What is school excellence? Is it the same for everyone?

Gary Stoner, Ph.D.University of Massachusetts AmherstPresented at the APA Education Leadership Conference, September 2006

Time/Grade/Age

Lo

Hi

The purpose of education/schooling as the promotion of healthy development

Source: Deno, S. L. (2002). Problem solving as “best practice”. In A. Thomas, & J. Grimes (Eds.), Best practices in school psychology IV (pp. 37-56). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

Some concerns about AYP: Accuracy of classification vis-à-vis instructional effectiveness

Potential misconceptions Appears to ignore disparities in prevalence rates of risk and protective factors

Limited single-level monitoring (school building, year to year)

Accuracy of classification

True negative

False positive (error)

False negative (error)

True positive

Met AYP Did not meet AYPAYP Determination

Does not need improvement

Needs improvement

Hebbler, S. (2004). Some threats to validity in AYP models under NCLB. Office of Research and Statistics, Mississippi DOE.

Instruction

al e

ffective

ne

ss

Potential misconceptions AYP measures the progress of students (Actually, the AYP forumula does not track the same group of students over time).

Making AYP means that students in the school are progressing at a rate you would expect and desire (Actually, AYP does not measure individual progress; neither does AYP consider a school’s initial starting point--so school progress also is a tenuous inference)

Source: American Federation of Teachers position statement

Risk and protective factors Child (difficult temperament/social competence)

Family (father absence/supportive relationship with other adult)

School (inadequate behavior mgmt./positive school climate)

Community/cultural (SES disadvantage/strong cultural identity and ethnic pride)Source: Walker, H. M., & Shinn, M.R. (2002). Structuring school-based interventions to

achieve integrated primary, secondary,and tertiary prevention goals. In Shinn, M. R., Walker, H. M., & Stoner, G. (Eds.), Interventions for academic and behavior problems II: Preventive and remedial approaches (pp 1-25). Bethesda, MD: National Association of School Psychologists.

Single-level monitoring AYP is a snapshot of annual school wide averages relative to pre-set achievement goals

That is, the question that can be answered is: How does the 2006 class of 4th graders in Superior Elementary School, compare with the 4th Graders of 2005 and 2004 at Superior Elementary School, relative to the State Standards?

From Fuchs, L.S., & Fuchs, D. (2004). Determining Adequate Yearly Progress from Kindergarten through Grade 6 with CBM. Assessment for effective intervention, 29, 25-37.

How could AYP be improved? Establish multiple indicators of instructional excellence (allocated and engaged time; use of evidence-based curricula and instructional strategies)

Establish accuracy (and error rates) of AYP classifications

Incorporate multi-level monitoring (e.g., CBM model)

Is school excellence the same for everyone? If by everyone, we mean each student, then the answer appears too be…

No; in the AYP formulation excellence is not about individual students, and individual rates of progress in learning and achievement over time

Further, the absence of consideration of starting points, individual student progress, and explicit teaching-learning relations mitigates against school excellence being the same for all