This new state Department of Education ranking will be used to divy up $39.5 million in special funding for needy school districts. We will be hearing a lot about the District Performance Index (DPI), which is based on a school system’s scores from the Connecticut Mastery Tests. (That’s the column to the right.) It’s interesting to note that the huge amounts of additional state aid that have poured into Hartford over the last 15 years haven’t moved the district much of the bottom. The problem is poverty.
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14 Responses to New School Ranking, a.k.a. Poverty Index
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Why is it the “worst” schools have the best football teams? When I first read this, I thought it was a top 20 ranking for next year’s football teams. Coincidence or are they spending more on extra-curricular activities than the classroom? Something to think about.
Poverty is a symptom of the underlying problems. Like subsidized school lunches its merely a proxy for dysfunction and risk. The 60s mantra was “feed the kids and give then all day Kindergarten and it will solve all disparities”.
Money won’t solve the underlying problems. All day integrated schools don’t replace the nurturing and encouragement and expectations of a good home and evenings with social peers with social aspirations that include college and fitting into the system.
Money doesn’t solve the advantage of younger kids attuned to English at an early age who are encouraged to read.
Give a poor man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach him how to fish he eats for the rest if his life.
Or you could just move to CT and the bleeding heart liberals will take care of you cradle to grave.
Now if we can figure out a way to blame the poverty on teachers, we’ll be all set.
@ Paul…how about we pull an Obama and blame it on Bush, Republican teachers, and anyone who’s successful?
I thought Adamowski reformed Hartford and that’s why he was given the special master title in Windham.
Vallas reformed Chicago a few years ago, but now it is being reformed again. These reformers reforms do not reform for very long, but they still carpet bag from city to city.
Can we blame that on the teachers, too?
No Linda. No. . Teachers stay put when they carpet bag. They let their union racketeers do it for them. That’s why they get paid less.
Teachers are mere mortals. Not Special Masters. Adamowksi raised test scores for Hartford with a wave of his administrative wand. As far as government is ooncerned those test scores are higher.
There is a valid issue here. Assuming Adamowski’s method of counting is allowable (I’m sure it is), doesn’t it pay to have a superintendent that knows the accounting tricks. Someone street savvy so to speak. CFOs get paid for this very reason. Making a company more profitable simply by reporting things ‘properly’ and properly leveraging the assets and credit markets.
Or course in Malloy’s ‘Race to the Bottom’ to push state aid into cities to hire their own Superman, a Malloy approved Special Master, the rules may change a bit when the lowest scores count and money is involved.
Hey Rick…Where’s the blog on how Vallas just proclaimed that, “I have always been critical of annual state tests that are high stake, that are too narrow, that are administered too early and that produce data that is dated by the end of any given school year. Connecticut’s assessment system has all of those shortcomings. It is unfair to both teachers and students.” Aren’t these the same tests the “reformers” want to assess teachers by? Where’s the courant story on that? Oh yeah, you guys are “affiliated” with Faux “News”. That’s why your reporting is so fair and ballanced.
There’s no story in what Vallas said unless its being excerpted and spun. All point-in-time testing has its problems and can be misused and overdone.
Jon Pelto for example fails to mention that all teachers are at the same disadvantage with March testing. Comparisons between teachers are then in fact valid as they are all subject to the same test cycle.
Remediation students take Summer School and are often passed without being retested until the next March. That is one of the failures of CTs Mastery Tests. They aren’t given on demand and learning issues still get passed upstream.
Will this change? Will they become subject area tests divided in 4 parts? The NY Regesnt exams are often cited as an example–others hate their all or nothing approach and would prefer quarterly subject area exams available on demand so remediation and retention could be decided on a quarterly basis.
There is a HUGE story on what Vallas said. The “reformers” focus so much on these tests and try to base teacher performance on them. If they are no good, we shouldn’t be wasing so much money, time, and effort on them. Also, if they are so bad, why isn’t there a story on Vallas wasting money on more tests at the end of the school year when the district is in financial trouble?
I want to say again that I wonder if you are actually Rick Green posting as someone else to support yourself.
I will give Rick credit in this article. He actually stated what the problem is. It’s poverty. No amount of testing will change that
Even among teachers who teach the impoverished there are those who routinely perform better than others.
It’s critical comparisons be made across like demographic groupings.
I don’t really understand your posts. Are you against all public schools and their teachers? What is your main concern? Can you tell me succinctly?
Whenever there’s a problem throw money at it
Liberals tell us it’s sure to be a hit
Government check coming on the first
Always dries up the thirst
To save our country we must vote for an American named Mitt
Go crawl back under your rock.