Passing the test, but making the grade?

When the Public Policy Forum decided to dive deeply into the finances of the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) six months ago, we did so with considerable trepidation. Having tracked MPS' finances on a general level for the past several years, we were well aware of the district's huge retiree health care liability, the fiscal threat posed by declining enrollment, and the impacts of the latest state budget. Despite the good news we were hearing from MPS officials about the impacts of soon-to-be-implemented fringe benefit changes, we were concerned about precisely what we would find when we lifted the hood and dug into the mechanics of MPS' finances.

Today, after completing our comprehensive assessment of MPS' fiscal condition, we are relieved to say that the school district’s short-term fiscal outlook is not as ominous as we had feared. In fact, the district’s most recent five-year forecast projects a 2017 deficit of about $41 million, which is actually more optimistic than similar forecasts prepared by the City of Milwaukee and Milwaukee County. We also find, however, that the volatile and uncontrollable fiscal environment in which the district must operate creates an “untenable fiscal structure” that continues to raise serious questions about MPS' longer-term future.

Our 84-page report - entitled Passing the Test, But Making the Grade? and released this morning – uses the same fiscal monitoring methodology used previously for reports on Milwaukee County, the City of Milwaukee, MATC, and MMSD. It examines fiscal trends, compares MPS to state and national peers, and analyzes the causes and scope of the district’s fiscal challenges.

A major undercurrent of the report is MPS' lack of control over its own financial destiny. The district is far more dependent than other local governments on state funding, and much more susceptible to fiscal upheaval from policy and program decisions made in Madison and elsewhere. Those decisions not only can involve state appropriations and revenue limits, but also regulatory changes to charter school or private school choice programs that can sharply affect MPS enrollment. MPS' finances also can be hit hard by the chartering decisions of outside entities, and by demographic trends impacting the city.

Other key findings from the Forum's new report on MPS' financial condition:

• While the near-term future is looking better, deep structural issues remain. MPS' health care changes planned for the 2013-14 school year – assuming the continued legality of Wisconsin Act 10 – will save almost $35 million annually and reduce its retiree health care liability by $1.4 billion. The longer-term future looks far more challenging, however, as the district’s revenue streams are likely to be constrained well into the future; its retiree health care liability will remain daunting; and its ability to further reduce personnel costs will be limited by its need to attract and retain quality teachers and administrators to compete with voucher, charter and suburban schools.
• MPS’ high expenditure levels must be placed in context. While prohibitive fringe benefit costs have been an issue, MPS’ high levels of per-pupil spending are driven much more by its receipt of large amounts of state and federal categorical aids. Those funds are used largely to support economically disadvantaged and special needs students, who comprise the vast majority of MPS’ student population. When categorical funds are excluded, the district’s per-pupil spending is only slightly above the state average.
• MPS’ greatest challenge is its lack of fiscal options. After its initial rounds of benefits changes, MPS will have few alternatives left to counter the effects of flat state funding and declining enrollments. The district does not have program revenue, as do other local governments, and it is unlikely to be able to grow the property tax at the same rate as in the past. Meanwhile, enrollment competition exerts pressure on MPS to maintain its teacher compensation structure and capital footprint, and potential programmatic cutbacks run the risk of reducing program quality and engendering further enrollment and revenue loss.

The report credits MPS leaders for pursuing a balanced approach to stabilize the district’s finances that includes not only substantial fringe benefits changes, but also a new facilities master plan and renewed dedication to operational efficiencies. Overall, however, it is difficult to gauge whether successful implementation of those strategies will be enough to solve the district’s fiscal challenges.

For example, the report's fiscal modeling shows that if the 2013-14 benefit changes are implemented, if the district can achieve marginal annual growth in combined equalization aids and property tax levy under future state revenue limits and appropriations, and if MPS can achieve a limited reduction in salary expenditures, then balanced budgets are readily achievable in the next five years. Under another plausible scenario, however, in which the benefits changes made possible by Act 10 do not fully take effect, major revenue streams remain flat, and salary expenditures decrease by a lesser amount, a dire fiscal picture emerges.

The report concludes by stating that “perhaps the most troublesome question raised by the fiscal assessment is whether any entity could be expected to effectively manage a fiscal predicament as challenging as that faced by MPS in an environment that is plagued with such uncertainty."

