Thursday, October 31, 2013

Miss. public schools' ratings system impossible to understand

How are Mississippi's public schools and school districts rated? By something called the state “Accountability Model,” and for most normal human beings, this model is confusing to the point of being laughable.

Measuring by college readiness, Mississippi's public educated students rank lowest in the nation. This is one of a series of posts exploring instances of inflated school ratings within Mississippi's state-run ratings system. The Mississippi Department of Education has mislead taxpayers with false information about the quality of the state's public schools.

The Mississippi Board of Education maintains educational standards in the state of Mississippi. A separate office overseen by the Board, called the Office of Educational Accountability, is supposed to serve as a watchdog over the Department of Education, which is lead by the State Superintendent of Education. With these two entities (the Board and the Office of Educational Accountability) lies the responsibility of holding schools accountable to state academic standards.

 
The Office of Educational Accountability administers the Accountability Model, a formula designed to assess school performance. The Accountability Model assesses three areas: academic achievement, growth, and high school graduation rates. These three elements combine in a series of complex equations to determine school ratings.

Most school superintendents, principals, and teachers do not understand the way these three factors are assessed and weighted to evaluate their classrooms and schools, even though their livelihoods depend on their performance per the model. 

Here is a graphic from a 2012 Mississippi Department of Education document explaining the Accountability Model:



Are you confused yet? 

The Model's Quality Distribution Index (QDI) portion, which measures achievement, alone is challenging. Its formula is:

(Not to mention the Accountability Model factors in a number of tests:
Mississippi Curriculum Test, Second Edition (MCT2) Grades 3-8 Language Arts and Math; Subject Area Testing Program, Second Edition (SATP2) which includes Algebra I, Biology I, English II Multiple Choice, and U.S. History; Mississippi Science Test (MST) Grades 5 and 8; and Alternate Assessment (MAAECF) Language Arts, Math, and Science Grades 5, 8, and 12.)


Even the graduation component, which sounds like it might be pretty straightforward, gets confusing, as various student statuses are weighted differently for the High School Completion Index (HSCI) score:


State school Board member Bill Jones said in a September 2011 meeting: “Well, our accountability model might in theory be a good model, if we knew what the model was. But without anybody knowing what the model is, it's subject to, one, deception and manipulation and paying for political favors.”


See the Oct. 28 post, "Surprise: Cronyism and fraud in education," for the transcript and audio recording of that meeting. 
Amy McCullough is a freelance journalist who has donated this material to Jackson Jambalaya in memory of Charlie Evers, who passed away on Aug. 26, 2013.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

um, don't you think that this mumbo-jumbo is intentional? It is real sad to see (in my lifetime)the total collapse of the public school system. It makes me mad on the other hand that I am FORCED to pay for it...and the very people that ran it into the ditch think things are just fine.... disgusting.

Anonymous said...

I would not send my cats to a public school. It irritates me that my tax dollars go to these schools. Actually I'm still trying to figure out why I pay school taxes as I do not have nor have I ever had a child in a public school. Even when I graduated in 1974 JPS was starting to suck big time.

Anonymous said...

Good post, Amy. Goes in hand with post KF had done when charter schools and public schools were being discussed. The mapping of where-the-money-goes is dumbfounding.

PittPanther said...

I agree that I would not send my kids to most public schools in MS. However I wouldn't send my kids to most Private schools in MS either. There are so many crappy, tin-shack private schools in this state that think by slapping the word "Academy" on their title, it makes them a good school.

How exactly are Private schools rated?

Anonymous said...

"How exactly are Private schools rated?"

In the case of St. Andrew's, 18th in the nation. Thanks for asking :-)

Col. Reb Sez said...

Just to follow up on what Anonymous said, 18 percent of St. Andrews students were National Merit semifinalists this year. That's the highest percentage in the state and I dare say one of the highest percentages of any school in the nation.

It's easier to qualify for NM semifinalist in Mississippi than in most states, but this is still an unbelievable performance. I think that there were 136 NM semifinalists in Mississippi, so 13 percent of the state's NM semifinalists come from St. Andrews.

Anonymous said...

For private schools, I believe MAIS also does academic accreditation in addition to the sports stuff. For private schools that are not MAIS, there are other accreditation groups, like Southern Association of Independent Schools. Some of these accreditations are rigorous, and some are not. I don't know for sure, but I would assume there are some private schools in Mississippi that have no accreditation.


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In the spirit of helping those who are less fortunate, Trollfest '09 adopts a cause for which a portion of the proceeds and donations will be donated: Keeping Frank Melton in his home. The “Keep Frank Melton From Being Homeless” booth will sell chances for five dollars to pin the tail on the jackass. John Reeves has graciously volunteered to be the jackass for this honorable excursion into saving Frank's ass. What's an ass between two friends after all? If Mr. Reeves is unable to um, perform, Speaker Billy McCoy has also volunteered as when the word “jackass” was mentioned he immediately ran as fast as he could to sign up.


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This is definitely a Beaver production.


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There will be a hugging booth where in exchange for your young son, Frank Melton will give you a loooong hug. Trollfest will have a dunking booth where Muhammed the terrorist will curse you to Allah as you try to hit a target that will drop him into a vat of pig grease. However, in the true spirit of Separate But Equal, Don Imus and someone from NE Jackson will also sit in the dunking booth for an equal amount of time. Tom Head will give a reading for two hours on why he can't figure out who the hell he is. Cliff Cargill will give lessons with his .80 caliber desert eagle, using Frank Melton photos as targets. Tackleberry will be on hand for an autograph session. KIM Waaaaaade will be passing out free titles and deeds to crackhouses formerly owned by The Wood Street Players.

If you get tired come relax at the Fox News Tent. To gain admittance to the VIP section, bring either your Republican Party ID card or a Rebel Flag. Bringing both will entitle you to free drinks.Get your tickets now. Since this is an event for trolls, no ID is required, just bring the hate. Bring the family, Trollfest '07 is for EVERYONE!!!

This is definitely a Beaver production.

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