Latest news with #EducationalResultsPartnership
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Walters: New California school data project fulfills campaign promise Newsom made
Gavin Newsom can — and should — be faulted for making campaign promises six years ago that he must have known were impossible to achieve, such as his vows to create single-payer health care and build 3.5 million new housing units. When reminded of them after becoming governor, he dismissed them as 'aspirational,' a caveat he neglected to attach to his original pledges. Nevertheless, credit is due when one of his promises becomes reality, as it did this week when the state launched the beginnings of a long-needed system of tracking how the state's public school students fare in classrooms and later in life. The Cradle-to-Career project released its first batch of numbers, along with video tutorials on how to access the data. 'With the C2C Student Pathways Dashboard now live, Californians can visualize their futures by seeing disconnected data from across sectors and previously unavailable insights, all in one place,' Newsom said in a statement. 'The Golden State is once again leading the way in innovation, connecting our education system to the workforce to ensure everyone has the freedom to succeed.' However, not everyone in the rarified ranks of education researchers and reformers echoed Newsom's boasts. Alex Barrios, president of the Educational Results Partnership, a business-backed education policy coalition, complained that 'the dashboard fails to do what it promised. It doesn't represent the journeys of all students and how they navigate to and through careers. 'By following the career trajectories of only college graduates, it assumes the only path to success for students is through a four-year college degree,' Barrio alleges. The new data system should include all of the factors that Barrio's organization lists, but its criticism may be premature, since officials say they intend to expand the project's scope as rapidly as it can obtain data. Assuming that the project does widen its reach, C2C, as it's dubbed, not only will be a lasting accomplishment for Newsom, but it will fill a void that's existed far too long. Without reliable data on outcomes, the nation's largest school system operates in an accountability vacuum, which the education establishment seems to prefer. The state Department of Education has a 'dashboard' that purports to give parents, taxpayers and voters a picture of how well schools are doing their job. However, the current system is a mishmash of educational jargon that is difficult to decipher. It also skews the ratings in ways that minimize actual academic achievement, such as in reading, writing and mathematics, and elevates peripheral factors it calls 'multiple measures.' Thus, it downplays the fact that California's students fare very poorly vis-a-vis those in other states and the 'achievement gap' still broadly separates low-income and English-learner students from those with more privileged circumstances. Education reformers have long pushed for obtaining and publishing more objective and complete data, especially after former Gov. Jerry Brown and the Legislature overhauled school finance a decade ago to provide more funds to schools with substantial numbers of what were called 'at-risk' students. Better numbers would, the reformers said, provide a clearer understanding of whether Brown's Local Control Funding Formula was working. Brown, however, backed the education establishment's preference for getting the money without strict accountability for how it was spent and whether it was having a positive effect. He said he trusted that local school officials would spend the extra money wisely, calling it 'subsidiarity,' a secular version of an obscure religious principle. After Newsom succeeded Brown he quickly reversed that position and called for a comprehensive data system to track how students were faring during and after their journeys through the school system. The Legislature responded by authorizing the C2C system. CalMatters is a public interest journalism venture committed to explaining how California's state Capitol works and why it matters. This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Walters: New California school data site fulfills a Newsom promise made
Yahoo
27-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
IDEA Public Schools recognized as top performing schools in ERP's 'Honor Roll' list
Mar. 26—Educational Results Partnership (ERP), a non-profit organization that applies data science to accelerate student success, has released the 2024 Honor Roll list of Texas top performing schools. This is the 10th year that ERP has completed the Honor Roll, which recognizes top public schools, school districts and charter schools that have outperformed their peers in closing achievement gaps, particularly among higher-poverty and historically disadvantaged student populations. This year, out of 762 schools and 63 school districts in Texas, including IDEA Yukon College Preparatory. This is approximately 12 percent of eligible schools and 9 percent of eligible school districts in the state. The full list of Honor Roll schools is now posted at "We are honored to be recognized once again by ERP for our continued excellence in student achievement," Jeff Cottrill, CEO & Superintendent of IDEA Public Schools, said in a news release. "The distinction exhibits our dedication to our mission of ensuring that all students, regardless of background, have access to a high-quality education that prepares them for success in college and beyond." The designation is based on STAAR testing results provided by the TEA over the last four years. Schools and districts comprehensively performed above the mean at least 80 percent of the time for all cohorts of students served and for all grade levels served. The star ranking was given to schools and districts with greater than, or equal to 33 percent of students designated as socioeconomically disadvantaged. "The Honor Roll recognizes high-performing schools where students are learning the fundamental skills employers demand," Dan Kinney, ERP's Board Chair, said in the release. "ERP is proud to recognize these schools, and we want to learn about their best practices for teaching the fundamental skills of reading, writing and math." The program is part of a national effort to engage business leaders in recognizing successful schools and educational systems and promoting best practices that improve student outcomes. Honor Roll schools are recognized for demonstrating consistently higher levels of student achievement, improvement in achievement over time, and a reduction in achievement gaps among student populations. Click here to learn more about the methodology behind the selection of the 2024 Honor Roll schools and districts.
