No Child left Behind Educational Growth Models

On June 10, U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings announced the approval of two high-quality growth models, which follow the bright-line principles of No Child Left Behind. It seems that once the states had developed the framework so they could measure student skills each year, as the law requires, all eligible states were then invited by Spellings to demonstrate progress over time and adapt a more sophisticated measurement system, also known as the growth model or value-added approach.

As I was reading the press release posted on the government's U.S. Department of Education website about the latest growth models on the No Child Left Behind program, and realized an interesting parallel to Children of the City. As you know I support them via my research website at http://www.toccobasile.org/, and via being on their Board. The reality is that it is all about accountability and results for individual students.

One example is Jonathan who before attending the Children of the City Create Success after school program only liked the subject of gym. Now he is up for the challenge of solving any math problem because with a little extra help from his Create Success tutor, he discovered that he loved to learn. “It’s fun here. We have discussions and they help me get all my homework done.”

When Jonathan's homework is finished you can find him searching the bookshelves in search of non-fiction, and he is also reading every book he can find about reptiles.

Spelling said that the states of Michigan and Missouri proposed program models that will support educational innovation while continuing to hold schools accountable for the goal of each student performing at or above grade level by 2014.

The Department will gather data to measure student improvement while holding the schools accountable for results. Following are the bright-line principles for these high-quality growth models:

Ensure that all students are proficient by 2014 and set annual state goals to ensure that the achievement gap is closing for all groups of students;
- Set expectations for annual achievement based upon meeting grade-level proficiency and not upon student background or school characteristics;
- Hold schools accountable for student achievement in reading/language arts and mathematics;
- Ensure that all students in tested grades are included in the assessment and accountability system, hold schools and districts accountable for the performance of each student subgroup and include all schools and districts;
- Include assessments, in each of grades 3 through 8 and high school, in both reading/language arts and mathematics that have been operational for more than one year and have received approval through the NCLB standards and assessment review process for the 2005-06 school year. The assessment system must also produce comparable results from grade to grade and year to year;
- Track student progress as part of the state data system; and
Include student participation rates and student achievement as separate academic indicators in the state accountability system.

The peer reviewers, who represent academia, private organizations and state and local education agencies, reviewed each state's proposal based on the Peer Review Guidance (http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/growthmodelguidance.doc) issued by the U.S. Department of Education.