Massachusetts Goes to a Value-Added Assessment

Mitchell Chester continues to innovate in Massachusetts. This week he introduced a type of value-added assessment system - the kind Kentucky should now be considering.

Oh by the way... he's the guy the Kentucky Board of Education should have hired instead of flirting with Barbara Erwin.

This from the Boston Globe:

Mass plans to track students' progress, not just scores

MALDEN—Each fall when the state releases MCAS scores, principals often blame a dip in scores on the students, tactfully arguing that the class in question was perhaps not as superb a group of mathematicians or voracious readers as their predecessors.

State education leaders plan to inject a reality check this fall into the "good class
vs bad class" debate by tracking the performance of individual students as they advance from one grade to the next. The new measurement could shed light on who is falling short -- teacher or pupil -- and lead to fundamental changes in the way students are taught.

Mitchell D. Chester, the state commissioner of elementary and secondary education, said yesterday that the new analysis will make it harder for local school leaders to be dismissive of poor test scores.

"It takes away a lot of the excuse-making," Chester said at yesterday's meeting of the state Board of Elementary and Secondary Education where the new system was unveiled.

Under the current system, the state judges a school's success by comparing its MCAS scores at each particular grade level to the scores posted by that grade the year before. The English and math MCAS tests are given in grades 3 through 8 and in grade 10.

Many teachers and adminstrators have chastized the approach as an apples-and-oranges comparison because the variation could simply reflect a class of particularly gifted or challenged students. The problem can be especially acute at small schools, where there are only a few dozen students at each grade level and the performance of a handful of students can create dramatic shifts.

Using the new tool, the state will augment that analysis by examining the performance of individual students or classes of students over the period of several years, starting in the third-grade.

The examination of current and past scores will allow them to predict students' likelihood for improvement in the future and assess whether they are on track to meet expectations. If a number of a students at a particular school are exceeding the statistical predictions, that could indicate that the administrators and teachers there have identified promising teaching methods. If a number of students are falling short of predictions, that would indicate there could be a problem...

Tougher NCLB Standards Challenge Top States

This from the Boston Globe:

Half of schools in Mass. fall short

Federal standards getting tougher

Half of all Massachusetts public schools this year failed to meet achievement standards established by the state under the No Child Left Behind Act.

That includes 100 of 143 public schools in Boston, according to a report released yesterday by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

The number of underachieving schools rose sharply from last year, when 37 percent failed to meet performance standards under the federal law.

Commissioner of Education Mitchell Chester said the schools aren't getting worse - federal guidelines are getting tougher...

Massachusetts Gets Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program

This from the Boston Globe:

Mass. gov. signs bill to expand pre-kindergarten

BOSTON—Gov. Deval Patrick has signed a bill designed to expand education programs for the youngest Massachusetts residents.

The bill signed Thursday establishes a Universal Pre-Kindergarten Program to help provide voluntary, universally accessible early education and care for preschool-aged children.

Patrick said the new law will help Massachusetts better prepare young children with a solid educational foundation before entering school.

The bill also includes a comprehensive overhaul of regulations setting health, safety and quality standards for all licensed pre-kindergarten programs.

An earlier version of the bill was passed by lawmakers in 2006 but vetoed by former Gov. Mitt Romney.

Mitchell Chester Goes to Massachusetts

Remember him?

He's Mitchell Chester.


Of the three original finalists named by the Kentucky Board of Education in April for the Commissioner's job, he's the one they should have hired, rather than going throught that whole mess with Barbara Erwin. The Board did avoid pursuing Richard La Pointe - who would have arguably been even worse.

But yesterday, the Massachusetts Board of Education hired Mitchell to be their new commissioner - the first out-of-stater since the 1980s. Massachusetts Board Chair Paul Reville said Chester's "national presence was a strong factor, but at the same time, he had the local experience that's very important to people in the field."

Massachusetts was the top state in the most recent round of NAEP testing but that only earned them a B on their Quality Counts report card. Even so, the typical problem for top performers is addressing the achievement gap - and that will be Chester's chore #1 in New England.

This from the Boston Globe: Photo by Tracy Jan Globe Staff/January 18, 2008:

New education chief facing a big test

Chester must address an achievement gap
between rich, poor

An Ohio education official with a national reputation for inspiring change beat out two other finalists for the top education post in Massachusetts, becoming the first out-of-stater to hold the job since 1986.

Mitchell Dan Chester said he is "not interested in coming to Massachusetts to manage the status quo."

Mitchell Dan Chester, senior associate state superintendent in Ohio, impressed the Massachusetts Board of Education by declaring in an earlier public interview, "I'm not interested in coming to Massachusetts to manage the status quo." ...

...Massachusetts routinely scores at the head of a list of states on national tests, but it also has one of the worst achievement gaps between poor and rich students in reading and math, said Chester, citing a recent national study. More than a third of public high school graduates attending Massachusetts public colleges must take remedial courses.

The state needs to address graduation requirements that are too lax to adequately prepare students for college, Chester said. He has called for extending the school year in underperforming, high-poverty schools and attracting top-notch teachers to those schools by paying them more.

"The gaps are large, and there's no reason why we shouldn't be doing a better job in the state of educating our poor and underrepresented populations," Chester said in a phone interview yesterday. "I'm very excited to be selected, to have the confidence of the state board. I'm looking forward to serving the students and educators of Massachusetts."