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

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

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 • 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.

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?

14. 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.

20. Post Assessment http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/C3WF3FZ