California Superintendent of Public Instruction, Jack O’Connell, visited the Long Beach Unified School District yesterday to highlight their positive performance, according to an LA Times article today. At the center of O’Connell’s visit was the fact that California has been singled out recently by President Obama, who criticized the way that most schools in the state do not use student testing scores to evaluate teachers. Long Beach is one of the few that does, and so O’Connell visited Long Beach to commend their performance and offer the district as proof that the state uses the practice.
From LA Times writer Seema Mehta:
Seven years ago, the district developed a sophisticated centralized data system that allows it to track individual student achievement, attendance and discipline over time. The system also lets the district see how students are faring collectively in a particular classroom or school, and how subsets such as English learners or special education students are performing. District officials can then use the information for staffing decisions, such as where to send specialists.
So it’s a victory for the LBUSD, being singled out not only for their performance but also using effective practices, which apparently is a rarity in California. So much so that O’Connell was eager to use the District as an example on a national stage. Mehta explains that at the heart of the matter is a statewide law that actually prohibits student data being used to evaluate teachers. O’Connell says that the law doesn’t actually restrict districts from the practice if they choose, but that the law could probably use some clarification (I would agree).
O’Connell called the Long Beach Unified School District “ahead of the curve” and “a model for this new culture of data for education.”
Doesn’t seem new if Long Beach has been using it for seven years.
But there may be more good news hidden in the LA Times story. Mehta explains that U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has said states that do not use this practice will have little chance to receive grants from her “Race To The Top” education program. O’Connell may have been using LBUSD to argue that California does use the practice, and that the state should receive some of that funding. If Long Beach is eligible, could some of that money be secured to help their $30 million deficit?
Applications for the funding are due in December. We’ll keep you updated.
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