1. Welcome to Seminar I
Please help yourself to some of the refreshments provided and take a seat!

2. The Government’s Role in Accountability
Tess DeRocher, Lindsey Landgrover,
Erin Moore, and Madeline Respeliers

3. Seminar Goals Contribute meaningfully to the Seminar
Examine their own biases regarding NCLB
Be able to articulate some of the facts of the history of educational accountability
Be able to demonstrate understanding of the current status of educational accountability: NCLB
Be able to critique No Child Left Behind based on credible acknowledgments of student needs.
Will be able to articulate some currently proposed alternatives to No Child Left Behind.
Be able to formulate a position on where American accountability should go in the future.
To meaningfully add to the small group discussions and contribute to the group’s thoughtful proposal of a solution to the current state of educational accountability.

4. Educational Accountability
For the purpose of this presentation, what is the definition of accountability?
Definition: The answerability of educational institutions to multiple stakeholders for the quality of their performance.

5. History of Educational Accountability in America
History of Assessment
History of Legislation

6. Theories of Assessment
1930s: Beginning Testing Theories
Achievement testing
Performance testing
IQ testing
1950s: Criterion-Referenced Testing
1970s: Minimum Competency Testing
1990s: Performance Testing

7. The Legislation of Accountability
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)1965
Improving America’s School Act (IASA)1994
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) 2001

8. Present Day
What is reality of accountability now?

9. No Child Left Behind: Proposal
Goals
Closing the achievement gap for disadvantaged students
Improving literacy by putting reading first
Improving teacher quality
Improving math and science instruction
Promoting parental options
100% proficiency by 2014
Goals Closing the achievement gap for disadvantaged students -  annual testing with rewards for schools who narrow achievement gap and corrective action for low-performing schools and districts -  Expects yearly progress for disadvantaged students as well as overall student population Improving literacy by putting reading first -  More federal funds into programs focused on effective early childhood reading programs Improving teacher quality Improving math and science instruction Promoting parental options

10. Mixed Success Grade 4 math proficiency increased by 27%
Grade 8 math proficiency increased as well (to a somewhat lesser extent)
No consistent evidence that NCLB influenced reading achievement
Compared to goal of 100% proficiency, improvements in 4th grade math scores are modest.
More than 60% of 4th graders still fail to meet the math proficiency standard
"results suggest that the achievement consequences of NCLB are decidedly mixed. Specifically, we find that the new school accountability systems brought about by NCLB generated large and broad gains in the math achievement of fourth graders and, to a somewhat lesser extent, eighth graders. However, we find no consistent evidence that NCLB influenced the reading achievement of fourth graders. The evidence of substantial and almost universal gains in fourth-grade math achievement is undoubtedly good news for advocates of NCLB and school accountability. On the other hand, critics of NCLB can point to the lack of similarly robust effects on reading and the reform’s limited contributions to reducing achievement gaps. Similarly, NCLB’s contributions to math achievement appear more modest when benchmarked to the legislation’s ambitious requirement of universal proficiency by For example, NCLB increased grade 4 math proficiency by nearly 27 percent. Nonetheless, more than 60 percent of fourth graders still fail to meet the math proficiency standard defined by NAEP."
The Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management published a study on the effect of NCLB on Student Achievement in 2011

11. Moving forward in federal policy on education, what can we learn from NCLB?
What did NCLB get right?
Where did NCLB go wrong?
We will now turn to our small groups for a brief discussion of these questions. Please wait for a seminar leader to join your table.
The Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management published a study on the effect of NCLB on Student Achievement in Found that there has been overall improvement in math scores, but no significant change in the achievement gap and no significant change in reading scores. “This study presents evidence on whether NCLB has influenced student achievement based on an analysis of state-level panel data on student test scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The impact of NCLB is identified using a comparative interrupted time series analysis that relies on comparisons of the test-score changes across states that already had school accountability policies in place prior to NCLB and those that did not. Our results indicate that NCLB generated statistically significant increases in the average math performance of fourth graders … as well as improvements at the lower and top percentiles. There is also evidence of improvements in eighth-grade math achievement, particularly among traditionally low-achieving groups and at the lower percentiles. However, we find no evidence that NCLB increased fourth-grade reading achievement.”