That finding leads us to urge local and state leaders to reach agreement – once and for all – on the role MPS will play in the city’s education framework, and to define and secure the resources required to effectively fulfill that role.

The full report can be accessed here.

Racine Unified Takes Proactive Steps to Close Achievement Gaps, Enhance Accountability

Across the state, school accountability has been a hot topic in recent weeks, including the first release of individual school report cards in late October, which sparked lively public discussion about how to effectively measure and improve school quality, student achievement, and teacher effectiveness.

In Southeast Wisconsin, Racine Unified School District (RUSD) is actively engaged in addressing these questions. The district has been working since 2009 to reach its North Star Vision, a community-wide effort to hold the district accountable for grade level performance targets. The intent is to improve student achievement and close achievement gaps so that every student can graduate from high school ready for success in college or careers.

In the Forum’s 15^th annual report comparing RUSD with nine peer districts across Wisconsin, we analyze the district’s performance not only as compared to the peers and North Star targets, but against the overall context of community and student demographics, district finances, student engagement, and state-level policy changes. This year’s report also contains an analysis of school- and district-level value-added student growth, which measures the impact of schools and teachers on student learning.

Among our key findings:

• North Star scorecard: Consistent with last year’s findings, the district generally did not meet its North Star grade level targets. This suggests the targets are in need of revisiting, especially as student growth takes on increased relevance in the statewide accountability system and the WKCE is phased out in favor of a new state assessment. It is anticipated that a new superintendent will investigate the need for revisions to the North Star framework in light of past performance and new state objectives and measures.
• High school completion: The state’s focus on college and career readiness sharpens attention on the district’s high school completion rate, which showed a modest gain in 2010-11 to 73.2%. All student subgroups except white students increased their graduation rate over 2009-10, with African American students showing the most dramatic rise—7.4 percentage points to 60.6%.
• WKCE proficiency rates: The 2011-12 school year brought mixed results in overall district reading and math proficiency. Historically, reading proficiency rates in the district have been among the lowest relative to peer districts and have tended to be higher in 8^th grade than in 4^th grade, only be precipitously lower in 10^th grade. In 2011-12, however, the reading proficiency of Racine 10^th graders jumped seven percentage points to 59%. As with reading, Racine’s math performance is lower than its peer districts and the state average. Unlike last year, however, when the district showed no progress over the prior year, 2011-12 saw Racine’s math proficiency improve slightly in all three grades.
• Value-added growth: RUSD’s average value-added growth in reading over the past three years is equivalent to average growth statewide and outpaces growth in four peer districts. In math, RUSD lagged the state average and was the lowest of the peer districts. At the school level, all but two of RUSD’s 21 elementary schools met or exceeded the state average growth in reading, while all but six did so in math. Notably, the majority of these schools started below the state average in WKCE achievement. These results show how value-added growth analysis paints the picture of achievement with a different brush and highlights the progress of all students, not only those who meet proficiency standards in a given year.

Although it is too soon to tell precisely how the current education reforms will affect the district as a whole, it is clear that RUSD will be feeling their impacts for years to come. Despite the economic challenges RUSD continually faces, this year’s report shows RUSD entering the new policy environment with the momentum of community support of the North Star vision, vital initiatives to strengthen student engagement and early childhood education, and a firm commitment to narrowing achievement gaps related to race, income, language, and disability. For a copy of the 15^th Annual Comparative Analysis of Racine Unified School District, click here. The report was sponsored by Education Racine Inc. and The Johnson Foundation.

New standards and tough goals for region's school districts.

Public school districts in southeast Wisconsin are likely to be hard-pressed to meet new annual performance objectives adopted by the state in connection with its No Child Left Behind Act waiver.  The new objectives are quite ambitious, requiring significant annual improvement by all demographic subgroups of students.  In the latest edition of our annual report, "Public Schooling in Southeast Wisconsin," we find that of all the subgroups and across all subjects, in only one instance – white students in math – does past performance indicate the six-year goal is readily achievable.  All other subgroups in all other subjects would need to dramatically improve proficiency if the goals are to be met.  

This year’s report highlights the host of other new state and federal education policies that will greatly impact local schools, as well, such as the adoption of the Common Core State Standards, new school report cards, changes in state standardized testing, and implementation of teacher effectiveness measures.

