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SAA Concerns About Accountability Bill
By Wisconsin School Administrators Alliance staff | January 7, 2015
The SAA has completed some initial analysis of the Assembly accountability bill and we have the following concerns:
Process
Even though the SAA had strong representation on the state’s Accountability Design Team, we were not included in the discussions surrounding the development of this bill. What’s more, we are not aware of any K-12 groups that were involved in these discussions.
Grades
The bill draft abandons the performance categories established by the Accountability Design Team and replaces them with politically charged A-F letter grades. Currently, schools whose performance data fall in the middle of the distribution “meet expectations”. Relabeling those schools as “C” schools will negatively impact the public’s perception given that most see a “C” as underperforming. If the objective is to increase the public’s understanding of how schools are performing, then grades are an inadequate means of meeting that objective.
Academic Review Board
This unelected, unaccountable board is not created in an advisory capacity to the State Superintendent. Rather, the bill grants this board what looks to be unconstitutional decision making authority that will have significant impact on the local schools.
Assessments
The bill allows schools to use one of three (to be determined) assessments for accountability purposes. Multiple tests reduce validity, transparency and accuracy – presenting significant problems for high stakes accountability. Brad Carl, Associate Director of the Value-Added Research Center, said in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that, while technically possible, using multiple tests would not be the most reliable way of comparing the performance of different schools.
Sanctions
Unfortunately, the focus of the bill’s sanctions provision seems to be on punishment and not on providing evidence-based interventions and supports that will help low-performing schools improve student achievement. In the Step II Sanctions, the bill seems to create a back-door privately-run charter school factory. Among other things, this is not a viable solution for small rural districts and it was a source of major contention at the end of last session.
Where’s the Evidence?
We believe there is little, if any, evidence to suggest that the provisions of this proposal will move the needle for kids in a positive way. In fact, if our objective is to improve academic achievement for all students and close large and persistent achievement gaps, this bill will not move us in that direction.
The SAA will continue its analysis of the bill and keep the membership informed of new developments. We anticipate that the Assembly Education Committee will hold a hearing on the bill next week. The SAA will likely issue a legislative alert on the bill yet this week. Stay tuned.
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