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2003-04 - FIVE teenagers in the house!

“It wouldn’t be accurate and it wouldn’t be correct to have a teacher have a very low score based upon a transient student that wouldn’t do very well.  It wouldn't be a fair assessment of what that teacher has been able to do for that child in that given year.”

Senator Michele Bachmann, Stillwater

I was saying that mobility isn't taken into consideration when calculating the AYP status of a school when former Commissioner Cheri Yecke stepped forward to clarify that the transient status of students “is part of the AYP formula and so it is calculated when we run the AYP ratings.”  Yecke then deferred to Kathy Wagner who testified, “Federal statute requires that we calculate Adequate Yearly Progress for students who have been enrolled a full academic year.  What we had latitude to do was to define full academic year.  So we’ve defined a full academic year as students who are enrolled October 1st and still present at the time of the test.  So the AYP proficiency ratings are based only on students who have been enrolled at the school for a full academic year and likewise at the district then for a full academic year.” [1]

I must not be quick on the uptake because I left the hearing understanding that MCA scores of students not enrolled at the school for a "full academic year" must be filtered out of the AYP calculation.  I stood "corrected."  BUT THEN I went to a NEAT Legislative Task Force meeting where we talked about the hearing.  As I described how mobility is taken into consideration, everyone at the table said that's not what they understood.  So I went back and looked it up.

Mobility is defined as Kathy Wagner described [2] but the time between October 1 and the date of the test administration is ~7 months not a "full academic year" as the term implies.  I dug around a bit more and learned that some states—Hawaii, Iowa and Colorado—are defining a full academic year as from one test administration to the next. [3]

It begs the question, "If it's unfair to hold teachers and schools accountable for the performance of students that have been in their care for less than a full year, why does Minnesota define a full academic year in a way that is more restrictive than the law allows?"

I think we should urge the Minnesota Department of Education to modify its definition of a full academic year.  If this is not a consideration, I think we should be told the rationale.  What's more, the fact that other states are defining a full year the same way as Minnesota doesn't really seem to be either sufficient or legitimate justification. 

One of my greatest concerns about NCLB is the way it holds schools accountable for all of society's ills.  Mobility is a community-based concern that we as local communities need to address to ensure that all of our children arrive at school ready to learn.  It means we need to collaboratively address social issues that contribute to mobility, such as housing, poverty/living wage, domestic violence, transportation, etc.

The problems and the solutions reside beyond the school walls.  I really don't see how it's fair to sanction individual schools for community-based issues.  Although seemingly a minor detail, this issue has serious implications for any school affected by mobility, perhaps especially schools in the urban core.

At the local level, parent groups, chambers and nonprofit development associations should ask their districts for the mobility data to begin local efforts to address the contributing factors.  The East Side Neighborhood Development Corporation should be commended for its efforts here in Saint Paul. [4]

Just my 2c.  --Jen

[1] Click on View Video Coverage to load the video. PAUSE and reset to start at 1:26:45 to view the exchange.

[2] Documented at http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/stateplans03/mncsa.pdf

[3] See http://www.ccsso.org/publications/details.cfm?PublicationID=215, page 28.

[4] See March 14, 2004 - Homes for students, Toni Coleman, Pioneer Press