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Gotta Give ‘Em Credit – State and District Variation in Credit Recovery Participation Rates

Quote from Article:

Credit recovery, or the practice of enabling high school students to retrieve credits from courses that they either failed or failed to complete, is at the crossroads of two big trends in education: the desire to move toward “competency based” education and a push to dramatically boost graduation rates. Balancing these competing demands is a challenge, but balance we must because, under ESSA, states are required to factor graduation rates into their high school accountability plans. That provides an unintended incentive for schools to play games with graduation requirements, which underscores the need to keep credit recovery from turning into a total end run around actual learning.

And…

Using newly released credit recovery data from the Office for Civil Rights and demographic data from the National Center for Education Statistics, the analysis generates results at the national, state, and local levels. Namely:

1. Most high schools have credit recovery programs, although they are far less common in charter schools.
2. While the presence of credit recovery programs is generally not related to school poverty levels, schools with many minority students are slightly more likely to have active programs.
3. Credit recovery programs are less common in smaller schools. The likelihood of having an active program climbs steadily as enrollment rises to 1,250 students.
4. In high schools with active credit recovery programs, an average of 8 percent of students participate. However, nearly one in ten schools enrolls 20 percent or more of its students.
5. Higher enrollment in credit recovery is more common in large and urban schools, as well as in charter schools and schools with higher proportions of poor and minority students.

We derive the following takeaways from these findings:

• Adopt the old adage of trust but verify. Until we have better data than are presently available, we shouldn’t assume that credit recovery programs are of high quality.
• Target the outliers. Districts and schools (both traditional and charter) with higher rates of students participating in credit recovery warrant scrutiny. The potential to abuse this kind of program is high—and highest when there’s no external check on students’ mastery of the material.
• Adopt the recommendations put forth by the report’s authors. This includes collecting additional data about credit recovery programs at the federal and state levels, such as whether courses are taken in person or online and the name of the curriculum or software program used; adopting formal state guidelines for credit recovery programs, especially as it pertains to eligibility and vetting of courses; and using external assessments to hold students and schools accountable.
• And finally, in the absence of an external check on quality, adopt the ounce-of-prevention rule. Stipulate, as some states already do, that students must have previously failed the original course to be eligible for credit recovery, or require students to achieve a minimum score in the original course so that they aren’t starting from scratch with new material.

Link to the study: Gotta Give Em Credit – State and District Variation in Credit Recovery Participation Rates

District Deeds Synopsis:

This article and study expose the primary reason why the Credit Recovery scam being run by the San Diego Unified School District (SDUSD) is producing high graduation rates for students that are not academically prepared to succeed in college or career.

A recent review of 2018 SDUSD Smarter Balance Assessment Test Scores show that  OVER 60% of all 11th graders DO NOT MEET state standards in Mathematics.  For African-American and Hispanic Students OVER 70% of all 11th graders DO NOT MEET state standards in Mathematics.

Yet somehow, 87% of those same 11th graders are getting a SDUSD High School Diploma a year later…many of which through the phony, SDUSD Credit Recovery scam we described in “REALLY RICHARD?!? Exposing Ridiculous SDUSD Trustee President Barrera Grad Rate Con Job!”

When you read through the study recommendations our readers will clearly see how they are virtually impossible to implement with the current incompetent Supt. Cindy Marten and recently re-elected Board of Education.

For example:

• Adopt the old adage of trust but verify.

Really?!? Trust Pathetic Cindy and Tricky Dick?!?  SDUSD Stakeholders have learned that the fake graduation rates along with gross financial/operational mismanagement prove Marten, Barrera and their incompetent lackeys cannot be trusted and refuse to allow verification.

• Target the outliers

The WHOLE DISTRICT is an outlier!  87% grad rate while 70% flunk Mathematics.

How much clearer can it be that Pathetic Cindy and Tricky Dick are running an education scam on all SDUSD Stakeholders?

With the current untrustworthy and incompetent SDUSD leadership, expecting them to transparently and effectively implement changes to Credit Recovery is impossible no matter how many ruby slipper propaganda props Marten pulls out of her closet.

Does More Policing Make Middle Schools Safer?

Quote from Article:

LESSONS FROM A NEW STUDY

Based on my study of the North Carolina SRO matching grant program, described above, here are four lessons learned for initiating successful school safety policy and practices.

Lesson 1: Increasing investments in school resource officers does not lead to safer schools.

When comparing schools within districts that received additional funding for SROs to schools within districts that did not, I found no relationships between additional dollars received and reductions in the 16 disciplinary acts that must be reported to the state.

Lesson 2: School characteristics explain only a small portion of differences in disciplinary outcomes.

In my study, I incorporated a technique known as multilevel modeling to isolate how much variation in disciplinary acts can be explained by differences between schools within districts versus non-school based factors. The model showed that for schools that reported at least one disciplinary act, approximately 15 percent of the differences in disciplinary outcomes can be explained by differences in school-based characteristics, whereas approximately 85 percent of the differences in disciplinary acts by school are explained by non-school factors. In other words, if SROs did their jobs completely and flawlessly, there are still a host of variables outside of the schooling context that contribute to school safety issues.

Lesson 3: School size (enrollment) and academic achievement are strong predictors of school safety.

I found that the 16 disciplinary outcomes did improve in North Carolina, as a whole, over time, but these improvements were not related to increased SRO funding. My models predicted that if total school enrollment increased by 10 percent, then disciplinary acts would likely increase between 8.4 percent and 10 percent if all other factors in the model remained the same. On the other hand, if grade-level proficiency increased by 5 percent, then the models predicted that disciplinary acts would likely decrease by approximately 20 percent.

