Resources on Education Policy

The policies affecting the secondary schools of DCPS are posted in the pages in this section.

Currently under consideration are bills on Digital Equity, School Governance, School librarians, Naming of Wilson HS

In addition as the SBOE considers making changes to the STAR Framework, this is a timely article on consequences of the current federal policy to our ELL students. https://www.migrationpolicy.org/sites/default/files/publications/high-school-policies-els-2021_final.pdf

This is the power point on the areas that OSSE is proposing changes to the STAR framework. Below that are the answers to questions that we asked.

Below I have listed additional information and links to address your questions.

· How is proficiency determined and is it related to the cut scores?

Proficiency is set based on proficiency level scores as voted on by the SBOE when the statewide assessment was approved. The statewide assessment for ELA, Math, Alternate statewide assessment for ELA, Math, DC Science, and Alternate Assessment for Science are all then sent for approval to US Dept of Ed. USED does a thorough review of the assessment to ensure that the assessment as well as the performance levels set align with the federal requirements. Once an assessment has been approved it is permitted to be used for statewide accountability purposes. A state may not use an assessment that has not undergone been approved through that process.

For statewide assessments in ELA and Math the “proficiency” refers to the scale scores associated with Performance Levels 4 and above. For the Alternate Assessment in ELA and Math it is the scale score associated with Performance Level 3 and above.

· What is the current plan for measuring growth for math for high school? Are the tests content specific so that a student completing geometry would take that test and it would be compared with the results of a test on algebra? Also it is not longitudinal for students so this compared to the test scores of a whole group?

Our current plan is to calculate academic growth in HS using Median Growth Percentile (MGP) approach which is calculated based on Student Growth Percentiles (SGPs). This is consistent with one of the academic growth methodologies used currently in ES and MS. It is based on student level scores from one test to another. SGPs are generated to reflect how much a student grew from one test to another based on growth of students who scored similar to them on the first test in the growth measure. See this video at 1:35 – 2:45 section for a great explanation of how Median Growth Percentile is calculated (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLzItZvPaGsOlu5y247APXQRhLgo6ZjDEf )

Growth is calculated based on performance from one test to another, this would mean HS growth could be generated by growth of some students from 8^th grade ELA to ELA I or ELA I to ELA II. It could be calculated from 8^th grade Math to Alg I or from Alg I to Geometry since the HS assessments are end of course assessments and are not grade specific assessments.

· Do excused absences count as absences in the attendance metric?

The way Chronic Absenteeism is defined and required to be reported under federal requirements is as follows: students who are absent 10% or more of their enrolled school days. All measures of chronic absenteeism reflect the percentage of students in grades K-12 with absences on 10 percent or more of instructional days, inclusive of both excused and unexcused absences. Students who are enrolled for fewer than 10 instructional days are excluded.

Attendance Growth metric in the accountability framework is outlined in more detail on page 117 – 122 of the current technical guide