Over the past few years I haves shared many pieces of information regarding the Federal NCLB law, and particularly how it impacted Lincoln because of our use of Federal Title I funds. While I commend the law and it's authors for addressing the need for proficient readers and mathematicians, the law punished schools who were performing very well and labeled them as failing schools. How can MA, which is considered and statically proven to have the best performing students and schools in the country, have 82 percent of it's schools labeled as failing just because they did not meet a statistical target of 100% perfection. This is the AYP formula and its one size fits all consequences for schools. It simply wasn't working.
While Lincoln made AYP last year in the aggregate and all our subgroups and was one of the 18% of schools in MA to do so, I have consistently shared my disdain for this law. I am truly excited by the fact that MA was granted a waiver from many of the NCLB requirements. Here is the official press release from the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
What really excites me is the fact that we will now have an opportunity to be truly innovative. MA will not escape accountability for student performance, as some have suggested, but rather lead the way for the rest of the country on how to reach students who are not proficient. The waiver is hardly a free pass. In fact, MA schools will now have layers of data goals that will give the public, school administrators and teachers a broader look at how students are performing and showing growth. We will also be able to use funding sources, like Title I, with greater levels of flexibility to address what our individual school and student needs are, rather than the one size fits all "you must do this" approach that NCLB requires.
These data goals will still be measured using the MCAS, and eventually the replacement for the MCAS (which is being developed by PARCC) but they do look at several improvement categories and will use a 4 year span of data with a weighting system that gives the most credence to the latest scores. This is important because the year to year view of student performance only told part of the story, as did the AYP student performance goals. The MA DESE has created some guiding documents but this simple 4 page documents compares the Pre and Post NCLB based on the MA Waiver. The overarching goal is to cut the proficiency gap in half by the 2016-2017 school year. Many schools have done this already over the last 6 years.
The bottom line is, we are a good school doing many great things. We will now have ability and the flexibility to do even more great things and implement innovative but appropriate ideas with the goal of being an even better school. Ideas such as the successful Summer Academy can be expanded. We will be able to add to our Title I Tutors to more effectively implement a Tiered System of Support, and we'll be able to upgrade and improve our progress monitoring and assessment practice. It is my commitment to our students, staff and parents that we will stay the course for improvement and work diligently to provide the very best education to all our students. I am glad the policy makers have also made this commitment.
While Lincoln made AYP last year in the aggregate and all our subgroups and was one of the 18% of schools in MA to do so, I have consistently shared my disdain for this law. I am truly excited by the fact that MA was granted a waiver from many of the NCLB requirements. Here is the official press release from the MA Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
What really excites me is the fact that we will now have an opportunity to be truly innovative. MA will not escape accountability for student performance, as some have suggested, but rather lead the way for the rest of the country on how to reach students who are not proficient. The waiver is hardly a free pass. In fact, MA schools will now have layers of data goals that will give the public, school administrators and teachers a broader look at how students are performing and showing growth. We will also be able to use funding sources, like Title I, with greater levels of flexibility to address what our individual school and student needs are, rather than the one size fits all "you must do this" approach that NCLB requires.
These data goals will still be measured using the MCAS, and eventually the replacement for the MCAS (which is being developed by PARCC) but they do look at several improvement categories and will use a 4 year span of data with a weighting system that gives the most credence to the latest scores. This is important because the year to year view of student performance only told part of the story, as did the AYP student performance goals. The MA DESE has created some guiding documents but this simple 4 page documents compares the Pre and Post NCLB based on the MA Waiver. The overarching goal is to cut the proficiency gap in half by the 2016-2017 school year. Many schools have done this already over the last 6 years.
The bottom line is, we are a good school doing many great things. We will now have ability and the flexibility to do even more great things and implement innovative but appropriate ideas with the goal of being an even better school. Ideas such as the successful Summer Academy can be expanded. We will be able to add to our Title I Tutors to more effectively implement a Tiered System of Support, and we'll be able to upgrade and improve our progress monitoring and assessment practice. It is my commitment to our students, staff and parents that we will stay the course for improvement and work diligently to provide the very best education to all our students. I am glad the policy makers have also made this commitment.
