Martha McCall, Gage Kingsbury, and Allan Olson, Northwest Evaluation Association
April 2004
Researchers at NWEA have written a provocative report with major NCLB implications. Using NWEA's own database and examining 700+ schools in 22 states, they compared students' "growth index" ("the amount of unexpected growth of the student from one year to the next") with more conventional measures of students' absolute achievement status vis-??-vis standards. It turns out, not surprisingly, that the "growth index" adds extremely valuable information about school effectiveness, which varies significantly from school to school. Bottom line: absent a "growth" or "value-added" component joined to NCLB's "adequate yearly progress" measure, we'll end up knowing far less than we should about school effectiveness and student progress. Such augmentation would also inform the school choice process - else families might innocently select less effective schools that happen to have higher levels of absolute attainment - and would benefit high-achieving students who are already above the standard but may be spinning their wheels in a low-growth school. When the time comes to fix NCLB's shortcomings, the repairmen ought to take this insightful study seriously. To view the executive summary or order the full report, go to http://www.young-roehr.com/nweastudy/.
