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DEL.ICIO.USWatch for the Spin Cycle
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Of all the information school districts report to the public, test scores may be the easiest to spin. School officials can present the scores relative to the state average or relative to district scores in previous years, depending on which puts the numbers in a more favorable light.
A case in point:
Atlanta Public School officials recently trumpeted what they called “significant improvement” on the state’s writing test. Last school year, 88 percent of 11th-grade students passed the test - required for graduation - on their first attempt, compared with 84 percent in 2003. Superintendent Beverly Hall featured the news in her speech during a school board meeting, televised on local public television. She noted that the score was the highest in the 12-year history of the exam.
True, but … in reality, the district has just made up for ground lost the last few years. In 2000, the district had a passing rate of 87 percent, which fell to 84 percent in 2001 and 83 percent in 2002. Since 1997, the passing rate among first-time test takers has remained relatively steady, between 83 and 88 percent.
Not to take away from Atlanta Public Schools and the teachers who work with their students and their writing skills, but success on the state’s writing test is not necessarily something to hold a pep rally over.
Statewide, 94 percent of juniors breezed through the writing test on the first try. In Fulton County, 96 percent passed. In DeKalb County, 91 percent passed. In other words, this test is not exactly a brain twister. It’s designed to determine whether students have the writing skills needed to focus on a topic and develop ideas in a persuasive essay.
Not that writing skills aren’t important. Starting this spring, the SAT will add an essay component.
(Paul Donsky, our Atlanta Public Schools reporter, contributed to this blog entry.)
Do you have a question about education? Ask Get Schooled. We’ll try to track down the answer. Just e-mail me or post your question as a comment.
Comments
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By Meagan Batdorff
January 19, 2005 10:32 AM | Link to this
Hi Patti, A collegaue of mine e-mailed me the link to this site - this is great! I have a questions regarding school funding.
I am working on an 18-state School Finance Project funded by the Gates and Walton Foundations. We are tracking revenues as they follow a student to either a charter school or traditional school. Unfortunately, due to the state’s required reporting system, we cannot determine how much revenue charter schools generate in the state versus traditional schools for a given year. So, in other words, the state has no idea how much money is paid out to charter schools in the state of GA versus traditional schools.
The Georgia Charter Schools Act of 1998 mandates that charter schools are funded on an equal basis as their district school conterparts. From the stories I’ve been reading, this doesn’t seem to be the realistic case for most charter schools.
What is the current climate like surrounding School Funding in Georgia? Are changes to the system anticipated. Is equity and adequacy percieved to be a problem statewide?
Thanks, Meagan
By Anita DeRouen
January 19, 2005 11:12 AM | Link to this
Very interesting and very, very real. Thanks for the commentary on test scores and for helping to develop our reading skills as a public.
A question: What has become of the E-rate “scandal” with the Atlanta Public School system? Any updates?
By Angie
January 19, 2005 03:30 PM | Link to this
Hi. Awesome “blog” idea. My husband and I are moving to the Cumming area with our school aged children very soon. We are leaving the Paulding County School District…a system that does only what it must, never going above and beyond for their students. My question is in regards to the Forsyth County Schools. How much of their curriculum(in the elementary schools) is dedicated to art, music, language, etc…? What is the student/teacher ratio? And finally, what is the percentage of gifted students in the system? Our daughter has been in the gifted programs for 2 years in our current school system. And our hope is that she will get even more benefit from this new school district. Thank you very much for this forum…just great!
By Cindy Cupp
January 20, 2005 08:18 AM | Link to this
My friend, Brenda Schulz, is the new Curriculum Director in Forsyth County. Brenda is an outstanding educator and dedicated parent. Call her at the Forsyth County Board of Education. She will be able to answer all your questions. Brenda’s answers are always accurate. Cindy Cupp
By Cindy Cupp
January 20, 2005 08:22 AM | Link to this
Patti Ghezzi, I tried to send a message to the parent in Forsyth County….but, I do not know if it went through. Would you please check this for me. Cindy Cupp
By Richard Terry
January 20, 2005 11:52 AM | Link to this
Hi Patti,
Do you know if there is any research that talks about the relationship between spending on education and student/school performance? Is there a positive correlation? I have begun reading The Worm in the Apple by Peter Brimelow, and he argues that our government run school consumes an increasing amount of resources with negligible improvement in output.
I’d also like to know the average percentage of a city’s budget goes to education. This question was prompted by this article in the San Francisco Chronicle: Getting our Money’s Worth in Public Education Are we buying our McStudent lie?. Robert Freeman, the author of the article, says that we aren’t spending enough on education to get the results we expect. It seems to me that we’re spending a lot and not getting the results we expect.
I have other questions, but I’ll spread them out a bit so I don’t overwhelm you. 8^) I’m glad you started this blog. I enjoy reading it.