OVERVIEW
SYSTEMS DASHBOARD: STUDENT PERFORMANCE DATA
MEASURING STUDENT PERFORMANCE AT THE MACRO LEVEL
An effective education system requires meaningful and accurate feedback data for evaluating education performance at both a micro level (individual student and staff performance) and a macro level (system performance at different units of scale, i.e., school, district, state, and nation). The macro-level feedback is particularly critical as it identifies how well the system is serving its children over time, across different system levels, and by student subgroups. Ultimately an education system must be measured by the overall sum of its parts.
Benchmarking education performance at the macro level has its limitations. The scale of measurement is large. The indicators often reflect the aggregation of data from multitudinous units of performance. Drawing conclusions about specific causal relations becomes very challenging as the data may consist of performance averages, include the cumulative impact of numerous interventions, and reflect snapshots in time (e.g., annual data). Additionally, indicators need to be reliable (repeated measures of the same event yield the same score), valid (they measure what we think they are measuring), and socially relevant (the outcomes reflect society’s values).
The primary macro-level indicators—standardized tests, high school graduation rates, and drop-out rates—are often challenged as not meeting these standards. However, there are national and international standardized tests that meet the highest standards of reliability, validity, and social relevance. And the metrics being used to calculate graduation and drop-out rates have improved significantly.
click for more information
on measurement at the macro level
One of the goals of macro-level indicators is to provide a comprehensive picture of how U.S. students perform in key academic subject areas. Nationally representative data on student achievement comes primarily from the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) and U.S. participation in a number of international assessments: The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), and The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
STUDENT PERFORMANCE TOOLS
STANDARDIZED TESTS
The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP): NAEP provides a continuing assessment of what American students know and can do in math, reading, science, writing, the arts, civics, economics, geography, and U.S. history. NAEP is administered by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), a division of the Institute of Education Sciences in the U.S. Department of Education. It tests 4th, 8th, and 12th grade students every two years in reading, math and science.
click for more information on NAEP
The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA): PISA is a carefully constructed and well-documented test instrument for measuring student academic performance across nations. (cit. 3) Coordinated by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), this international study has been conducted every 3 years since 2000. It measures the performance of 15-year-old students in 35 member and 25 participating countries in reading, mathematics, and science.
click for more information on NAEP
The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS): PIRLS is an international comparative assessment that measures 4th student learning in reading. Since 2001, PIRLS has been administered every 5 years. PIRLS documents worldwide trends in the reading knowledge of 4th-graders as well as school and teacher practices related to instruction.
click for more information on PIRLS
The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS): TIMSS provides reliable and timely data on the mathematics and science achievement of U.S. students compared to that of students in other countries. TIMSS data have been collected from students at grades 4 and 8 since 1995 every 4 years.
click for more information on TIMSS
GRADUATION RATES
The Four-year Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR): The ACGR rate is the number of U.S. students who graduate in 4 years with a regular high school diploma divided by the number of students who entered high school 4 years earlier. The formula was implemented in the 2010-11 school year. Prior to that year, the less accurate “Average Freshman Graduation Rate (AFGR) was used.
click for more information on ACGR
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD): OECD collects and publishes data on graduation rates across its 34 member countries and 30 participating nations.
click for more information on OECD
DROPOUT RATES
The Four-year Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate (ACGR): The ACGR rate is the number of U.S. students who graduate in 4 years with a regular high school diploma divided by the number of
click for more information drop out rates
STUDENT PERFORMANCE INDICATORS
INDICATOR #1 Current Student Performance
INDICATOR #2 Student Performance by Localities (States and Cities)
INDICATOR #3 Student Performance Trends
INDICATOR #4 Student Performance Gaps Between Different Ethnic Groups
INDICATOR #5 Student Performance Gaps Between Different SES Groups
INDICATOR #1 Current Student Performance
Student academic performance across all students is extremely poor as measured by NAEP. These results are echoed on international standardized tests: PISA, PIRLS, and TIMSS. High School Graduation Rates and Dropout data has shown steady improvement over the last few years.
ACADEMICS: The National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)
The NAEP test has the following levels for student performance: “advanced” represents superior performance, “proficient” represents solid academic performance, and “basic” denotes partial mastery of prerequisite knowledge and skills fundamental for proficient work at each grade. Proficiency has been the critical benchmark as the level at which students have met the standards for a subject area.
The 2015 NAEP test produced the following data on the percentage of students at or above proficiency in reading, math and science: The data shows that two thirds of students are below proficiency in reading at all three selected grade levels. This is trend consistent with the research that tells us children who fall significantly behind in reading at an early age have a very small chance of making up the difference. The proficiency scores for math and science are equally distressing as the significant majority of students are not at proficiency. However the math and science trend data across grades is more alarming as it shows fewer and fewer students at proficiency as they progress through the grades.
click for more information on NAEP grade level performance (fig. 1.1)
ACADEMICS: The Program for International Student Assessment (PISA)
One of the key ways in which PISA data can be used to benchmark student (fifteen year olds) performance is by comparing U.S. scores against 70 other OECD member and participating nations.
In the 2015 PISA assessment, the United States ranked 23rd among participating nations in reading, 39th in mathematics, and 25th in science.
click for more information on PISA performance (table 1.1)
ACADEMICS: The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS)
The PIRLS assessment data benchmarks student (4th graders) reading performance against 53 other international education systems (nations, subnational entities).
In the 2011 PIRLS assessment, the United States was among the top 13 educational systems in reading scores. Five nations performed better and the next eight had statistically equal scores.
click for more information on PIRLS performance (table 1.2)
ACADEMICS: The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS):
The TIMSS assessment data benchmarks student (4th and 8th graders) math and science performance against 53 other international education systems (nations, subnational entities). In the 2015 test, the 4th graders ranked 14th in comparison with other nations. The 8th graders ranked 10th.
click for more information on TIMSS performance (table 1.3)
ACADEMICS: High School Graduation Rates
High school Graduation rates have shown steady progress since 2002, culminating in an 83.2% graduation rate in 2015.
click for more information on High School Graduation performance (figure 1.2)
OECD data for 2014 shows the United States to be 23rd in comparison to other nation’s graduation rates.
click for more information on OECD High School Graduation data (table 1.4)
ACADEMICS: Dropout Rates
Dropout rates have shown steady progress since 2000, culminating in an 5.9% dropout rate in 2015.