‘Unacceptable’ schools list swells

The number of public schools facing state sanctions rose by 33 percent this year amid tougher state standards, officials said Monday.

A total of 180 schools are listed as academically unacceptable, up from 135 last year, said Barry Landry, a spokesman for the state Department of Education.

The list represents 13 percent of public schools statewide.

Penny Dastugue, president of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, said the figures are actually encouraging.

Dastugue noted that 84 schools that were below the new, more rigorous standard last year improved enough to stay off the list this time.

“I think it is amazing,” she said.

Schools have to achieve minimum scores on performance evaluations to avoid state sanctions.

The minimum this time is 75 out of 200 points, up from 65 last year.

Backers of the higher standard said it would improve student performance.

Opponents said it is unfair to struggling school districts.

The scores are based mostly on test results, including LEAP, which fourth- and eighth-graders have to pass for promotion and iLEAP, another standardized test given to students in grades three, five, six and seven.

The list of troubled schools is usually released near the end of July because students generally have the option of transferring to higher-performing schools.

Schools on the list that fail to show sufficient gains can be taken over by the state after four years.

This year’s results were sent to school districts on Friday.

The number of schools listed as academically unacceptable typically shoots up when the minimum score is increased.

Last year 264 public schools scored below 75 compared to 180 this year.

Dastugue said one reason may stem from efforts by superintendents to improve letter grades, which are issued in October. “It proves once again that when you measure something it gets results,” she said.

Dastague said that roughly one in four public schools was within five points of a higher letter grade when the results were announced last year.

“Anecdotally a lot of superintendents have told me they put a new focus on those schools to try to move up their letter grade,” she said. “I think you are seeing the result of that.”

Dastugue also noted that BESE voted in 2010 to move the minimum score to 75 in 2012. “Because the bar has been out there for two years, they have known about it and rose to the challenge,” she said.

Officials with the state Department of Education typically issue a news release, or hold a news conference, to discuss the results.

Landry said neither is planned at this time.

Scott Norton, who was assistant state superintendent, used to play a key role in analyzing academically unacceptable schools.

Norton recently left the department for a job with the Council of Chief state School Officers in Washington, D.C.

Under state rules, schools face increasing sanctions each year that they are listed as academically unacceptable.

They are also required to offer new strategies aimed at improving academic achievement, including after-school tutoring.

The minimum score that schools had to achieve was 30 in 1999, when Louisiana’s school accountability program was launched.

It was raised to 45 in 2003, 60 in 2005 and 65 in 2011.

In response to questions the department said that, in 1999, 56 percent of schools statewide scored below 75 compared with 13 percent now.

Comments

1) Comment by iluvbtr - 31/07/2012

@Dr. Hammat--Thank you for your efforts to educate the readers of The Advocate on the real truths behind the so-called "reformers" agenda. Lord knows we can't rely on Baton Rouge media for investigative journalism. It's surprising to me that the Gannett papers in LA can get it done, while our local paper chooses to parrot the LDOE press releases.

2) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 31/07/2012

I have just discovered that writing these messages on my IPhone is a big, big mistake! Lol

3) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 31/07/2012

A point about percentages and standardized tests... When they try out sample test questions... And they find that some of the questions are answered.correctly by all of the test takers... Those questions are thrown out! So you can't use test scores or school performance scores and think of then in the way you think of tests you took that were made up by your teacher. The standardized tests are designed for different purposes.

4) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 31/07/2012

Scorn, I am chuckling here, because i have been pointing out to the media that they have done a horrible job of explaining how the accountability system works. The score you read about are a type of "scale scores" that bear little relationship to the "percentage" score you wrote about. Not even an apples to oranges comparison... More like apples to Zebras.

5) Comment by teacherguy - 31/07/2012

ScotB - what are the property values where these failing schools are? What are the crime rates on their streets? What are the free/reduced numbers of these school populations? What are the proportions of experienced, educated, and certified teachers in these failing school? The teachers and schools are not the ONLY unacceptable factors here...Mr. Hammatt is right that research should be grinding out of our universities on how to improve education...and it may have something to do with educating the adults in the neighborhoods around unacceptable schools.

6) Comment by ScotB - 31/07/2012

You can avoid being unacceptable with a score of 38%. Wow! On what planet do employers in the private sector find that acceptable? The bar is set high here in Louisiana, huh? Who are the people who say this is unfair to struggling districts? The kids that graduate from those schools have to go to work in the real world, where the bar is set to "get it done right a hell of lot more than 38% of the time or find another job".

7) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 31/07/2012

redstickhornet, no doctor here.... no PhD.... just an instructor when I taught at LSU... over 20 years I taught up there... and it is amazing how little that I hear about research being done at LSU to actually improve education, and to challenge the state's sorry accountability system. I remember when I would point out obvious problems with the accountability system the reformers would just point out that it got high ratings in a magazine! What a load of.... well, better not say that. You might notice that no one ever seems to go after my research or data, instead they just shift the argument to an anecdote, or an ad hominem. Oh well... I am still hoping that some organization out there looking for truth instead of orthodoxy or ideology will actually open up a venue for an intellectually honest discussion of what we need to do to improve education in this state.

8) Comment by teacherguy - 31/07/2012

Unacceptable schools = unacceptable teachers. Fire ALL the teachers in these unacceptable schools, give these schools to charter businesses, hire first year college grad TFA'ers, and hide next year's charter school results...only shutting down unacceptable public schools. Obvious formula for success!!! The governor/legislators can take credit for shutting down failing schools and getting rid of dead beat teachers, the parents are happy because they now have no idea where their children's charter school stands, and businesses will flock to Louisiana!!!! Just make sure you send those unacceptable teachers away on good terms, because in 5-10 years...the general public will want to do something about all those failing charters and look around to see even fewer "real" teachers around as us old geezers retire and the decent teachers in unacceptable schools have flown the coop! I'm happy to be in an acceptable school with fewer years left to go to retirement than I have behind me...and plans to retire in a state that hasn't gone down this educational path of destruction.

9) Comment by redstickhornet - 31/07/2012

Dr. Hammatt, some people in this state do not know what you are talking about. I do. If you were endorsed by DOE, some newspaper, or politician, things might be different. You keep analyzing these events, and the guy writing these stories just keeps going. I understand what you mean. I have read the NCLB waiver and I also notice that the school's attendance or dropout rate will no longer be a part of the school performance score and the letter grade. Our state's drop out rate was and still is very embarrassing. However, some current policies will look like they are succeeding anyway. One thing Buddy Roemer is saying is true: right now, no one has to leave the comfort zone of their extreme agendas. Why? Because very few people are held accountable for their extreme left and right agendas at the ballot box.

10) Comment by Noel Hammatt - 31/07/2012

Actually, the school performance scores mean nothing at all. That's right, they don't tell you ANYTHING about the quality of the teaching staff, the administration, or the policies of the school. If one looks carefully at the waiver the state received from the US Department of Education from the standards of No Child Left Behind you can expect significantly rising scores next year, which the "reformers" will then use to claim that, "See, the reforms are working!" The rise in scores will come because for the first time, schools will get credit for improving the scores of the lowest performing students, even if they don't reach the "bar." Now, who do you think that will effect the most? You got it... RSD schools, who consistently have the lowest scores in the state. Oh wait, that is if you look at absolute scores... but for some off reason, all the discussion by the reformers over the last few years has NOT focused on absolute scores or "School Performance Scores" but on their "percentage growth." President Obama used this method (which I then wrote about in a couple of articles at Harvard which were highlighted in the New York Times) to claim success for a "turnaround" school in Florida. Miami Central High had a 62% increase in math scores! WOW! That is incredible! Of course, they were still, in math, one of the lowest performing schools in the state. ANd they went down this year. Let's see how the RSD uses this method... You are the regular districts... and I am the RSD for this example. We both took the Science Test (it actually doesn't have any questions dealing with evolution, really) and you received an 80% and I received a 20%. Darn.... I am NOT going to talk about this. But wait... we take it the next year, and we both improve by 20 percentage points. You now have achieved 100% and I have achieved.... well, let me think about this. Here is the headline in The Advocate article by Will Sentell. RSD increases score by 100%! Local district only improved by 25%. See?

11) Comment by spqr - 31/07/2012

If we raise the bar to 100 then all the schools will fail. Couple that with lack of funding designed to squeeze what life is left in public schools then we can make them all charter schools and the state business elite can get even richer.

12) Comment by LawyerDan65 - 31/07/2012

The "bar" for public schools is 75 out of 200 (37.5%) while the "bar" set by BESE for the voucher schools is 50 out of 150 (33.3%)....why?

13) Comment by tradewinns - 31/07/2012

if we reduce the required "passing" score to 50, we wouldn't have all these failing schools.

14) Comment by lovemykids - 31/07/2012

I am so happy the voucher schools, students and parents don't have to worry about such numbers. Obviously those numbers don't mean anything to private and parochial schools.