Monday, April 28, 2014

Stay tuned on the growth model

You might remember that at the last Board of Ed meeting, there was testimony and discussion around the use of student growth in calculating which districts are targeted for increased or additional charter schools. The Commissioner essentially deferred the decision to this month and this meeting, saying that he wanted it that calculation to parallel that in the NCLB waiver, which the Board discusses this month. Tomorrow, in fact.
This weekend, CommonWealth revealed that changes might not be coming after all:
Wulfson also suggested that, in the wake of concerns being raised by charter school leaders, Chester is rethinking his proposal to raise the growth component of the charter formula to 30 percent. “He’s signaling that if folks would like to spend some more time looking at this and studying it, he’s amenable to that,” said Wulfson. “He’s not saying 70-30 is the only possible outcome.” 
Yes, the charter schools weren't going to be able to expand any which way they wanted, threw a fit, and now the Commisisoner is (possibly) backing off.

Let's be super clear here: there is no merit to using only MCAS scores to determine this. There is no educational reason to leave growth out of the calculation. The only reason to stay with the status quo?
Political.

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