Major findings include:

• A continued five-year gap between southeast Wisconsin students and students in the rest of the state in reading, math, and science proficiency, as measured by the state’s standardized assessment, the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Exam.
• Overall declines in state aid, federal aid, and local property taxes when comparing 2010-11 actual amounts to  2011-12 budgets, coupled with cuts in expenditures.  The 2011-12 budgets for the region’s school districts averaged $665 less per pupil in total expenses and $525 less per pupil in instructional expenses than the previous year.
• Mostly positive trends in college readiness.  The percentage of students in the region taking the ACT increased 1.1 percentage points, while the region’s composite score declined slightly from 22.8 in 2010 to 22.7 in 2011.  The percentage of AP exams passed by southeast Wisconsin students increased by 1.3 points, and the region’s high school completion rate increased by 0.8 percentage points over the past year.
• Improved student engagement.  Southeast Wisconsin attendance rates rose slightly over the last year, outpacing a statewide increase. Truancy rates in the region dropped, but remain higher than the statewide average. Dropout rates in the region fell more in the region than across the state as a whole.
• A 0.8% decline in enrollment in southeast Wisconsin during the past year, representing the largest one-year decline in enrollment in the region in the past five years.  
• Another year of growing poverty rates.  Almost half of all students in southeast Wisconsin (46%) received free or reduced-price lunch during the 2011-2012 school year, up 11.6  percentage points from 2005-06.

The report is sponsored by Alverno College, Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin, Multiple Listing Service, Northwestern Mutual Foundation, Southeastern Wisconsin Schools Alliance, and Waukesha County Technical College.   

A spreadsheet of schooling data for all districts in the 7-county region is also available.      

A closer look at non-instructional expenditures in suburban school districts

The Forum released a new report this morning that examines out-of-classroom expenditures in Milwaukee County's suburban school districts. The examination was prompted by the increased pressure faced by most districts to identify operational cost savings while also maintaining or enhancing academic performance. Given the apparent conflict between the two imperatives, non-instructional areas of spending are likely to receive increased focus for possible cost-saving opportunities, including possible service sharing with other districts or local governments.

The report focuses on the dollars spent on non-instructional support services, including administrative, "back office" functions (e.g. payroll, accounting, information technology); administration of ongoing operations and school buildings; non-instructional pupil services, such as social work and guidance; and instructional staff services, such as curriculum development and staff training.

Among our key findings:

• Milwaukee County suburban school districts tend to spend more on support services per pupil than their peers from across the state. This finding is particularly perceptible for the smaller and wealthier school districts in the county.
• Fourteen of the 17 Milwaukee County suburban districts are at or above their peer medians in support services expenditures when measured as a percentage of total expenditures. Consequently, support services expenditures constitute a greater proportion of these districts’ budgets and require a greater share of district revenues.
• There is considerable variation within Milwaukee County in support services expenditures per pupil, ranging from $3,220 at Oak Creek-Franklin to $7,035 at Nicolet, and from 29% of total expenditures at Cudahy to 39% at Nicolet and Fox Point-Bayside. Nicolet and its small feeder districts, among the wealthiest districts in terms of property values, generally have the highest expenditure totals per pupil, while the largest districts (Oak Creek-Franklin, West Allis, and Wauwatosa) are among the lowest.
• Many Milwaukee County suburban districts are cooperating with neighboring school districts in providing administrative and other services. Nevertheless, the report identifies three areas of shared services saving opportunities that may hold promise for additional cost savings: cooperative health insurance purchasing, back-office operations, and regional networking.

The report finds that consolidation of back office operations is perhaps the most intriguing of the three options examined, particularly for the Nicolet district and its three feeder districts, all of which are small in size, with high costs, and a tradition of inter-district cooperation. Residents in small- and medium-sized districts in the southern part of the county also might find this attractive given their traditional concerns about cost, and the fact that district borders cross several other municipal taxing jurisdictions, allowing costs to be spread among a larger tax base.

We hope the suburban school districts will consult the expenditure data included in this report as they consider internal fiscal and program evaluations and contemplate budget strategies. We fully expect each district to do so, of course, in the context of its own fiscal and educational circumstances, which may include a preference for a level of services that costs more, but that they determine best meets student needs.

A full copy of the report can be accessed here, and our media release here.

