The Boulder Valley and St. Vrain Valley superintendents want to see the state’s accountability system revamped, saying a recent audit that found the system is working as designed also uncovered serious flaws.
Boulder Valley’s Rob Anderson and St. Vrain’s Don Haddad are among the 21 superintendents on the Denver Area School Superintendents’ Council, which is pushing for changes to the accountability system. The group is calling for a system that “accurately and comprehensively measures and advances students’ learning and progress,” isn’t biased, uses timely data and sets high expectations.
“As the practitioners, we’re united on this position,” Anderson said. “The accountability system needs to evolve. We need to do better.”
The audit, which was required by 2021 state legislation, was conducted by the Human Resources Research Organization and released this week. The audit described the state’s accountability system as “reasonable and appropriate.”
The audit didn’t identify any significant gaps in the accountability system’s design, concluding it’s working as designed because school and district performance ratings are consistent with state test scores and other performance indicators.
State ratings are based mainly on achievement on statewide tests and growth from year to year on language arts and math tests. At high schools, ratings also include graduation and dropout rates and college entrance exam scores. Schools in the lowest two of the four rating categories face state sanctions if they don’t improve after five consecutive years.
Haddad, a longtime critic of the accountability system, said the audit’s description of the system as “reasonable” isn’t much of an endorsement.
“‘Reasonable’ is a term you use when you see inherent problems, but you’re not ready to come out and state those problems unequivocally,” he said. “There’s a lot to be gleaned by that choice of words.”
He said the audit identifies multiple flaws, including showing a correlation between poverty and lower average scores, even for students in highly rated schools and districts. The audit found similar issues of potential bias for students of color and with disabilities. Instead of accurately measuring school quality, he said, the system is measuring poverty — and placing schools and districts with high poverty rates at a disadvantage.
“The report has identified a whole host of people for whom the data is not reflective of their abilities,” Haddad said.
Another flaw identified in the audit comes down to resources. Students tend to score higher if they attend schools that offer more advanced and career and technical education classes, but high poverty schools and districts tend to offer fewer of those classes
“If you’re a school or district that lacks resources, or lacks adequate resources, then you are at an a disadvantage in this system,” Haddad said. “That’s a problem.”
Another concern raised by the audit is that achievement data is less accurate for small schools and districts — and about 85% of the state’s districts fall into that category, he said. Then there’s the issue of how the data is reported. While the tests are given with about two months still left in the school year, he said, the scores are reported to the public as end-of-the-year math and reading levels.
“That is misleading at best,” Haddad said. “You cannot give a test two months prior, then report it back as if it was an end of the year result.”
He said he doesn’t want to get rid of either testing or a state accountability system, but instead wants the system improved so the state’s ratings “reflect reality” and aren’t misleading or inaccurate.
“I want a system that is rigorous, reliable, accurate, operates with integrity and does not discriminate against children,” he said. “I think we can achieve that if we come together with an open mind and look at this system as it exists and ask the hard questions.”
Anderson agreed that accountability is important. He said the state’s accountability system was once considered cutting edge. But more than a decade later, it needs updates to continue to provide good information.
“This system is failing so many of our communities,” he said. “We should be pushing back on anybody who says we’re fine where we are.”
He noted Boulder Valley is always highly rated, but the state’s system “glosses over” disparities in achievement among student groups, such as students in poverty and students of color. So the district created its own public dashboard based on its strategic plan goals that looks at a wide range of measures, from who is taking advanced classes to data on student discipline.
“It’s powerful,” Anderson said. “We can have conversations about what we can do to do better for kids. Every community should have that opportunity.”
