The prominent educator Peter Relic was once asked by a reporter about participation in the U.S. News and World Report ranking program for high schools. He demurred and asked, “Do you have children?” The reporter said that he had three. Relic followed with, “Which of your children is the best?”
Ranking schools ”“ or assigning a single letter grade, as the LePage administration has done ”“ is an insincere, cynical political ploy. Politicians who beat the drum of “school accountability” believe that the essence of what great schools do can be captured in a single letter. Grades make a great infographic in the newspaper and a juicy soundbite on TV, but simple metrics like grades are lousy for all schools, whether it’s an F or an A.
A letter grade, of course, doesn’t capture the essence of what a school is, and who its people are. The most important things we do in schools simply can’t be measured.
When the Maine Department of Education announced its first round of school grades, the governor touted the grading system as common sense: “We need to put our kids first, at the front of the line. The only way that we can … assure that happens is to look at ourselves and be critical of that performance if we’re not top-notch,” he said.
School leaders around the state countered, branding the program “foolish” and “myopic.”
Recently, the DOE released its second round of report cards.
The letter grades assigned to secondary schools are based on students’ SAT scores, the growth (or atrophy) of those scores, graduation rates and participation rates in the Maine State High School Assessment. Not surprisingly, very small, well-funded schools and schools in wealthy communities tend to fare better than larger schools and poorer schools. Indeed, the results of the most recent Program of International Student Assessment (PISA) confirm what study after study has shown: There is a clear link between income and performance, whether in Maine or across the globe. This link is not considered in the DOE’s simple formula.
Scores of schools in Maine’s 16 counties are expected to overcome poverty and other factors that impact student achievement, lest we be shamed in the press for earning a poor letter grade. It’s understandable that the public wants accountability ”“ to see what their tax dollars yield ”“ but two-thirds of student achievement is the result of out-of-school factors (Education Week, Dec. 4, 2013). As Walt Gardiner points out, “teachers are not responsible for these conditions, and yet they are blamed when their students don’t measure up.”
What makes things worse: Maine ranks 36th for pre-K spending. Absent an adequately funded pre-K program, low-income students enter kindergarten 18 months behind, according to the National Institute for Early Education Research. These deficits are compounded year after year. Lawmakers and municipalities starve schools of resources and ask why our grades aren’t fatter.
Most Maine schools have an A+ faculty and staff. Teachers, administrators and support professionals in Maine schools work hard to grow and improve yearly, not because of mandate or statute or what a bureaucrat tells us is sound education policy, but because each and every one of us cares for kids, and want our schools to be the best they can possibly be.
Chris Indorf,
Saco
Comments are not available on this story.
Send questions/comments to the editors.