Fighting an uphill battle

It always feels a bit discomforting to say, "Race and economic status are highly correlated to academic achievement." Children can change neither their race nor their income; a statement like the one above can feel like saying these children also cannot improve their academic achievement. But when confronted with the lackluster-to-dismal achievement data of many Milwaukee schools, where the race and income patterns are so stark, its hard to avoid making that statement.

As the Forum's recent report on the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program found, these patterns appear among private school students as well as public school students. In both the public and private sectors in Milwaukee, there are very few schools enrolling predominantly minority and low-income students producing high test scores. (Even among the suburban public schools with fewer minority or low-income children, we've found that as those populations have grown, aggregate test scores have declined.) And while the private school data are new, are they really news, considering how entrenched the pattern has been in the public schools?

What is news is the fact that, while the nation's schools have made some progress in closing the racial achievement gap, the income achievement gap has grown significantly. A recent New York Times story highlights the research of Sean F. Reardon, a Stanford University sociologist, who analyzed data from 12 national studies starting in 1960 and ending in 2007 and found that while the average black-white racial achievement gap has shrunk in half since the 1960s, the gap between children from the wealthiest and poorest families has grown 40% in that time, and is now twice the size of the racial achievement gap.

Schools with low-income students in their charge, whether public or private, are fighting against a nationwide, decades-long trend. While several of these schools, on an individual level, have stellar outcomes, educators are still hunting for the best strategy to improve outcomes system-wide. The hunt requires even more urgency now--the recession is creating more, not fewer, poor families.

Most new voucher users already were enrolled in private schools

The Forum's 14th annual census of schools participating in the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program (MPCP) finds that voucher use by Milwaukee students grew 10% in 2011-12 to 23,198 voucher students, reversing last year’s enrollment decline. In addition, the data indicate that most voucher students are attending hyper-segregated schools that have low reading and math proficiency rates.

The dramatic increase in voucher use is likely due to changes to the program in the most recent state budget, which allowed schools outside Milwaukee to join MPCP and expanded eligibility to include families at higher income levels. As a result, more than 2,200 additional students are using vouchers worth $6,442 each, increasing the program’s cost by $14.2 million.

Most of the new voucher users appear to have already been enrolled in private school. In 56 schools, the number of new voucher users exceed the growth in total enrollment in the school, while in 13 schools voucher growth and enrollment growth were equal. Over the past 10 years, total enrollment in the schools participating in the program has grown by roughly 5,300 students, while the number of voucher users has increased over twice as much.

More students are eligible for vouchers because the income limits for voucher were raised to 300% of the Federal Poverty Level, which means that a family of four earning up to $67,050 per year is now eligible. The median household income in Milwaukee is $35,921 per year. Under the new rules, once a student qualifies for a voucher, he or she remains eligible for all subsequent years, even if the family’s income grows.

The report also includes an analysis of the 2010-2011 state standardized test results of the participating schools, finding that performance among the MPCP schools varies widely. There are a few patterns in the data, however. Reading proficiency rates are higher, on the whole, than math proficiency rates. In addition, schools with fewer voucher users and fewer minority students tend to produce higher proficiency in both reading and math, as do the Catholic and Lutheran schools.

The poor test scores are likely related to the socio-economic and racial demographic make-up of the schools, which mirror the Milwaukee Public Schools, in the aggregate. Nearly half of all MPCP schools have student bodies that are at least 90% minority and/or 90% low income; 65% of all voucher users attend one of these schools.

The report also includes updated data on enrollment trends, schools gaining and losing the most MPCP students, and the aggregate high school drop-out rate. Schools participating in Racine’s new Parental Private School Choice Program are included as well.

The full report and an interactive database of school information are available on the Forum's website.

Measuring the impact of a great teacher

"Value-added" assessment is an increasingly popular method of evaluating the influence of schools and teachers on student achievement. Often, this analysis measures the impact of individual teachers on their students’ standardized test scores, while controlling for factors such as student demographics and test scores from previous years. While local and national education leaders have vigorously debated the significance of standardized testing for many years, a major new report reveals that teachers who perform well in value-added assessments also provide measurable, long-term academic and economic benefits to their students and to society as a whole.

Harvard and Columbia University researchers tracked 2.5 million children from fourth grade to adulthood, assessing the value-added impact of the children’s teachers in grades four through eight and analyzing long-term academic and economic trends. Those who had a high-performing teacher between fourth and eighth grade were found to be more likely to attend college and to earn higher incomes as adults, among other benefits. According to the study, “on average, having such a teacher for one year raises a child's cumulative lifetime income by $50,000.” The difference between having an average rather than low-performing teacher was also found to be significant.

