EVALUATING EDUCATION
Western States Dispute Education Grades
By Headwaters News, 1-05-06
The grades are in and the "students" aren't happy. The "teacher" is a study by the national magazine Education Week and the "students" are the Western states.
The 10th annual "Quality Counts" study looks at states' standards and accountability; efforts to improve teacher quality; school climate; and resource equity.
The national average on the "test" was a "C+." Wyoming scored an overall "C"; Utah scored below average on three of the four categories; Montana brought home a dismal "D"; and N.M. Gov. Bill Richardson proudly took credit for his state's "B" grade.
The Casper Star-Tribune reports that Wyoming education officials say a philosophical difference over management practices pulled down Wyoming's overall grade. Wyoming school districts maintain control over standards and accountability, a category in which Education Week gives high grades to states that maintain control at the state level. Wyoming recieved a perfect score for its facilities, class sizes and school sizes, due in large part to the hundreds of millions of dollars the state has poured into school construction.
Utah took a beating for its multiple-choice standardized test format. The Salt Lake Tribune quotes Mark Peterson, director of public relations for the Utah Office of Education, as saying, "We plead guilty on multiple-choice testing. It's the most cost-efficient way of grading tests, and we are resource-starved."
Although Utah scored poorly on two other categories, it did well on the resource equity portion of the study, which gave the state a "B-" for its equity in funding districts because poorer districts in the state often have higher per-pupil funding levels than wealthier districts, a situation found in only 10 states.
Montana's highest grade on the study was a "C-" which it earned in the "school climate" category, which looks at class sizes, parental involvement and school size. An Associated Press story in the Helena Independent Record said that Montana's Superintendent of Public Instruction has been critical of similar national studies because the state usually fares poorly on them because, in Montana, curriculum decisions are made at the school, rather than at the state, level.
Montana's efforts to improve teacher quality garnered only a "D+", and only Iowa scored worse in the education standards and accountability category.
New Mexico's stellar performance brought home an overall "B", a grade New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson was quick to attribute to the slate of education measures his administration had supported.
An Associated Press story in the Santa Fe New Mexican said the only category in which the state received a grade lower than a "B", was school climate, which includes parental involvement, an aspect of the state's education program Richardson said they're working on.
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