Today, the Mississippi Department of Education released its “report cards” for the state’s schools and school districts for the 2015-16 school year.
For years, those who follow K-12 education in our state look forward to these assessments to determine the state of our educational system. Even those who put great stock in the scores do not assume they render an all-encompassing verdict, but a snapshot of where schools are and where they might be headed.
But in recent years, the value of these assessments are dubious. This assessment marks the third year in a row that scoring has been compiled by a different set of standards. Because of that, there is no real way to determine what progress — or regress — has been made in any of our schools or school districts. It’s not just a matter of comparing apples to oranges: It’s comparing apples to oranges to bananas.
The letter grades our local school districts were awarded for 2015-16 is largely unchanged from the previous year. What does that really say? It’s all guess-work.
What we do know about this latest assessment is that it was designed not to measure our schools’ success or failure, but rather, their progress. As a result, some schools that grade well — say an A or a B — may not have attained a comparable grade when it comes to their achievement. Others which may be succeeding, may see a lower grade because the margin for improvement or progress is much smaller as student achievement reaches a high level.
While there remains some useful information in this assessment, making a year-to-year comparison is a fruitless exercise.
One thing that should be obvious, however, is not found in the data.
When you have three different assessments in as many years, it’s a clear indicator that our state’s educational system has been politicized. Each time the assessment is changed it means months of retraining for our teachers, taking time away from their mission to appease the latest political whim of a group of elected officials who haven’t darkened a classroom door in decades. Silly, pointless fights over Common Core have a real negative effect on our classrooms.
Elected officials say they want to help teachers. They could start by resisting the temptation to interfere in areas they know nothing about.
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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