award it directly to teachers who had attained these levels) or add a barrier for the Master's degree.

In Boise, we argued that our salary schedule already had lanes that rewarded teachers for continuing education, and simply added the money to the salary negotiations process. Other districts decided to give the funds directly to teachers who had reached the level (even though those that had reached the BA +24 level had already earned increments on the schedule). Here's our 2015-16 schedule:

We were curious, though, as to the status of districts around the state. What percentage of district certified staffs have a Master's degree?  Here's the answer for districts with over 100 FTE (full-time equivalent positions):

There are additional districts in the count - we just decided to report the top 20 or so. For the record, the lowest percentages of master's degrees among larger districts are in Fruitland and Mountain Home, both of which have 16%. And those two other districts we mentioned before - well, 47% of Lapwai's certified staff have a Master's degree, as do both of Avery's staff members.

Now, whether or not a Master's degree makes a difference in instructional expertise is up for debate - there's not much research supporting a correlation. However, we believe that teachers who achieve an advanced degree bring more expertise to their teaching than do those who just accumulate credits. And the state of Idaho has valued the Master's degree in their reimbursement of districts in the Career Ladder.

IN SEARCH OF A FEW GOOD FACTS

District officials spend a great deal of time poring over data related to student achievement, class size, proposed legislation, funding, negotiations, and any number of other topics. We take our research seriously. So when an op-ed  that ran in the Idaho Statesman last Saturday misrepresented facts about the District, we researched the issues to provide accurate data.

Here are some facts about Boise District enrollment.

We have records of Boise District enrollment back to the 1920's and 1930's; we can see when particular schools were opened and closed, when other school districts opted to join the district, and when grade organization patterns changed in the District.

We analyze District enrollment using a particular enrollment report each year - typically it's the October report - so we have consistent year-to-year number on which we can focus. Here are the District's October enrollment figures for the past 10 years.

District enrollment has increased by about 1200 students in 10 years; slow, steady growth compared with our neighbors to the west. When the author of the op-ed writes "The district’s student population is shrinking", his statement is simply not true.

About 18 months ago, the District hired DeJong-Richter, a nationally renowned school facilities audit group, to perform a study of Boise's facilities. One of the tasks they performed as part of the audit was a projection of future student enrollment.

The DeJong "moderate" enrollment projection report actually shows the growth slowing, followed by a period of slow decline. What the DeJong report does not include is the emergence of Syringa Valley, currently beginning development east of Cole Road and south of Orchard Street. Permits for the development had not been issued at the time of the study, but DeJong estimates that the development will yield about 1,400 students over time, all of which will be within the Timberline High School boundary. 

Additionally, it's important to understand that growth in student enrollment is always uneven. In Boise, the fastest growth thus far has been in southeast Boise - a drive out to the Harris Ranch area will reveal the rapid transformation of the area.

At the secondary level (junior high and high school) there's actually been strong growth in each school's enrollment. Here's what's happened since a 2008 boundary change gave each District high school 2 feeder junior highs.

The three junior highs that were under-enrolled a few years ago are now growing at a rapid clip. Hillside has been rediscovered by North End parents and students. Les Bois and East still have some room, but with the emergence of Syringa Valley, and growth in southeast Boise, they won't for long. 

So, when the op-ed author wrote "I wonder how much it would cost to move a few lines on a map?", he's not accounting for the future growth in south Boise, or even for the current growth in southeast Boise. It would be unwise to draw new boundaries at the junior high level, only to have to change them again in a couple of years. 

And what the op-ed author completely omitted in "doing his research" is that Timberline (built for 1150 students in 1998) will be affected greatly by the growth in student enrollment. In 3 years, the school will have at least 1350 students, and it's likely to have even more students thereafter as the growth in south Boise takes off. Without relief in the form of additional space at Timberline (the addition proposed in the current bond issue), boundary changes at the high school level will likely be necessary. 

Boundary changes are typically painful exercises, but are often necessary to ameliorate student population growth in one part of a district. The problem with the changes that may be necessary to relieve the growth at Timberline is that both Boise and Borah High Schools are at capacity. Capital is the high school which has some room. So such a change would likely involve changes in the boundaries of all 4 comprehensive high schools.

BAD NEWS ABOUT THE EFFECTS 

OF SCHOOL VOUCHER PROGRAMS

Two recent articles in The Upshot, the New York Times research journal, cast extensive doubt on the advisability of vouchers in public schools. Both were written by Kevin Carey.

The first, entitled Dismal Voucher Results Surprise Researchers As Devos Era Begins, recounts the results of three major voucher studies conducted in Indiana, Louisiana, and Ohio in the past several years. All three studies found that students transferring to private schools through voucher programs lost ground in achievement.

In Indiana, as part of a voucher program that enrolled tens of thousands of students while Mike Pence was governor, researchers found that " “In mathematics, voucher students who transfer to private schools experienced significant losses in achievement.” The researchers also saw no improvement in reading.

Then, a few months after the release of the first study, researchers studying the Louisiana voucher program found that "Public elementary school students who started at the 50th percentile in math and then used a voucher to transfer to a private school dropped to the 26th percentile in a single year."

The third voucher study was conducted by the Thomas Fordham Foundation, and focused on a voucher program in Ohio. The findings, from a conservative think tank that has promoted school choice, "“Students who use vouchers to attend private schools have fared worse academically compared to their closely matched peers attending public schools.”

As Carey writes, "But even as school choice is poised to go national, a wave of new research has emerged suggesting that private school vouchers may harm students who receive them. The results are startling — the worst in the history of the field, researchers say."

The second Carey article is entitled DeVos and Tax Credit Vouchers: Arizona Shows What Can Go Wrong. This one is about State Tax Credit Voucher Programs, which have been proposed several times in Idaho, including in this legislative session.

Tax credit vouchers are a way to get around the Blaine Amendment church/state separation laws in state constitutions. 

As Mr. Carey explains, "State tax credit voucher programs have grown rapidly in recent years. The number of students receiving them increased to 256,000 this year, from about 50,000 in 2005. Arizona has one of the oldest and largest programs. It allows taxpayers who donate money to nonprofit voucher-granting organizations to claim a 100 percent, dollar-for-dollar credit against their state taxes (up to a certain limit). In other words, if a married couple donates $1,000 to a voucher-granting nonprofit, their tax bill is reduced by $1,000. The nonprofit then gives the money to families who use it to pay tuition at private schools."

If you have not yet read these two articles, we encourage you to take a look. Together, they form a nice primer on the origination and current status of voucher and tax credit programs.