Advocates for value-added assessment have long reasoned that it offers scientific, measurable proof of a teacher’s effectiveness. Many teachers and parents have been less convinced, arguing that it merely shows how effective a teacher is at teaching to the test, which may not have any long-term value. The Harvard/Columbia study may support both sides: while it does not claim that improving test scores alone will produce long-term benefits, it concludes by stating that “good teachers create substantial economic value and…test score impacts are helpful in identifying such teachers.” In other words, teachers who are effective at improving their students’ test scores also are likely to be effective teachers in general, and effective teachers do make a significant difference.

In Wisconsin, with the controversial passage of legislation that strictly limits collective bargaining, many school districts are beginning to redesign their teacher compensation models to emphasize factors related to teacher effectiveness, rather than seniority. Value-added assessment seems likely to be included as a component of some of these new compensation systems.

The Milwaukee Public Schools’ teachers union – which still has a multi-year collective bargaining agreement in place – nonetheless is working with the district to revamp its teacher evaluation system, which will be based partially on student outcomes. MPS officials have been working with UW-Madison researchers at the Value Added Research Center (VARC) for more than 10 years, but this is the first time VARC research will be used in MPS teacher evaluations.

It will be interesting to follow the reaction to the new Harvard/Columbia study as it receives greater scrutiny from academics, education policy-makers and stakeholders. (One critic has already challenged the study's validity, arguing that the students in the study were tested in the early 1990s, before the “high-stakes” eras of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top.) The report’s conclusion, however, strengthens what we intuitively know about the importance of quality teachers, and it seems unlikely that would be altered by any change in policy.

Let's not focus on the achievement gap

A thought-provoking essay in the current issue of National Affairs by the prolific and sardonic Rick Hess of the American Enterprise Institute calls for a retreat from education reform's long-held focus on closing the achievement gap. Hess feels the federal No Child Left Behind Act has, ironically, become "education policy that has shortchanged many children." His thesis is that by focusing on improving achievement scores of the lowest performing subgroups of students, opportunities for reform that would also benefit the other students have been passed up. The result is that many parents, educators, principals, and elected officials see school reform as inapplicable to the average- or highly-performing students who make up the majority of children in most classrooms across the country.

Which begs the question--if most children in the country are, in fact, being served pretty well by their public schools (and there can be strong arguments made that children who are white, or female, or upper class, or suburban are served well enough by public schools), then why should the adults who care for and educate them want to reform their schools? Should education reform affect change throughout the system or should it focus more narrowly on those students poorly served by public schooling?

Hess puts himself firmly in the camp of reformers desiring wide-scale change in the nation's public education system. But there are certainly other schools of thought. Until recently, Wisconsin's school reform history exemplified reform targeting the lowest-performing students in the lowest-performing schools by providing options mostly for low-income, urban students. When Governor Walker came into office and expressed a need to reform labor relations laws applicable to all school districts in the state, as opposed to urban districts only, and to support an expansion of the private school choice program beyond Milwaukee, he ushered in a new era of systemic reform.

A new debate is now waging in our state. Do we need to rethink how we're delivering education services to all students, or should we remain focused on the students falling furthest behind? Hess argues that even the best schools are producing graduates suited only to thrive in a 19th century, or perhaps 20th century, world. For him, the need for systemic reform arises from the 21st century reforms the world is experiencing in nearly all other aspects, from technology to the economy to governance. He concludes, "[D]eciding that school is the place where we teach poor children to read and do math — and that everyone else will be left alone to figure out the rest — seems an impoverished and ultimately self-defeating agenda for education reform in the 21st century."


There are still a significant number of education policy thinkers and reformers who are not ready to conclude the entire system needs an overhaul, however. Just this week, the MacArthur Foundation awarded one of its "genius grants" to an economist whose work focuses on the achievement gap, for example.


In places like Milwaukee, where most students are poor, most are minority, and overall achievement scores are low, the debate over targeted versus systemic reform may be beside the point. But as more and more suburban school districts experience growth in their low-income, minority, and/or immigrant student populations, and see test scores drop, the debate is very relevant.