12. Diversity: Our Greatest Problem and Our Biggest Strength
Difficult to standardize and equalize our educational system because of inter-school and inter-district variation.
Difficult to hold teachers accountable for meeting the diverse needs of students: ELL, Gifted, Special Ed
Difficult to measure outputs when the inputs are so different.
No two learners are the same.
Nations outscoring America on testing are less creative and innovative.
Are we focusing on the right goals in education?

13. Does our current accountability system support our goals?
Excellence for All states that a danger of over-reliance on the current model of accountability is that students are “valued only to the extent that they raise the average scores.”
Is the primary goal good numbers or good students?
Do good numbers necessarily equal good students?
If we push exclusively for good numbers, are we missing the point?
“If we return to education rather than test preparation. . .”
Educational Excellence must go beyond the 3 R’s.
Are we testing for the right things?
"If we return to education rather than test preparation, we may find that students improve in both the first three Rs and the other three Rs. We must not just concentrate on the top, bottom, middle, or statistical average of the distribution. We must concentrate on all students and teach them how to be active, productive citizens in a rapidly changing world."
Not only Reading, 'Riting, and 'Rithmetic but also Reasoning, Resilience, and Responsibility.
"They will tell you they cannot slow down because they must cover content, yet it is not clear why." -- "Assessing Student Performance," p. 276
Authentic Assessment suffers

14. Is the problem the medium
Is the problem the medium? Does our accountability system support our goals?
Standardized Tests require over-simplification of content which then seeps into teaching and ergo assessment.
"For example, at least one classroom-based outcome of standards-based initiatives in the 1970s was that academic standards were lowered to focus on basic skills, as measured by standardized tests. Higher order thinking and application skills were not emphasized in most curricula because standardized tests are poor measures of these domains."
Agree or disagree? Why?
We will now turn to our small groups for a brief discussion of these questions. Please wait for a seminar leader to join your table.

15. Is the problem only in our execution? A good system ill-applied?
Over-reliance on the medium
"Part of the problem is that we're only using one test. The stakes are too high to just use one test." - Mrs. Khirallah
Follow-through
Accountability only good if you provide incentives to break ineffectual educational habits.
Prevalent assumption that people will want to do the right thing.
School change is "cumbersome, complex, and prone to discord.”

16. Obama’s “Race to the Top”
Assessments should measure student achievement and student growth
“Race to the Top” enabled 18 states and the District of Columbia to receive funding and 46 states to initiate reform
New tests assess based on Common Core Standards

17. Romney’s “A Chance for Every Child”
“[Romney] will work closely with Congress to strengthen NCLB by reducing federal micromanagement while redoubling efforts to provide transparency and accountability.”
Against the Common Core
States will design their own test but have a standardized grading system
Report cards for school achievement

18. The Future of Assessment
Former senator of Florida Jeb Bush implemented the Florida Formula for Student Achievement, a successful education reform, based on 6 pillars:
1) A-F grading scale based on standardized test scores
2) High-stakes testing
3) Grade expectations for advancement
4) Paying teachers based on student performance
5) New credential methods for teachers
6)School Choice
From 1998 to 2009, the number of 4th grade students who scored basic or above on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) increased from 53% to 73%.

19. What should accountability ideally be?
In the wake of No Child Left Behind, what is the best way to hold America accountable for the education of its young while still preserving the diversity which makes it strong?
We will now turn to our final discussion. Please turn to the back side of your rubric and wait for the seminar leaders to join your tables.
In the absence of these ideals, testing thrives.

20. Post Assessment