Lesson 4. Race is a poor predictor of school safety, and better reporting practices are needed.

The annual report of crime and suspensions submitted to the General Assembly of North Carolina places a heavy emphasis on disaggregating data by race and gender. However, no data are disaggregated by achievement levels. In my models, I simultaneously evaluated grade-level proficiency indicators and racial composition of schools, finding that racial composition of schools is not predictive of school safety in middle school.

Link to Study: Policing and Middle School – An Evaluation of a Statewide School Resource Officer Policy

District Deeds Synopsis:

This is a fascinating study with many salient points.

After reading this study we believe that the two biggest points, and the biggest SDUSD shortfall in achieving safe middle schools, is a combination of Lesson 3 – School size (enrollment) and academic achievement are strong predictors of school safety and Lesson 4 – Race is a poor predictor of school safety, and better reporting practices are needed.

As we mentioned in our discussion in the Credit Recovery (CR) article above, the SDUSD has failed all students by using Credit Recovery to enable fake Graduation Rates.  The fake credit recovery grades have allowed them to cover up that failure and avoid accountability that should cost the Superintendent and Board of Education their jobs.

A SDUSD Senior Staff Member has been quoted as saying that incoming 9th grade Students at a SDUSD Title 1 High School do not have the educational skills of a 6th grader.

This makes it clear that the Marten/Barrera SDUSD educational malpractice begins way before 9th grade.

That CR/Grad Rate cover up and Middle School subterfuge has allowed substandard academic deployment and achievement, especially in the schools with the neediest students thereby creating unsafe schools and Student injuries that no amount of School Resource Officers or video cameras bought by Measure YY funds can prevent.

We have a message for pathetic Cindy, Tricky Dick and their cronies.

Every time you spout propaganda about the fake grad rates or phony student educational achievements you are putting our Students, Teachers, Staff and Families lives at risk on unsafe campuses.

And you are responsible for their injuries.

There’s a Reason Why Teachers Don’t Use the Software Provided By Their Districts

Quote from Article:

Earlier this month, education news outlets buzzed with a frustrating, yet unsurprising, headline: Most educational software licenses go unused in K-12 districts. The source of the headline is a recent report by Ryan Baker, director of the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Learning Analytics. Baker analyzed data from BrightBytes, a K-12 data management company, on students’ technology usage across 48 districts. That data revealed that a median of 70% of districts’ software licenses never get used, and a median of 97.6% of licenses are never used intensively.

The findings unveil a clear disconnect between district software procurement and classroom practice. To be clear, not all software is high quality, which means teachers may have good reason to not adopt some software products that fail to deliver positive student learning outcomes. But for quality software tools that can yield breakthrough student outcomes, underutilization is a huge missed opportunity.

Job #1: Help me lead the way in improving my school. Teachers with this Job are eager to demonstrate their value as contributors to broader school improvement. These teachers will be interested in using district-licensed software when it 1) seems like a viable and worthwhile way to improve the school as a whole, 2) seems simple and straightforward to share with their colleagues, and 3) offers them an opportunity to help shape the direction of school improvement efforts.

Job #2: Help me find manageable ways to engage and challenge more of my students.Teachers with this Job are generally confident with how teaching and learning happen in their classrooms. But they have a few students each year who they struggle to reach. They are often open to software as a way to engage those students. But that software must not only be worthwhile for their students, but also practical to incorporate into their current practices and routines.

Job #3: Help me replace a broken instructional model so I can reach each student.Whether from perpetually low test scores, low graduation rates, ongoing student behavior issues, or a general sense that learning lacks joy and passion, teachers with this Job struggle constantly with a sense that they aren’t living up to their responsibilities to their students. For these teachers, software can be a powerful resource for helping them transform their instructional models. But that software needs to offer new approaches to teaching and learning, not just new takes on traditional textbooks and worksheets.

Accounting for the 70% of unused software licenses

The new Job that the software creates for them amounts to, “Help me not fall behind on my school’s new initiative.” This insight likely explains why even though 30% of software licenses that get used, only 2.4% are used intensively.

District Deeds Synopsis:

A very interesting article that covers a large share of why Teachers may not use all the software purchased by SDUSD with the over $9 billion worth of Prop S and Z and, soon to be acquired, Measure YY funds.

But as we described in “SDUSD Prop S Taxpayer $2.1 Billion Con Job…Students Must Wait 60 Days for Computer Repairs…Official Doc Enclosed!!!“, ALL the software available in the SDUSD CANNOT be used when Teachers have to wait for over 60 day to get their computer equipment repaired.

If you add “Broken Computers” to the mix of reasons why software isn’t used, we estimate that there could be over 85% of the millions of dollars worth of SDUSD software not being used.

In other words all the SDUSD i21 Interactive Classroom Initiative Propaganda spread by pathetic Elementary School Superintendent Cindy Marten and Trustee “Tricky Dick” Barrera were pure, bald-faced lies and totally unethical – like usual.

Now for our Quote of the Week:

Without ethics, man has no future. This is to say, mankind without them cannot be itself. Ethics determine choices and actions and suggest difficult priorities. John Berger

 

Have a great week!!!

__________________________________________________________

IF

• Your family has been injured by the San Diego Unified School District, go to the District Deeds Complaint Forms page to find instructions to fight for your Civil Rights!

• YOU ARE TIRED OF THE COVER UPS AND LIES BY SUPT. CINDY MARTEN…

Please Click the Link Below and sign the Petition Today and READ the COMMENTS to Support the REMOVAL of Marten by SDUSD Stakeholders!

FIRE San Diego Unified School District Superintendent Cindy Marten Immediately!

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