I just scooped the DCPCSB - 2018 tiers

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WHAT: Rocketship PCS-Legacy Prep (located in Ward 7) has the highest score at 94.6% for the PK-8 framework. This is the highest score of any first-year school. (As a first-year school, Rocketship PCS - Legacy Prep did not receive a Tier.)

No students took the PARCC test at Rocketship last year (it went through 2nd grade). Not knocking the school. I think that the comparing and ranking schools based on PMF score is a worthy goal - but the apples are really not apples in some cases.

So what's left then to even measure? Re-enrollment is out, growth is out, PARCC is out. Attendance? Site visit?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does "instructional support" actually mean?

Under CLASS? See below.

What does CLASS assess? CLASS focuses on teacher-child interactions. CLASS assesses processes rather
than structure. Tis means that CLASS is not looking at the content of the physical environment, materials, or specifc curricula. At the broadest level, CLASS describes three domains of teacher-child interactions that support children’s learning and development: Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support.
• Emotional Support captures how teachers help children develop positive relationships, enjoyment in learning, comfort in the classroom, and appropriate levels of independence.
• Classroom Organization focuses on how teachers manage the classroom to maximize learning and keep children engaged.
• Instructional Support involves how teachers promote children’s thinking and problem solving, use feedback to deepen understanding, and help children develop more complex language skills.

I have to wonder how that is measured. I looked at several of the reports and it looked like many were below target in that area. Lee, where I send my kid, also was. But I feel like that's part of what they do so well there, hands on problem solving and contextual understanding. Are schools given ideas for improvement in the areas they score below target?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does "instructional support" actually mean?

Under CLASS? See below.

What does CLASS assess? CLASS focuses on teacher-child interactions. CLASS assesses processes rather
than structure. Tis means that CLASS is not looking at the content of the physical environment, materials, or specifc curricula. At the broadest level, CLASS describes three domains of teacher-child interactions that support children’s learning and development: Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support.
• Emotional Support captures how teachers help children develop positive relationships, enjoyment in learning, comfort in the classroom, and appropriate levels of independence.
• Classroom Organization focuses on how teachers manage the classroom to maximize learning and keep children engaged.
• Instructional Support involves how teachers promote children’s thinking and problem solving, use feedback to deepen understanding, and help children develop more complex language skills.

I have to wonder how that is measured. I looked at several of the reports and it looked like many were below target in that area. Lee, where I send my kid, also was. But I feel like that's part of what they do so well there, hands on problem solving and contextual understanding. Are schools given ideas for improvement in the areas they score below target?

My kids go to LAMB and this Instructional Support is always where they receive their worst score. I believe it is hard for Montessori programs to score well on this measure because by design they are more hands-off in directing the kids. I thought I read that they were working on a way to take this in to account in this measurement.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does "instructional support" actually mean?

Under CLASS? See below.

What does CLASS assess? CLASS focuses on teacher-child interactions. CLASS assesses processes rather
than structure. Tis means that CLASS is not looking at the content of the physical environment, materials, or specifc curricula. At the broadest level, CLASS describes three domains of teacher-child interactions that support children’s learning and development: Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support.
• Emotional Support captures how teachers help children develop positive relationships, enjoyment in learning, comfort in the classroom, and appropriate levels of independence.
• Classroom Organization focuses on how teachers manage the classroom to maximize learning and keep children engaged.
• Instructional Support involves how teachers promote children’s thinking and problem solving, use feedback to deepen understanding, and help children develop more complex language skills.

I have to wonder how that is measured. I looked at several of the reports and it looked like many were below target in that area. Lee, where I send my kid, also was. But I feel like that's part of what they do so well there, hands on problem solving and contextual understanding. Are schools given ideas for improvement in the areas they score below target?

This is actually a Montessori thing. In Montessori, feedback and problem solving come from working with the materials in the environment, not just from teacher interaction. The CLASS doesn't capture that part of the Montessori environment while the primary kids are working a lot independently with their materials. No assessment is perfect for every type of school. Lee and Breakthrough are more traditional Montessori, so they probably don't alter their practices to do well on that part of the assessment.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WHAT: Rocketship PCS-Legacy Prep (located in Ward 7) has the highest score at 94.6% for the PK-8 framework. This is the highest score of any first-year school. (As a first-year school, Rocketship PCS - Legacy Prep did not receive a Tier.)

No students took the PARCC test at Rocketship last year (it went through 2nd grade). Not knocking the school. I think that the comparing and ranking schools based on PMF score is a worthy goal - but the apples are really not apples in some cases.

So what's left then to even measure? Re-enrollment is out, growth is out, PARCC is out. Attendance? Site visit?

