School report cards recently were released by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Each school district and school house in Wisconsin now has an official, annual report card. Data, data everywhere and not a care to be found!
Why?
A quick read of ESEA Information Update Bulletin #02.10 titled Topic: Meeting Report Card Requirements of ESEA published in October 2002 indicates that the DPI is meeting a legislated requirement initiated in 2001 with the No Child Left Behind Act. The initial concepts of the NCLB report card have been edited and refined over the past decade. Spun forward, the purposes of a school report card are to help the school and school district make needed improvements in student academic achievement and behaviors related to academic achievement and to assist parents to make informed decisions regarding the school that is educating their child(ren).
Always insinuated in ESEA mandates is Wisconsin’s loss of federal funds if ALL schools are not compliant with the reporting criteria and accountability measures. The mandates include actions that will be taken against individual school organizations if accountability cannot be met, including the withholding of funds. These funds are an essential part of Wisconsin’s funding formula for public education; without the federal funds, the state cannot meet its commitments to local schools.
What is reported?
The DPI web site for this information is http://reportcards.dpi.wi.gov/
There are four priority areas of accountability. These are:
- Student Achievement in reading and mathematics compared with state and national standards.
- Student Growth in reading and mathematics as measured by annual assessments.
- Closing Gaps in how well specific sub-groups of students are able to meet academic achievement and growth requirements as compared to the aggregated data for all students.
- On-Track to Graduation and Post-Secondary Readiness data that displays how well student groups and students as a whole are progressing as compared to the aggregated data for all students in the school.
There are three indicators of student engagement that also are reported. These are related to DPI statewide goals established by a study of state data over time.
- Test Participation requires a minimum of 95% of students and students by sub-group to participate in required accountability assessments.
- Absenteeism sets the required rate of daily attendance at 84% of the days a student is enrolled in school.
- Drop Out Rates raise flags when more than 6% of the enrollment in the school or in a student cohort drop out of school.
Absent in the new school report card is an essential characteristic that is a consistent heritage in Wisconsin’s schools. The care factor. A local school is the community’s school and the community permeates the school. When a child enrolls in such a community school, a covenant is created between the school and the child’s parents. In a nutshell, this covenant is “We, the school, will assist you, the parents, to educate your child. We, the school, will provide a network of public care for your child, our student.”
Perhaps “care” is assumed in the new design for Wisconsin Accountability. It currently is unstated that school leaders and school staff will take care of their students. If they always have, they always will. If caring for students indeed is an assumption, it may not have to be stated as a measureable school outcome. However, in the political/economics of contemporary public education, what gets measured gets significant organizational attention. Why then should a school’s care factor be ignored?
Should the manner in which a school provides for the health and well-being of a student not matter as much as the child’s ability to read and write? The Child Care Information Center web page is replete with newsletters describing the topics of child “care.” http://165.189.80.100/rll/ccic/mat_newsletters.html and how a school is to implement these topics of care.
There are mandates related to each school’s management of the immunizations of its students. Specific literature has been produced regarding “pandemics.” Schools also are subject to mandates regarding child nutrition, school safety, student welfare, especially related to bullying, and categorical discrimination. Federal and state mandates speak to how schools are to be made safe for and respectful of students. http://sspw.dpi.wi.gov/sspw_safeschool Levels of caring practice often have school personnel teaching and monitoring toileting habits, combing student hair looking for knits and lice, and assuring that a child’s shoe laces are tied.
Perhaps the most significant aspect of the commitment to school-parent covenant regarding child wellness resides in the continuous communication between school and home. As part of their daily routines, teachers call, send texts, and written notes to parents regarding a child’s physical and emotional well-being. Parents call, send texts and written notes about every aspect of their child’s life to the student’s teacher(s). In fact, the reality of ubiquitous communication lives elementary classrooms and elementary school offices where parent communication flows to the school every minute of the day.
Not including the care factor in the new Wisconsin Accountability is tantamount to exhorting all school sports teams to win every athletic contest without a regard for sportsmanship. Opinion pieces in local media constantly rail when an athlete or team violates perceptions of good sportsmanship. Academic accountability without measures of a care for children is just as ignoble.
How interesting it would be to balance the statistically indexed score of school effectiveness that currently dominates the upper left corner of a school report card with an equally visible index of community, student and parent satisfaction with the care that a school provides for its children. Excellent schools are a balance of learned achievement and human care.