"Quality Counts" and the Chance-for-Success Index.
2010; Routledge; Volume: 10; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1539-9664
Autores Tópico(s)School Choice and Performance
ResumoFrom moment of birth, Americans have a fascination with seeing how we measure up. Apgar scores assess vitality of a newborn. Growth charts compare a youngster to his peers. Report cards throughout school equate a student's academic performance with a grading standard. Professional athletes, corporations, and communities all have rating systems designed to reveal their quality. We are a nation obsessed with story told in numbers. And we seem to take on faith that rating systems behind scores are on target. The quality of our public schools has been measured in innumerable ways, and stakeholders may draw on any number of sources for rankings to support a particular agenda. Each winter, Education Week issues Quality Counts as a magazine supplement to its weekly newspaper. Report cards track and compare state education policies and outcomes in six areas: chance-for-success; K-12 achievement; standards, assessments, and accountability; transitions and alignment; teaching profession; and school finance. For example, grade for transitions and alignment is based on 14 indicators related to early-childhood education, college readiness, and economy and while school finance indicators measure spending patterns and resource distribution. Through these report cards, Education Week purports to offer a comprehensive state-by-state analysis of key indicators of student success. The Quality Counts rankings are eagerly anticipated, thoroughly perused, and widely quoted. After 2009 rankings were released, Maryland State Department of Education issued a press release touting state's place at the top of list in Education Week's tally, just ahead of Massachusetts. Florida governor Charlie Crist celebrated news that Education Week's Quality Counts rated Florida's schools 10th in nation, based on its average rating across six categories that comprise analysis. Are Florida's schools among nations best? It depends on what you measure. By November of 2009, two lawsuits had been filed in Florida claiming state was failing to provide high-quality education to its students. The plaintiffs claimed state has low graduation rates, frequent school violence, and low levels of education spending and teacher pay compared to other states. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The rankings are also frequently misunderstood. Among most widely cited of Quality Counts ranking schemes is Chance-for-Success Index (CFSI), which attempts to measure a state's capacity for helping young people succeed. Here's what Education Week's Editorial Projects in Education (EPE) Research Center has to say about index: The Chance-for-Success Index captures critical role that education plays at all stages of an individual's life, with a particular focus on state-to-state differences in opportunities. While early foundations and returns in labor market from a quality education are important elements of success, we find that school years consistently trump those factors. In every state, indicators associated with participation and performance in formal schooling constitute largest source of points awarded in this category, and help explain much of disparity between highest-and lowest-ranked states. The CFSI's stated aim is to show role that education plays as a student moves from childhood through formal K-12 system and into workforce, but then rest of description is fairly ambiguous. Many states nonetheless interpret index as a simple measure of school quality. Maryland came in fifth in 2009, with a B+. The Maryland schools' press release cited above reported that: state ranked among nation's leaders in 'Chance for Success,' which looks at how well graduates achieve beyond high school. Of course, some states choose not to emphasize their CFSI score. …
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