The students did very well on NWEA reading and math (25/25 for each); attendance was 90.4% (5/10); school environment including CLASS 85/90).

https://www.dcpcsb.org/sites/default/files/2018-10-29%20Rocketship%20DC%20PCS%20%E2%80%93%20Legacy%20Prep%20PK-8%20PMF.pdf

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WHAT: Rocketship PCS-Legacy Prep (located in Ward 7) has the highest score at 94.6% for the PK-8 framework. This is the highest score of any first-year school. (As a first-year school, Rocketship PCS - Legacy Prep did not receive a Tier.)

No students took the PARCC test at Rocketship last year (it went through 2nd grade). Not knocking the school. I think that the comparing and ranking schools based on PMF score is a worthy goal - but the apples are really not apples in some cases.

So what's left then to even measure? Re-enrollment is out, growth is out, PARCC is out. Attendance? Site visit?

Yes, exactly. Just attendance and the site visits/observations called CLASS plus MAP growth. Rocketship's first campus started out Tier 1 with just those few measures and then dropped to Tier 2 when PARCC scores were included. It will be interesting to see what happens when MAP growth is replaced with PARCC growth. This isn't something unique to Rocketship. It's hard to compare schools that are just starting and have only one or two grades with schools that have a larger grade span and more measures.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does "instructional support" actually mean?

Under CLASS? See below.

What does CLASS assess? CLASS focuses on teacher-child interactions. CLASS assesses processes rather
than structure. Tis means that CLASS is not looking at the content of the physical environment, materials, or specific curricula. At the broadest level, CLASS describes three domains of teacher-child interactions that support children’s learning and development: Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support.
• Emotional Support captures how teachers help children develop positive relationships, enjoyment in learning, comfort in the classroom, and appropriate levels of independence.
• Classroom Organization focuses on how teachers manage the classroom to maximize learning and keep children engaged.
• Instructional Support involves how teachers promote children’s thinking and problem solving, use feedback to deepen understanding, and help children develop more complex language skills.

I have to wonder how that is measured. I looked at several of the reports and it looked like many were below target in that area. Lee, where I send my kid, also was. But I feel like that's part of what they do so well there, hands on problem solving and contextual understanding. Are schools given ideas for improvement in the areas they score below target?

My kids go to LAMB and this Instructional Support is always where they receive their worst score. I believe it is hard for Montessori programs to score well on this measure because by design they are more hands-off in directing the kids. I thought I read that they were working on a way to take this in to account in this measurement.

Instructional Support is where all of the preschools generally receive a lower score than in the other two CLASS indicators. The range for points for Instructional Support is between a 2 and 4. The range for the other two indicators is 4.5 to 6.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Creative Minds parents are going to panic.

They should be used to it - 3rd year they have been mid Tier 2.

The percentage of economically disadvantaged students did grow by 10% last year though.

CMI parent here- not panicking

They went from 59.3 last year to 55.4 this year. The growth measurements are very low.

Also CMI parent, not worried. Its not apples to apples -- CMI was accessed PK3 -7 almost all the other schools only go to 5th grade. A

There are other schools like ITS and TR to compare to to. Even if you compare scores at grade level, CMI is consistently in bottom tier of schools. Full stop.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does "instructional support" actually mean?

Under CLASS? See below.

What does CLASS assess? CLASS focuses on teacher-child interactions. CLASS assesses processes rather
than structure. Tis means that CLASS is not looking at the content of the physical environment, materials, or specifc curricula. At the broadest level, CLASS describes three domains of teacher-child interactions that support children’s learning and development: Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support.
• Emotional Support captures how teachers help children develop positive relationships, enjoyment in learning, comfort in the classroom, and appropriate levels of independence.
• Classroom Organization focuses on how teachers manage the classroom to maximize learning and keep children engaged.
• Instructional Support involves how teachers promote children’s thinking and problem solving, use feedback to deepen understanding, and help children develop more complex language skills.

I have to wonder how that is measured. I looked at several of the reports and it looked like many were below target in that area. Lee, where I send my kid, also was. But I feel like that's part of what they do so well there, hands on problem solving and contextual understanding. Are schools given ideas for improvement in the areas they score below target?

I was wondering this same thing. Also at Montessori, could it be that? Check out the long form QSR report - are those also out now?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WHAT: Rocketship PCS-Legacy Prep (located in Ward 7) has the highest score at 94.6% for the PK-8 framework. This is the highest score of any first-year school. (As a first-year school, Rocketship PCS - Legacy Prep did not receive a Tier.)

No students took the PARCC test at Rocketship last year (it went through 2nd grade). Not knocking the school. I think that the comparing and ranking schools based on PMF score is a worthy goal - but the apples are really not apples in some cases.

So what's left then to even measure? Re-enrollment is out, growth is out, PARCC is out. Attendance? Site visit?

Yes, exactly. Just attendance and the site visits/observations called CLASS plus MAP growth. Rocketship's first campus started out Tier 1 with just those few measures and then dropped to Tier 2 when PARCC scores were included. It will be interesting to see what happens when MAP growth is replaced with PARCC growth. This isn't something unique to Rocketship. It's hard to compare schools that are just starting and have only one or two grades with schools that have a larger grade span and more measures.

