[Ohiogift] why output measures alone will never be sufficient

[anngift at aol.com]

And so it begins: 

Westlake has issued a statement on their levy site saying that their "D" on value-added means that the measure is wrong. 
http://www.westlakelevy.com/faqs.cfm

"While Westlake earned an overall grade  of A for the improvement, the ratings for the sub-groups for Gifted, Students  with Disabilities, and the lowest 20% scoring students were D’s. Considering our high achievement level (ex.  Top 2% for Gifted) we believe that these ratings on the new Ohio legislative  report card are not the most accurate way to inform of performance and we are  not alone in this belief. There is considerably less room for improvement for  high performing students. We continue to strive to see scores for each  individual child are at the very top and remain focused on ensuring we make the  necessary adjustments for improvement in all areas."

>From yesterday's Gongwer -- The superintendent from Dayton Public Schools, Lori Ward, who should according to Dick Ross be left alone to make the best local choices for gifted children, can't even figure out what the state definition of gifted is saying all children are gifted. Dayton identifies fewer than 5% of it's student population as gifted and has one GIS for a district of almost 14,000. But it is the output measure that is flawed: 



"A gifted ranking of schools iscalculated based on the percent of all students in the district that areidentified as gifted, the percent of students identified as gifted that receivegifted services, the percent of all students in the district that receivegifted services, the Performance Index for gifted students and the Value-AddedGifted measure from the district report cards, according to the Department ofEducation. Many high-performing schools wereamong those to get low letter grades for the gifted VA measure. Urbans againwere not at the top of the ranking list. "I think everybody was kind oflooking at gifted and scratching their heads," Ms. Ward said.The law requires only that schoolsidentify gifted students, not that they serve them. 


"If you're going to report onachievement of a group, and the law says you identify only, literally, thenwe've got to step back," she said. 



"We have economicallydisadvantaged students, we have special needs students, we have giftedstudents. How do you establish your resources to meet the needs of those verydifferent groups?" Ms. Ward said the highest performingschool in the Dayton district - Stivers School for the Arts - received a C forits gifted Value Added. 


"If you ask the majority of ourparents, they're going to say all of our children are gifted," she said,pointing to the vague nature of the label. 







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