Networked schools outperform independent schools in world's largest school choice market

Milwaukee's private school voucher program, now in its twelfth year, is dwarfed by the 30-year-old voucher program in Chile, where almost half of all students attend private voucher schools. The Chilean program is therefore of significant interest to school reformers and researchers looking to make voucher and charter schools a success in the US.

The most recent research, published by the Cato Institute, finds that when the Chilean public school test scores are compared with those of independent private schools and with those of private schools that are part of multi-school networks or franchises, the students in the franchised private schools perform best. (The independent, mom-and-pop private schools do about the same as the public schools.) In addition, the Chilean research indicates the more schools there are in the franchised networks, the better they outperform the others.

The researchers note that in Chile, "The private voucher school sector is essentially a cottage industry. More than 70 percent of private voucher schools are independent schools that do not belong to a franchise." The franchised schools are either owned by for-profit school management companies; affiliated with non-profit, secular organizations; or part of the Catholic or Protestant school systems.

Do these findings reflect what we know about Milwaukee's program? Its hard to say, since only one year of comparative data on student performance in voucher schools is available and it does not differentiate between the various types of private schools. However, those data do indicate considerable variability in performance across Milwaukee's voucher schools--some are producing high scoring students and some are no better than the worst public schools. It would be nice to know if all the high performing private schools had something in common besides the fact they participate in the voucher program.

We do know that Milwaukee is in two major ways very dissimilar to Chile, where most private voucher schools are of the independent, mom-and-pop variety. Here, most voucher schools would be considered franchises under Chilean standards, as they are affiliated with a religious organization such as the Catholic Archdiocese or a Lutheran Synod. In addition, for-profit school management networks do not have a significant presence in Milwaukee, although that sector appears likely to grow, particularly in the charter school market.

What might explain the Chilean experience? The researchers posit that the franchised schools may benefit from economies of scale in purchasing, fundraising, and administrative expenses, allowing their leadership to spend less time worrying about budgets and more time focused on instruction. In addition, they suggest that larger networks are better able to spread the costs of implementing new curricula or other reforms. However, the researchers caution there may be another explanation; perhaps the larger franchises are simply better at recruiting good schools to join their networks.

As for-profit school management companies look to expand into the Milwaukee education market, these findings and possibilities are worth bearing in mind. However, at least one education policy wonk cautions not to read too much into any research on the Chilean program, since their system arose not from "a richly democratic public debate, but emerged instead from the policies imposed by the military dictatorship that ... controlled the country ... under the rule of strongman Augusto Pinochet."

UPDATE: School Choice Wisconsin reported on private school networks in December 2010, noting that despite the lack of national charter school networks in the city, the school choice program had resulted in growing local networks.

The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle applied to schools

Werner Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle states that one cannot simultaneously measure the location of a particle while also measuring the momentum of that particle. When you apply this principle to schools, it's a little disheartening--if we attempt to measure where we are now, we are no longer certain how fast we're improving. If the environment in which the measurement is taking place is also moving (think of the vast legal and budgetary changes at the state level), the uncertainty is all but overwhelming.

Thus, this year's analysis of public school data in southeast Wisconsin heeds Heisenberg and emphasizes the use of the 2010-11 data as a baseline. Knowing that all Wisconsin school districts will be in a state of flux over the next few years due to changes in contractual bargaining legislation, the state budget, a slow economic recovery, a new standardized testing system, and new standards for curriculum, in the future we hope to measure their improvements over time as these various "new normals" kick in. For now, we emphasize where they've been and where they are currently.

By analyzing trends in performance indicators such as WKCE reading and math scores, ACT scores, and graduation rates – and breaking down the numbers by minority group and gender – this year’s report provides a basic understanding of the strengths, weaknesses, and challenges of individual districts. Comparing these data with those from future years will provide insight into the impacts of the historic changes recently adopted at the state level.

This year's major findings include:
• The region trails the rest of the state in several grade levels and subjects when it comes to proficiency on state standardized tests. In addition, the data show a progressively wider disparity between the region and the state in all subjects at the higher grades, raising a red flag in the context of current efforts to drive educational reform toward college and career readiness.

• Measures of college preparation show mostly good news. For the third straight year, the most recent data show the average ACT score in the region held steady at 22.8 (even as the number of students tested rose by 6.3%), while the statewide average score dropped slightly. The region’s percentage of students passing Advanced Placement exams (13.6%) also is well above that of the rest of the state (10.7%). The region’s high school completion rate of 86.1% is below that of the state (89.9%), but increased more over the previous year than the statewide rate.

