Yippie kai yay!

December 19, 2017

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

 

 

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Hawaii and Arizona made the most academic progress with students with disabilities 2011 to 2015

October 29, 2017

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

Ok so here is what is going on in this chart: NAEP Math and Reading tests are timed and scaled in such a way as to allow for the calculation of cohort gains. In this case, we’ve tracked the statewide gains for students with disabilities from 4th graders in 2011 to 8th graders in 2015. Both the 2011 and 2015 measurements are a population estimate, and NAEP of course is not tracking the same students over time but rather are sampling both populations. The calculation used here is a straightforward 2015 8th grade scores for students with disabilities minus the 4th grade 2011 scores for students with disabilities, and then calculated as a percentage of improvement between 4th and 8th grade.

Students move in and out of states over time, but this sort of error should be largely random and cancel itself out in the absence of some (relatively implausible) systematic bias (like in this case higher performing students with disabilities fleeing Maryland to live in Hawaii). Given the standard errors, there isn’t much reason to fuss over exactly where you stand if you land say in the middle of the blue blob in the chart above, although one might take an interest in the states landing in the top right or bottom left.

Congrats to Hawaii and Arizona. Bad look for Maryland if taken at face value- having one of the nation’s highest spending per pupil figures but failing to teach students with disabilities much of anything about math and reading over a four years is, ah, terrible. Maryland is a state that had in earlier years flouted the NAEP’s inclusion standards for children with disabilities. It is possible that if they stopped doing so in 2015 that it may explain part of their place on this chart. If I lived in Maryland I would get to the bottom of this, but it’s time to get out of my pajamas.

For Hawaii and Arizona:

We’ll circle back and see how this goes when the new NAEP data is released in January.

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Tears for Beers

January 11, 2017

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

Arizona Republic columnist Bob Robb wrote a piece on Arizona Governor Doug Ducey’s recent State of the State address. Money quote:

Ducey wasn’t a party to the deep cuts to K-12 education that were made after the bursting of the housing bubble knocked a big hole in state revenues. In fact, during his governorship, per-pupil spending, adjusted for inflation, has gone up, not down. Try to find an acknowledgement of that in the education funding debate.

In his speech, Ducey pointed out that “Arizona students are improving faster in math and reading than any other kids in the country.” That’s true.

Yet, there is a curious lack of curiosity about this development. In fact, Matt Ladner, a scholar with the Foundation for Excellence in Education, is about the only person in the state documenting it and inquiring about its causes. Everyone else is crying in their beer.

Bob’s kind remarks require two clarifications. First I made a professional transition a couple of months ago. Second, it is only bloody well near everyone else crying in their beer in Arizona, rather than actually everyone else. Crying in your beer is a bad look after all. A select few of us are just way too busy celeNAEPing our progress and trying to figure out ways to get more for it.

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CeleNAEP Good Times-C’MON!

November 5, 2015

(Guest Post by Matthew Ladner)

My #Shadowfaction partner in crime Lisa Graham Keegan and I hit the pages of the Arizona Republic to celeNAEP good times in Arizona. Teaser trailer:

NAEP has given 40 exams on mathematics and reading to representative samples of Arizona students in various years since the early 1990s. As a low-income state with more than its share of student challenges (high poverty and non-native English speaking rates), Arizona has never met or exceeded the national average score – until now.

Arizona’s eighth-graders edged out the national average in mathematics and only narrowly missed doing the same in reading. Therefore, Arizona’s Class of 2019 carries a special distinction in state history – one that future classes can both match and exceed. Achievement has improved substantially since the last pre-recession measures in 2007.

Of notable attention are Arizona’s charter-school students, who matched the scores for the highest-scoring states on the 2015 NAEP. On eighth grade mathematics, for instance, Arizona charter students scored in a statistical dead heat with Massachusetts, the highest scoring of the 50 states.

 

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