STATEWIDE SAT RESULTS - WHICH HIGH SCHOOLS ARE EXCEEDING EXPECTATIONS?

The Idaho Board of Education released statewide SAT results last week. Idaho has provided funding for several years for administration of the SAT to 11th graders on "SAT School Day", which occurs annually in April. Each Idaho student is required to take a "college readiness" exam as a prerequisite for graduation. Most students take the SAT on the "school day" administration date. Some students may have already taken an exam, and others prefer to take the ACT and so do not sit for the "school day" exam.

This makes it difficult to compare high school SAT results in a year-over-year fashion because differing percentages of the junior class take the exam. So, for example, 85% of juniors may take the SAT "school day" administration in one year, but in the next year only 75% may participate.

For the 2017 comparison, we included only high schools that met the following criteria:

1. Over 80% of juniors participated in the "school day" exam (we used April enrollment figures from the State Department of Education to come up with a participation percentage).
2. Over 70 students participated in the exam (even with this criterion, performance can vary widely from year to year for schools at the low end of the participation continuum).

We compared high schools using a scattergram in which we charted free and reduced lunch percentages on the "x" axis, and on the "y "axis we charted the mean score on the SAT. We looked at the average composite score, and scores for Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (ERW) and Math. We use free and reduced lunch percentages as a variable because the SAT (and other norm-referenced assessments) are highly correlated with poverty.

What we did not consider was the percentage of Limited English Proficient (LEP) students at the high school. This is important to note, because a few high schools have high percentages of LEP students. As you may know, Borah High School has the largest percentage of LEP students in the state among sizable high schools. Because they are still learning the English language, and because the SAT assesses some sophisticated concepts which require high-level reading skills, most LEP students struggle with the SAT. This artificially deflates average scores at those high schools. Conversely, most northern Idaho high schools have few, if any, LEP students.

Several other large high schools have significant percentages of LEP students - Nampa - 7%, Declo (Cassia Cty) - 6.6%, Caldwell - 6.6%, and Centennial (West Ada) - 6.4%, 

Composite Score Performance

As you may know, we really like scattergrams, because they allow us to look at data and consider it in light of the effect of another variable. We also typically add a trendline to give us an indication of how schools are doing compared to the state average and overall trends. Since the SAT is highly correlated with poverty, you see a negative trendline - in general, higher poverty schools do less well on the SAT.

Traditionally, Boise, Moscow, Timberline, Sandpoint, Century, and Madison have performed well on the SAT, and this year was no exception, though Boise's performance was especially impressive in 2017. The surprises in composite performance are likely Capital, which performed well above expectations, and Idaho Virtual Academy. which does well in ERW, and not as well in math. The two Vallivue high schools, Vallivue and Ridgevue, performed well for their demographic, and though Caldwell's raw average score is below most, the high school is an outlier demographically, and actually did very well on the SAT considering its free and reduced population.

Note that Borah and Declo, schools with large LEP populations, performed above expectations even as most of their LEP students were included in testing.

Evidence-Based Reading and Writing

On the ERW subtest, the landscape is very similar to what the composite chart shows. As you can see, Idaho Virtual Academy is one of the top performers in ERW, considering the online school's demographics. 

Math

The SAT math subtest drives the "college readiness" percentage calculated by the College Board (parent company of the SAT), because scores are quite a bit lower than on the ERW subtest, and the cutoff score for "readiness" is higher.

On the math subtest, the usual high performers are joined by a few schools that exceed expectations: Coeur d'Alene, Lakeland, Kimberly, Shelley, Emmett, and Burley.  Caldwell and Boise exceeded expectations by a wide margin on the math subtest, as well.

It's interesting to look at these data and think about what schools like Century, Capital, and Twin Falls are doing in Math and ERW that other schools which perform less well could learn from. Since the College Board provides an item analysis and releases the test annually, a statewide analysis of skills would likely reveal that performance gaps exist because particular concepts are not learned as well by students in some high schools. What a valuable learning tool that would be, if the State Department chose to use the information to assist districts and teachers.

  

CALENDAR SURVEY SHOWS PATRON, STAFF 
SUPPORT FOR NEW STRUCTURE

The results of a school calendar poll administered last month show 85% of Boise District patrons and staff in favor of a proposal in which first semester would end prior to the Winter Holiday Break and the school year would end the weekend before the Memorial Day holiday. If implemented, the new school calendar would go into effect for the 2018-19 school year.

To date, there have been 4,991 responses to the survey. 1,706 came from Boise District staff, and 3,285 were from patrons and parents. 87% of patron/parent responses were in favor of the change, while 83% of staff responses were affirmative.

Here is the prologue to the survey, intended to provide information about the proposed calendar change:

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BACKGROUND INFORMATION:
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With a focus on student achievement, the Boise School District's Calendar Committee is considering modifying the 2018-2019 calendar to end the First Semester prior to the Winter Holiday Break, which will result in ending the school year before the Memorial Day weekend - the last week of May.

Currently, First Semester ends about two weeks after Winter Break and secondary students spend that 'break' studying and preparing for their final exams.  The school year currently ends after Memorial Day in June.  

