CONCORD – The way New Hampshire measures the educational progress of its K-12 students is about to undergo a major overhaul, largely in response to new federal legislation.
No Child Left Behind is history, but in its place Congress passed and President Obama signed into law the Every Child Succeeds Act, which requires school districts across the country receiving federal funds to report measurable progress in reading, math and high school graduation rates between 2018 and 2025.
New Hampshire’s plan to get there was presented to the House Education Committee on Tuesday, prompting one lawmaker to ask, “At current funding levels, how are we going to achieve these goals?”
The goals outlined in the new state plan are ambitious. The percentage of students who display proficiency in reading will have to go from an estimated 63 percent in 2018 to 74 percent in 2025; and from 48 percent to 53 percent in math. The high school graduation rate will have to go from 90 percent in 2018 to nearly 94 percent in 2025.
The No Child Left Behind law, which many viewed as unrealistic, called for 100 percent proficiency across the board by 2014. While NCLB set national standards and consequences for non-performing schools, the new law gives states that power, subject to federal approval of the state plan.
Newly appointed Education Commissioner Frank Edelblut is no fan of federal oversight, but is a strong proponent of the state plan developed by the Department of Education in cooperation with a 27-member task force comprised mostly of educators from school districts around the state.
“When you look at the plan, there are three things I’m very excited about,” he said.
The first is what Edelblut called “a seismic shift” in how schools are evaluated. Under the old system, schools were rated on the number of students who reached proficiency goals in English and math as measured by standardized tests.
Credit for improvement
Under the proposed plan, only 40 percent of a school’s rating will be based on the number of students who are proficient, while 60 percent will be based on the rate of growth in scores from year to year.
If the students’ scores consistently rise, Edelblut says, “We will eventually get them to the outcomes they need.”
The second is a new breakdown of school-level targets, in addition to statewide goals.
“Schools that are starting out at a low level are going to be measured on how they grow off that level,” Edelblut said, “and schools at a high level will continue to have to grow.”
The third feature of the plan is a requirement that students achieve at least two out of 10 requirements to be considered ready for work or college by the time they graduate high school.
They include a grade of C or better in a dual-enrollment course; SAT scores meeting or exceeding 480 in reading and 530 in math; or completion of a N.H. Career Pathway program.
“With No Child Left Behind, everyone had to get to 100 percent proficiency in 13 years,” said Heather Gage, director of instruction in the Department of Education. “You could get to 98 percent, and the next three years be considered a failing school, and it was all based on proficiency. There was no incentive for growth or other measurement factors.”
Deadline is Sept. 18
The Legislature’s Oversight Committee on Education has approved the new plan, which now goes to Gov. Chris Sununu for his signature before being submitted to the federal Department of Education and newly appointed Education Secretary Betsy Devos for her approval.
The state has a deadline of Sept. 18 to submit the plan, but is hoping to have it sent to Washington before then, according to Gage.
“The plan you have in front of you is in response to specific questions from the federal Department of Education,” Gage told the House Education Committee on Tuesday. “It’s by no means everything we are doing in education. It’s a small amount of what’s in the ESSA.”
Ann Marie Banfield, education liaison for Cornerstone Action, sees ESSA as just another intrusion by the federal government into education that marginalizes parents. Cornerstone is a New Hampshire nonprofit dedicated to “traditional values, limited government and free markets,” according to its website.
“I looked at the task force membership and didn’t see anyone there designated to represent parents,” she said.
Gage says the Education Department put the plan out for public comment in May and June, and received more than 500 responses. “We also did regional listening tours,” she said. “We sat down with many stakeholders. We heard loud and clear, ‘Make sure families are represented in this plan.’?”
Seeking a ‘waiver’
The state could forgo federal education dollars and avoid any federal mandates, but that’s unlikely.
“It’s just another plan for federal intrusion that’s going to change five years down the road,” Banfield said. “It’s 1,061 pages of federal education law that gives the Secretary of Education unprecedented power and the ability to withhold funding. Under No Child Left Behind, there were threats, but this kind of centralized power was not put in the hands of the U.S. Secretary of Education. I think it’s more about trading one bad law for another.”
As is often the case, New Hampshire wants to take an approach that will require a “waiver” from the federal requirements. While ESSA mandates standardized tests in grades three through 8, and again in high school, the state Legislature passed and Sununu signed into law HB 166, which only requires three statewide assessments over a student’s K-12 education – once in elementary school, once in middle school and once in high school.
Arizona is the only other state currently requesting such a waiver, according to Edelblut. “I am subject to the federal law and therefore I will comply with the federal law,” he said, “and go as far as I can within the confines of that law.”
Questions of cost
Education Consultant Scott Marion, executive director of the Center for Assessment in Dover, worked with the task force and state Department of Education staff in developing the plan.
“As opposed to the state being top-down, and saying we are going to do this to you and you are going to respond, this is a reciprocal approach that says the state is going to expect certain things in terms of performance and the state has to provide necessary support to help the districts fill their side of the bargain,” he told the House committee.
How that translates into funding remains to be seen.
“Much of the funding will come from the cities and towns, not from the state,” said Rep. Wayne Burton, D-Durham. “So do they know what this will cost them?”
He didn’t get a direct answer to that question, but the obvious one is, not yet.
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