Officially, the “evaluation rubric” adopted by the State Board of Education this month is “an accountability system designed to help all schools continuously improve.”
But by grading schools that serve California’s 6-plus million K-12 students on “10 areas critical to student performance,” the system – whose precise details are yet to emerge – moves away from traditional academic standards into fuzzier areas. And that will likely make it more difficult for parents and the larger public to determine what’s really happening, or not, in the classroom.
Assemblywoman Shirley Weber, D-San Diego, articulated concerns among civil rights and education reform advocates to the board prior to its unanimous vote.
“Even recognizing that some progress has occurred regarding multiple measures,” Weber said, “I do believe that the accountability system needs to significantly focus on academic achievement, academic growth and closing achievement gaps.”
Weber has done more than talk about focused accountability. She’s authored a bill, which passed both legislative houses without a single dissenting vote, to require it.
Assembly Bill 2548, now awaiting Gov. Jerry Brown’s signature (unlikely) or veto (more likely) would embrace “multiple measures” but put more emphasis on academic achievement and comply with a new federal school law that requires low-performing schools to be identified.
Brown, taking his cue from Michael Kirst, the state school board’s president, championed an overhaul of school finance that gives districts with large numbers of poor or “English-learner” students extra money to raise their academic performances and close the “achievement gap” to which Weber refers.
Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/politics-columns-blogs/dan-walters/article102502522.html#storylink=cpy
View Article