NEWS

Study: LDOE information lacks cohesion

Bonnie Bolden
bbolden@thenewsstar.com

Do you understand how to find information about your child's school district? Do the analytics tools available answer all of your questions or give you a clear view of how your child's school is performing? If you said no, you're not alone.

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The Data Quality Campaign released a study showing that the majority of states providing reports for parents use clunky formats, obscure terms or have missing data that prevent people from understanding the full picture of education in their state. Researchers tried to find state report card information based on an internet search, then counted the number of clicks it took to get to the information required.

In Louisiana, state-level Department of Education reports don't provide information about five of eight No Child Left Behind requirements or any information about 10 subgroups as required by the federal law. No Child Left Behind was replaced last year by the Every Student Succeeds Act, which gives parents and community stakeholders the opportunity to collaborate and define what schools need.

Of the eight report card requirements set forth in No Child Left Behind, Louisiana includes results by performance level, graduation rates and a measure of teacher quality at louisianabelieves.com/resources/library/data-center. The state does not include:

  • 1- and 2-year trend data for each tested grade and subject,
  • a comparison between objectives and performance,
  • percentage of each group of students tested or not tested,
  • the numbers and names of schools identified as needing improvement or
  • a comparison between high- and low-income schools on teacher credentials.

“We can’t afford to remain in the dark about school performance,” said Aimee Rogstad Guidera, president and CEO of the Data Quality Campaign. “State policymakers have a moral imperative to provide useful information that actually meets communities’ needs. ESSA provides an opportunity to use the information as a flashlight to provide a richer, more accurate picture of how well schools are serving students.”

Louisiana is among 19 states that require three or more clicks from a search engine result to reach the data needed. Additionally, Louisiana is among 45 states that only provide school scores in English with no easy way to translate those. According to the Pew Research Center, in 2014, Hispanic students were about 5 percent of total enrollment in Louisiana K-12.

LDOE provides information for the most recent (2015-16) school year. Ten states' most recent assessments use data from the 2012-13 or 2013-14 school year.

Only 13 states publish student growth data on the state report cards, and Louisiana is not among those.

"Overall, one thing that may be helpful to keep in mind is that this report is focused on aggregate statewide information on student performance, not the school and district report cards. So we actually marked Louisiana as not having any information disaggregated by subgroups because it didn’t when we did our review this summer," Brittany Mason with the Data Quality Campaign said. In response to questions, "our reviewers went back to the report card website and found that there now is disaggregated subgroup information; however, it’s in a different document than the rest of the information about student performance."

Required subgroup information includes race, gender, ethnicity, English proficiency, migrant status, disability status, low-income status, military, foster care status or homelessness. Information regarding the percentage of minority, economically disadvantaged or disabled students related to a performance indicator is provided in the school and district report cards with no additional breakdown. Gender, race/ethnicity or at-risk status is available in other reports but it's not provided in relation to school or district scores.

Bridget Devlin with the Louisiana Department of Education said it's unfortunate that the report only focuses on state-level data because LDOE provides more granular data at the school and district level at louisianabelieves.com/data/reportcards/2016/. Last year, LDOE released a guide for reading the report card for parents, and a Family Toolbox is available at louisianabelieves.com to help parents analyze the data provided.

"We are committed to providing transparent and helpful information to families and businesses about the schools in their communities. In addition to user-friendly report cards, built on feedback from parents year over year, we also provide a parent guide and a text function for easy access," she said.

"That being said, we are always open to receiving feedback and will be reviewing the suggests in the report to identify any additional opportunities for enhancement."

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