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BENEFITS OF PROPOSED CALENDAR:
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Making the shift to the new calendar for the 2018-2019 School Year will:
* Allow students and teachers to finish the First Semester before, rather than after, the Winter Holiday Break.
* Allow secondary students to take End of Course Assessments prior to their Winter Holiday Break, reducing the potential that students will forget the content that they learned over the course of the First Semester and prevent students from having to spend the Winter Holiday Break studying or completing projects.
* Allow students to rest during the Winter Holiday Break and not worry about studying for finals or completing projects that would be due at the end of the semester.
* Allow all students to get a fresh start for second semester after the Winter Holiday Break.
* Allow students to have more days of instruction before standardized and Advanced Placement testing occurs in the spring.
* Mirror what is done at most colleges and universities with first semester ending before Winter Holiday Break and second semester starting after.
* Allow teachers to be more efficient with instruction preventing the need in January to reteach material due to the current holiday break between instruction and finals.
* Eliminate days from the District Calendar that traditionally have poor attendance which impacts the amount of funding the District receives from the State for instructional purposes.
* With final exams being given before Winter Holiday Break, rigorous instruction will occur right up until break.
* Allow teachers to complete grades and report cards prior to the Winter Holiday Break by giving them two half days in December.  

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CALENDAR HIGHLIGHTS:
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2018-19 Proposed School Schedule (The length of the school year would remain the same and students would have the same number of days of vacation):
     * August 9:Teachers on duty 
     * August 15:  First day of school  
     * October 12:  End of 1st Quarter
     * November 19 - 23: Thanksgiving Week Off
     * December 19, 20, 21:  Secondary End of Semester Testing
     * December 21: End of 1st Semester (Early Release - Winter Holiday Break Begins)
     * December 24-January 4: Winter Holiday Break (2 Full Weeks)
     * March 15: End of 3rd quarter
     * March 18-22: Spring Break
     * May 24: Last Day of School (Early Release prior to Memorial Day) 

If the proposed calendar were implemented, the summer of 2018 would be shorter than normal, since school would let out under the old calendar on June 1, 2018 and begin under the new calendar on August 15. However, the last day of school in 2018 would be May 24, the Friday prior to Memorial Day, about a week earlier than under the old calendar.

The new calendar would maintain Thanksgiving week and Spring Break as a week off from school, and the Winter Holiday Break would remain two weeks, as was the case in the old calendar.

Survey Responses - Statistical Breakdown

Here is a summary of the breakdown of responses on the calendar survey:

As you can see, there was overwhelming support for the calendar change from every subgroup surveyed.  The lowest degree of support came from elementary staff, and most of the "No" responses in that group revolved around starting school on August 15 (staff would report for duty on August 9). It seems logical that secondary staff would have heightened interest in the calendar change, since semester tests now occur two weeks after students get back from the Holiday Break. 

Tallies of responses with comments (where applicable) are available for staff and for parents and community.

The Board of Trustees will consider the 2018-19 calendar in October of 2017. Prior to their consideration, District officials will hold Focus Groups for students, staff, and parents to ascertain any concerns with particular elements of the calendar, and meet with principals and other staff to review particulars of the proposed calendar. District and Boise Education Association negotiations team members will also meet about the proposed calendar. Public comment will be welcomed at Board meetings preceding approval-disapproval of the proposed calendar.

BOISE SAT SCORES IMPROVE

In the second year of statewide administration of the "new" SAT, Boise District average scores improved over 2016.

The "new" SAT, which is aligned with the Common Core and reverts back to a two subtest exam with a total possible score of 1600, was introduced last year and provides information for improvement of instruction through provision of an item analysis and individual question analysis. District teachers have made use of the results to analyze student performance on specific skills.

DEMOGRAPHICS

It is important first to have a look at demographics. Free/reduced lunch percentages are our proxy for poverty levels. SAT performance is reflective of poverty, as a general rule. But we also need to consider the percentage of students who are classified as "Limited English" or "English Learners" since the Boise District has a relatively high percentage of students who are learning English (and the highest percentage of refugee students in the state of Idaho).

In Boise, the "Language Learner" category is especially important when looking at high schools. Borah High School is the District's "newcomer" school, where our refugee students who are new to the country attend.

As you can see, the Boise District's percentage of FRL high school students is lower than that of the state, but two high schools (Borah and Capital) are higher. However, the percentage of District "Language Learners" is about double that of the state, and Borah is about four times higher.

Our "Language Learners" do very well after high school, with a high percentage going on to college (especially those who are part of the AVID program). But as you might expect, it takes a while to pick up the English language, which is especially true when you're using a test like the SAT, which uses literary passages and pieces from content areas such as science and social studies as the sources for Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (ERW ) comprehension and analysis questions. Math, which is thought of as the "universal language" by some, is also difficult when all of the problems are story problems.

AVERAGE SCORES

The SAT now has two subtests, ERW and Math. Each is scored on a 200-800 scale, so the top possible score is 1600.

As you can see, the District average total score increased by 14 points, while the state average remained the same as in 2016. Boise High had the largest growth in average total score, increasing by 26 points. Borah and Capital were up by 9 and 7 respectively, and the Timberline average score dropped by 2 points.

Here are the average subtest scores by high schools and for the District and Idaho:

"READINESS" PERCENTAGES

According to the College Board:


"The college and career readiness benchmarks for the new SAT predict a 75 percent likelihood of achieving at least a C in a set of first-semester, credit-bearing college courses. The benchmarks are set at the section level, so there is a benchmark for Evidence-Based
Reading and Writing and a benchmark for Math."

The SAT benchmark scores for Evidence-Based Reading and Writing (ERW) and Math are 480 and 530, respectively. 

Note that the percentage of students meeting the Math benchmark drives the percentage meeting both benchmark scores. Most of the time, if a student met the benchmark math score, he/she also met the benchmark in ERW. The District-wide percentage meeting benchmark is much higher than that of the state of Idaho in ERW (+10%), Math (+13%), and in the percentage that met both standards (+13%).

More to come soon as statewide results on the SAT are released in the next couple of weeks.

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.