Lauren Forrow
Associated IES Content
Blog
Illuminating School Performance Measures: Building a Brighter Flashlight
Attention to historically underserved student groups has long been a focus of federal accountability. In 2022, for the first time in three years, states had to identify low-performing schools, including those where particular subgroups of students are not meeting standards. Secretary Cardona, in an address in January of this year, framed the requirement as an opportunity to rethink accountability.
Date published:
Jun 14, 2023
report
Descriptive Study
Stabilizing Subgroup Proficiency Results to Improve the Identification of Low-Performing Schools
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) requires states to identify schools with low-performing student subgroups for Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) or Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI). Random differences between students' true abilities and their test scores, also called measurement error, reduce the statistical reliability of the performance measures used to identify schools for these categorizations. Measurement error introduces a risk that the identified schools ar...
Feb 27, 2023
Publication number:
REL 2023-001
Blog
Small Student Subgroups and Accountability: How Can We Ensure That All Students Receive the Support They Deserve?
The Every Student Succeeds Act requires states to identify schools that have at least one subgroup of students falling behind. Although states define falling behind differently, they all examine performance across multiple dimensions, such as the percentage who pass statewide exams and the percentage who are chronically absent. The schools in which subgroups are falling behind, called Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) schools, receive additional support from the state and are expec...
Date published:
Nov 12, 2020
report
Descriptive Study
Why school accountability systems disproportionately identify middle schools' SWD subgroups for TSI
The purpose of this study was to understand why middle schools in two mid-Atlantic states were apparently disproportionately identified for targeted support and improvement (TSI) based on the performance of their students with disabilities (SWD) subgroups. The study used publicly available data to examine differences across school levels -- elementary, middle, and high -- and between all students and SWDs. It is relevant to compare all students to SWDs because accountability systems designate...
Oct 01, 2020