Credit: Jane Meredith Adams/EdSource TodayIf you’ve got some time on your hands and a yearning for school district data, check out a new tool announced Monday by the California Department of Education that tracks how well districts and schools have done from 2012 to 2014 in three state priority areas: student achievement, student engagement and school climate.
While many educators broadly define achievement, engagement and school climate, the terms in the “State Priorities Snapshot” tool refer to selected data measurements used by districts.
Achievement is measured by five factors: progress for English learners; the number of students who complete the “a-g” course requirements for entrance to the University of California or the California State University; the number of students who score at least a 3 (out of a maximum of 5) on an Advanced Placement test; scores on college readiness assessments; and the number of students who have completed at least one career technical education pathway course.
Credit: California Department of Education
The chart shows what data is available by district, school, charter school and county office of education.
Student engagement is measured by middle and high school drop-out rates and graduation rates, while district climate is measured by the number and percentage of students suspended and expelled.
Enter the name of a district and the State Priorities Snapshot spits out numbers and charts with data for 2012, 2013 and 2014.
The State Priorities Snapshot is the latest tool on the California Department of Education webpage that provides reports about the state’s new education funding system, known as the Local Control Funding Formula. The funding formula, which became law under the 2013-14 Budget Act, gives districts the ability to set their own spending priorities. Districts receive a base grant and additional funds are provided for students with greater educational needs, defined as low-income, English learner and foster students.
Along with the priorities snapshot, the webpage has a “Funding Snapshot” that will show how much funding a district or charter school received in 2014-15 and what they are projected to receive when the funding formula is fully implemented, which is estimated to be in another five years.
The webpage also provides links to district spending plans, known as Local Control and Accountability Plans, for 1,003 districts, from the Alameda County Office of Education to Wheatland Union High School in Yuba County. The links are found in an Excel spreadsheet titled “2014–15 County Office of Education and School District LCAPs.” The Excel spreadsheet for all the districts will appear under a section called “LCAP Reports” after the name of a specific district is entered in the search bar.
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navigio 8 years ago8 years ago
I think it's a mistake to show results for EL EAP college readiness without some qualifier that makes it clear what that subgroup is. Most ELs become non-ELs before they get out of elementary. So the ELs that are still ELs when it comes time to test for college readiness (in high school) are only the ones who were never able to test out of the program. Thus, the college readiness rates for those remaining … Read More
I think it’s a mistake to show results for EL EAP college readiness without some qualifier that makes it clear what that subgroup is.
Most ELs become non-ELs before they get out of elementary. So the ELs that are still ELs when it comes time to test for college readiness (in high school) are only the ones who were never able to test out of the program.
Thus, the college readiness rates for those remaining students (in ELA) have hovered between 0% and 1% for a while (only slightly better in math). With not-ready rates near 100%. This of course does not mean ELs may not have previously done well. It’s just those that did are no longer ELs. This can be seen by looking at the RFEP rates, which are fairly close to overall state levels. But those are not included in these graphs (that might be a sufficient qualifier). This does not mean it’s not helpful to know that essentially no ELs (really LTELs) are even conditionally college ready, just that it’s not an accurate reflection of the makeup of the subgroup.
I also think state-level subgroup numbers should be included for comparison the way they are for non-subgroup measures.
Manuel 8 years ago8 years ago
Can someone comment on why most "success metrics" are high-school-centric? How can one tell if a middle or elementary school is "doing well?" Also, I noticed, but I did not check it, that the table given shows that charter schools LCAPs are not available. They are supposed to be considered as its own "Local Educational Agency" and are required to file one. Any idea why it isn't available? Read More
Can someone comment on why most “success metrics” are high-school-centric?
How can one tell if a middle or elementary school is “doing well?”
Also, I noticed, but I did not check it, that the table given shows that charter schools LCAPs are not available. They are supposed to be considered as its own “Local Educational Agency” and are required to file one. Any idea why it isn’t available?
Replies
navigio 8 years ago8 years ago
Because we don’t have summative test scores yet?
Parent 8 years ago8 years ago
"How can one tell if a middle or elementary school is "doing well?"" We can't, because the high school union teachers aren't about to rat out their middle school teacher brothers. This is why we can only rely on metrics for high schools - are they supplying college ready seniors? Read More
“How can one tell if a middle or elementary school is “doing well?””
We can’t, because the high school union teachers aren’t about to rat out their middle school teacher brothers.
This is why we can only rely on metrics for high schools – are they supplying college ready seniors?
FloydThursby1941 8 years ago8 years ago
So true. We could delay another year with a million meetings for everyone to input their opinion, and the union would still come up with a reason to oppose publishing the test scores as they did before.