The Federal Reserve Bank of New York released a study of Florida’s accountability system–the one that Jeb Bush brags about–and concludes that the system promotes behavior to game the system. Schools are assigning children to categories where they will not lower the school’s letter grade.
Here is a succinct summary of the paper:, from the Wall Street Journal blog:
“The way some schools are being held to account for student performance can corrupt how these institutions seek to achieve the standards, a new paper from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York warns.
“The bank’s researchers took at look at what happened among some schools in Florida around the turn of the millennium. What they found was alarming.
“Analysts Rajashri Chakrabarti and Noah Schwartz found evidence some Sunshine State schools deliberately moved underperforming students into exempt categories in order to have those students not drag down the performance of the school as a whole.”
This, of course, has nothing to do with improving education or addressing the needs of the children. It is all about meeting a target.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“This, of course, has nothing to do with improving education or addressing the needs of the children. It is all about meeting a target.”
And Bush’s tact is no different in motivation than is Canada’s “firing” an entire class, or KIPP’s excluding pre-senior-year dropouts from its graduation count, or John White’s hiding school data, or New Schools for New Orleans’ “blending: data categories to make RSD appear successful. All attempt to promote an illusion of “success” at the expense of children and schools and districts.
Reblogged this on Transparent Christina and commented:
BUT NEVER, EVER in Delaware.
This is why LAUSD does not care if over 117,000 don’t come to school everyday as they are generally the low performers and that raises the test scores for all else. Simple math. Standard game when there is no accountability and no price to pay. Now California is getting set to dramatically increase the revenue of some schools and throw away accountability by “Realignment” just like we just had in the criminal justice system and that results in no oversight at all.
I wonder why the Federal Reserve Bank of NY, or even its employees, are doing education research?
The crazy economists are at it again.
I demand a full review any sampling methodology used in this report.
Especially with this slant. Most of these economists go in paid to find something wrong. Enter Hand-u-another lie Hanuschek.
“The way some schools are being held to account for student performance can corrupt how these institutions seek to achieve the standards…”
A more accurate description of our current style of assessment has never been written.
“The way some schools are being held to account for student performance can corrupt how these institutions seek to achieve the standards…”
Sounds like Campbell’s Law strikes again.
Amazing how the accountability idiots who design these flawed systems so poorly are never held accountable! Imagine if you designed a bank that had no way to properly prevent fraud, malfeasance and abuse. Whose fault would it be if people gamed the system ?
Makes you wonder if George W. wasn’t the “smarter one” after all.
“Imagine if you designed a bank that had no way to properly prevent fraud, malfeasance and abuse.”
Hmmmm……I guess you’d get banks speculating in and dealing very risky financial instruments, a collapse of the entire global economy, the bailout and enrichment of the 1 percent, the 99 percent stuck with the bill and the consequences. I don’t need to imagine it, I can see the result….
Reminds me of the “Texas Miracle,” where Houston School Superintendent Rod Paige took credit for decreasing the dropout rate to ZERO, and test scores magically went up. Turns out it was all a hoax.
What does Dubya do? Promote the fraudster (Rod) to Secretary of Education! The lesson here? Lie and cheat to get promoted.
So tell me why again we should be surprised with Florida?
Crime pays!!!
Yes. Absolutely true.
But it happens everywhere in so-called “education reform”: these guys who claim to have brought about a “miracle turnaround” do so by just comprising their data set exclusively from those students who achieve food test scores.
So, it’s easy to understand THEIR motivation in all this. However, where is the mainstream media? Are they unable to see such crude and obvious tactics, or do they just not care, or are they too beholden to their management or ownership that is in cahoots with the “Ed Reform” establishment?
While it may clearly appear to be an attempt to disguise their school’s actual performance, the categories for under performing students may be in the student’s best interest. It may be the only way that schools can survive the pressures of NCLB. I was told that by 2014 all schools will be failing according to the stats they are required to meet. If the system is going to fail out schools, schools will have no choice but to get creative.
That’s right. NCLB created a game, and those that knew how to play the game showed “success” in their school. In fact, a former principal of mine played it so well, she was promoted to area Superintendent.
But my question is…am I the only one tired of “The Game?”
I think the “reformers” would tell you that the students’ best interest and the schools’ survival are completely different, and at odds. These people don’t value the survival of a school as a goal in itself, as we can see in Chicago and now Michigan.
I didn’t have time to read the entire study. I cruised through it quickly and read the blog entry.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but nowhere in the study did I see anything about gaming the system in terms of teaching to the test.
THAT is the biggest game of all.
There are many ways to game the system, but teaching to the test is the number one approach to gaming.
Imagine an assistant principal making sure that teachers have the ability to survey these tests? Imagine a hard-working assistant principal actually making it a point to either copy the tests or become well acquainted with the tests? Then imagine that same assistant principal distributing prep materials for the test.
There are all sorts of scenarios.
Accountability based on test scores is stupid. Period.
Yet this will not make a dent in the reasoning of the WSJ Editorial writers.
“Sunshine State schools deliberately moved underperforming students into exempt categories in order to have those students not drag down the performance of the school as a whole.”
“Exempt categories”?!?!
Funny. In all of his speeches where he claims to have greatly improved the test scores of Florida’s students, Jeb Bush has never once mentioned these “exempt categories”. Ever.
Why not?
Maybe Jeb Bush could begin by telling us what this “exempt category” is. (Perhaps it depends on what your definition of “is”, is? Could that help explain it, Jeb?)
Does this mean that all of this time when you’ve been bragging about your “tremendous success” with Florida’s K-12 education system, you’ve neglected to tell us the full story?
So, how many Florida students were allowed this “exempt” status? How many actively chose it as opposed to the number who had it imposed upon them? Or were students and their parents not even informed that were in this “exempt” status? Were the “exempt” students even allowed to take these tests? Or were they told not to do so? If they did take these standardized exams, where are their results? By what criteria were certain students excluded? And who made that determination? Can the public find out more about this?
So many questions to be posed for Jeb Bush about this new finding. I wonder if this was on the Official Agenda at yesterday’s Secret Meeting of the Elite, in South Carolina?