This is what happened at Sela this year. Can someone explain why PARCC scores would bring down the score after MAP scores were only included the first few years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

This is what happened at Sela this year. Can someone explain why PARCC scores would bring down the score after MAP scores were only included the first few years?

The MAP growth score is calculated against a national pool of similarly scoring students. PARCC growth scores are calculated against a pool of similarly scoring students in DC. There must be something about how those shake out that a lot of the DC schools do better against the national pool. This is from the PCSB manual:

"1. Progress Measure for grades K-3
a. Measure: NWEA MAP’s CGP captures the student’s percentile of growth compared
to all students in the same grade with the same starting RIT score in grades K-3 to
measure student progress.8 The CGP for each student is set by the publisher’s 2015
norms, based on the student’s initial assessment score. Note: this measure is included
in the tiered portion of the PMF only for schools ending in grades kindergarten, 1, 2,
or 3.
(1) A CGP is calculated for each student by the publisher, which shows how the
student performed compared with other students, nationally, who take NWEA
MAP.
(2) All students’ CGP scores for a school are arrayed from high to low and the
median of these scores becomes the school’s growth score for both ELA and
Math. The higher the score, the more improvement students made compared
with all students, nationally, who are taking the same assessment.
(3) This is a one-year measure."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:WHAT: Rocketship PCS-Legacy Prep (located in Ward 7) has the highest score at 94.6% for the PK-8 framework. This is the highest score of any first-year school. (As a first-year school, Rocketship PCS - Legacy Prep did not receive a Tier.)

No students took the PARCC test at Rocketship last year (it went through 2nd grade). Not knocking the school. I think that the comparing and ranking schools based on PMF score is a worthy goal - but the apples are really not apples in some cases.

So what's left then to even measure? Re-enrollment is out, growth is out, PARCC is out. Attendance? Site visit?

Yes, exactly. Just attendance and the site visits/observations called CLASS plus MAP growth. Rocketship's first campus started out Tier 1 with just those few measures and then dropped to Tier 2 when PARCC scores were included. It will be interesting to see what happens when MAP growth is replaced with PARCC growth. This isn't something unique to Rocketship. It's hard to compare schools that are just starting and have only one or two grades with schools that have a larger grade span and more measures.

This is what happened at Sela this year. Can someone explain why PARCC scores would bring down the score after MAP scores were only included the first few years?

What happened at Sela appears to be low reading levels for a handful of upper grade students (which is a small pool to begin with) tugging down the whole schools average just enough to make in tier 2. This is the beauty and the beast of small sample sizes. It can create pendulum swings based on a few members of the pool.

[Anonymous]

For what it's worth, I am a parent of a student at Breakthrough in my third year at the school. I understand the reason for those scores but it is not at all reflective of the quality of education my kid is receiving. Breakthrough is only around for 2 years when it got tested and only its kindergarten scores got counted toward its final grade. It's Pre-K 3 and 4 kids tested in the 90th percentile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:For what it's worth, I am a parent of a student at Breakthrough in my third year at the school. I understand the reason for those scores but it is not at all reflective of the quality of education my kid is receiving. Breakthrough is only around for 2 years when it got tested and only its kindergarten scores got counted toward its final grade. It's Pre-K 3 and 4 kids tested in the 90th percentile.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What does "instructional support" actually mean?

Under CLASS? See below.

What does CLASS assess? CLASS focuses on teacher-child interactions. CLASS assesses processes rather
than structure. Tis means that CLASS is not looking at the content of the physical environment, materials, or specific curricula. At the broadest level, CLASS describes three domains of teacher-child interactions that support children’s learning and development: Emotional Support, Classroom Organization, and Instructional Support.
• Emotional Support captures how teachers help children develop positive relationships, enjoyment in learning, comfort in the classroom, and appropriate levels of independence.
• Classroom Organization focuses on how teachers manage the classroom to maximize learning and keep children engaged.
• Instructional Support involves how teachers promote children’s thinking and problem solving, use feedback to deepen understanding, and help children develop more complex language skills.

I have to wonder how that is measured. I looked at several of the reports and it looked like many were below target in that area. Lee, where I send my kid, also was. But I feel like that's part of what they do so well there, hands on problem solving and contextual understanding. Are schools given ideas for improvement in the areas they score below target?

My kids go to LAMB and this Instructional Support is always where they receive their worst score. I believe it is hard for Montessori programs to score well on this measure because by design they are more hands-off in directing the kids. I thought I read that they were working on a way to take this in to account in this measurement.

Instructional Support is where all of the preschools generally receive a lower score than in the other two CLASS indicators. The range for points for Instructional Support is between a 2 and 4. The range for the other two indicators is 4.5 to 6.

I'm a certified CLASS observer and the range for all 3 areas is 1-7.