GRIEGO: 'Moving from snapshot to photo album' at DPS

By Tina Griego, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 14, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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I've never believed the CSAP test alone, as a static measure, tells you much about how well a school is doing. It tells you that on a given day, of the students who took the state standardized test, this is how many were proficient for their grade level in reading, writing and math.

Is that of value? Absolutely. But we have extrapolated universes of assumptions about our schools from that single snapshot.

Now, as Debbie Lanman, interim principal of Skinner Middle School puts it, Denver Public Schools "is moving from a single snapshot to a photo album."

That's a good way to put it. The district is embarking upon a new way to measure how its schools are working. It's a more complex look, emphasizing student progress from year to year with points for growth. Last week's rollout already is reinforcing some of what we know - it's in middle school that minority kids from lower-income households start the academic nose dive - while challenging some preconceived notions about how we define "good" schools.

Take Skinner. It's been struggling a while now. Enrollment is dropping; classrooms stand empty. By the old measures, that is, how well students did on the CSAP in a single year, the academic picture is grim. The state rated its performance as "low" last school year; the percentage of its students testing at grade level is lower than the district average and much lower than the state's.

View it through the new lens of growth and you will see more clearly not only how much work must be done, but where some efforts should be focused. Also coming into view are the areas where the school is finding some success. Its brightest spot? Skinner students showed equal or more growth in math than students at other district schools with similar high- poverty, high-minority populations.

If this system works the way it should, a math teacher in a school showing less growth is about to dial Skinner and say, "Hey, what are you doing over there that we should be doing here?"

The old measures are not going away. The percentage of students proficient in core subjects will still count in the district's ratings of its schools. But the percentage of students whose scores went up - or down - year after year will carry more weight.

The key lies in the questions triggered by the data. It's not only a matter of: Where are our students now? Can they read at grade level?

But: Where have our students been? Did they show any improvement over the last two, three years? Where are they losing ground? How are they doing compared with students statewide? How is my school doing compared with other schools like it?

"The question is, 'Are we are adding value every single year?' " Chief Academic Officer Jaime Aquino says.

This first score card, released last week, is considered a work in progress. The CSAP is its backbone. Though there are other measures, including school attendance, graduation rate and ACT scores, growth will be based largely upon state standardized test scores.

This is not likely to make any happier those who despise the CSAP, believing it has caused more harm than good. And there remains the junk-in-junk-out problem. The test is of little import and consequence to so many middle and high schools students that this year Manual High School, using private donations, resorted to paying students about $50 each to take it.

Still, this is a necessary evolution, this ability to track growth through time. I saw this on my recent trip to New Mexico, where until now the graduation rate - which should tell us how many students who started high school finished - instead has been calculated by comparing the number of seniors present on the 40th day of school to the number who graduate. Seriously.

I am an unrepentant data dweeb. The more we know, the better.

And so here you are, eager and curious parent, wanting to know how your school stacks up.

The schools' new score cards, now online at dpsk12.org., are not yet parent- friendly, the district warns. This is an understatement. They border on hostile.

Have you checked it out yet, I ask Brooke White, executive director of Northwest Parents for Excellent Schools. I just spent the last two days trying to figure it out, she says.

Other parents have questions for their principals, and judging from some of the conversations I've had, they aren't easy ones. "Why are we not doing as well as schools like ours and what are you doing about it," is the gist.

For now, the district says, the information online is intended primarily as a tool for principals and teachers. The score cards will be updated in September, when this year's CSAP data can be incorporated and actual ratings are assigned to schools. Between now and then, the district expects to hold community meetings to explain how the system works and what it means for schools.

In the meantime, take a couple aspirin as a pre-emptive strike and go online. Head to "School Performance Framework," and before you zoom straight to your school, print out a glossary and a "framework." You'll need them.

The way you've been looking at your school may be about to change.

griegot@RockyMountainNews.com

• April 15, 2008

  6:35 p.m.

  Suggest removal

  arby writes:

  Sad to say. But if you want your child to have a quality education these days you are going to have to fork over the money and sign him/her into a parochial or private school. The Public School system isn't cutting it.
  I was educated by DPS and had to edit this 3 times before releasing it. There are probably still errors.

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