Division I regional track finals
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Dayton Daily News education reporter Scott Elliott writes about schools, kids, teaching and learning.
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Monday, August 27, 2007
Percy Mack a finalist in Mobile, Ala.
Percy Mack
Dayton school Superintendent Percy Mack is a finalist for superintendent in Mobile, Ala. He expects to interview Wednesday or Thursday.
Mack said was not looking for a job when he was contacted about the position in June by a search firm. He said he was interested in Mobile because at 67,000 students it is a large, countywide school district similar to the metro Atlanta district where he spent much of his career. Mobile also is only a four-hour drive from where his children and grandchildren live in Georgia.
Mack said the process is still a few steps from the possibility of a job offer. There are five finalists. Mack said the search firm told him he was one of two that were picked by all five Mobile board members to be interviewed.
Permalink | Comments (44) | Categories: Dayton Public Schools
What we can (and can’t) learn from test scores
Local blogger Thespis Journal isn’t a big fan of newspaper stories about state achievement test results. Thespis goes so far as to call the ranking of schools based on their test performance “lurid.”
Thespis has a point. Test scores have limited value. Many studies have shown the strong correlation between family income and test scores or parental education level and test scores. The wealthier and more educated your parents are, the more likely you are to be a high test scorer.
This is not even to get into the very open question of what standardized tests actually measure and how good the information they give about a student or a school really is. A school that scores badly is not necessarily a bad school.
That doesn’t mean there is NOTHING that can be learned from comparing test results. Consider the examples in Sunday’s stories about high schools.
Going back to the argument about family income and its strong connection to test scores — you see that in the top 15 highest scoring high schools. Only two of the 13 are from outside a small, elite group of the richest 6 percent of communities in the state.
But one of those top scorers is Ft. Recovery, not a rich district by a long shot. How do they do it?
Superintendent David Riel said it is a combination of factors that explains the district’s test success. The community values education greatly and has high expectations for their children academically. Good teachers from the community return to teach there for less money because of their commitment to their friends and families. And there is a cultural work ethic that shows itself in the classroom, on the athletic field and in the blue collar work of the local people.
Taken together, those factors help overcome a deep income divide with the other top schools.
Even Oakwood is an interesting example. Oakwood is plenty wealthy — ranking 9th richest of all the school districts in Ohio. But even so, there is a pretty big gulf between it and the Orange school district near Cleveland at No. 1. The median income in Oakwood is about $10,000 less than Orange. That’s a lot.
Oakwood should be one of the best scoring school districts in the state. But you wouldn’t necessarily expect its high school to come in No. 1.
And what do we know about Oakwood? It’s a rich Ft. Recovery. Families in Oakwood also place a high value on education. It’s also a community with great school support and with high-end teachers. And again, the school has better than expected test results.
On the flip side, you see the impact of poverty on low income districts like Dayton, Jefferson Township and Trotwood. And in charter schools, you see the difficulties of high risk populations — most of Dayton’s charter high schools serve dropouts, or kids at risk to drop out of school. Even the best of those schools struggle with test scores.
So I think there is some value in looking at these scores and rankings. It does tell you something about schools and school districts, even if it doesn’t tell you everything.
Permalink | Comments (15) | Categories: Testing