• Individual districts in southeast Wisconsin continue to compare favorably with state averages for attendance, truancy, and dropout rates, with 41 of the 50 districts achieving an attendance rate of 95% or better, and 36 posting truancy rates below 3% and high school dropout rates at 1% or lower. The region’s three largest districts – MPS, Kenosha and Racine Unified – lag well behind the rest of the region in all three indicators, however.

• Southeast Wisconsin school districts continue to rely more on property taxes and federal aid than those in the rest of the state. Meanwhile, regional spending allocations among categories such as instruction and administration mirror the rest of the state, but the region’s per-pupil spending of $12,422 exceeds the statewide average by nearly $1,000. Overall, per-pupil spending in the region rose slightly compared to the 2009-10 academic year.

• Enrollment in the region’s public schools tilted slightly upward for the first time in more than five years, which is primarily attributable to growth in 10 moderately-sized districts of between 2% and 7%. Amid this relatively steady overall enrollment, minority enrollment is accelerating. Minority enrollment in the region exceeded 40% in 2010-11 and grew 1.3%, whereas the last several years saw growth levels of below 1%.

In total, the data from 2010-11 continue to show a region whose largest and poorest school districts continue to struggle, and one in which the racial achievement gap remains large and static. While there is plenty of uncertainty about the direction and speed in which the schools will change over the next several years, it is certain that staying put is not an option for many districts.

The full report, as well as a poster-sized summary detailing data from individual districts, can be found here.

Underwriters of this year's edition include: Alverno College, Multiple Listing Service, Northwestern Mutual Foundation, Southeastern Wisconsin Schools Alliance, Stifel Nicolaus, and Waukesha County Technical College.

A misplaced trust in leadership

There is a common presumption that when it comes to improving public school performance, constructive changes, whether originating at the top or the bottom, cannot take hold unless they are championed by the superintendent. The superintendent of the Atlanta Public School District is often cited as an example of the type of leadership that brings about dramatic improvement. Dr. Beverly Hall had one of the longest tenures of any large urban district superintendent, having led APS over 12 years. She won many national awards and accolades over those years and the Atlanta schools were on a steep trajectory of improvement.

Now, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that trajectory was launched not by the vision of a strong leader, but was systematically manufactured by a superintendent who tolerated, and possibly encouraged, outright cheating by school staff on state standardized tests. The evidence, gathered by a governor's task force, is overwhelming, alarming, and shocking. The task force report names 178 educators, including 38 principals, as participants in cheating. More than 80 educators confessed to actions such as erasing students' wrong answers and changing them to correct answers. Cheating was confirmed in 44 of the 56 schools examined.

The consequences are yet unknown—Will Dr. Hall have to pay back performance bonuses earned by improved test scores? Will colleges stand behind acceptance decisions for which good test scores were a factor? Will the federal government hold the district accountable under the No Child Left Behind Act? Will criminal charges be brought? One clear result: Students who never learned their real scores lost opportunities to improve their weaknesses and build on their strengths.

Like the recently-exposed problems with the New York state exams, this cheating scandal raises questions about the wisdom of building education reforms around standardized tests. Some will use these developments as a reason to oppose merit pay for teachers, strengthening No Child Left Behind, or requiring private schools accepting voucher students to participate in the tests. Others will argue that a few bad actors cannot be allowed to spoil the best, albeit imperfect, method of monitoring school performance.

These opposing views each have a foothold in Wisconsin, which is currently in the process of developing a new standardized testing scheme. The public debate over the ways in which the new test is to be used for policymaking and accountability purposes is sure to be long and hard. But this debate gives rise to an opportunity to make Badgerland lemonade from other states’ lemons. Wisconsin could anticipate the potential for organized cheating on standardized tests and explicitly spell out the ways in which the Department of Public Instruction will monitor test security and integrity, and the penalties for cheating. For example, DPI might rule that any school turning in score sheets with wrong-to-right answer erasures numbering more than three standard deviations above the norm (statistically unlikely to have happened coincidentally) would trigger an automatic investigation.

Currently, according to DPI's policy and procedure manual, penalties for school staff found to be complicit in cheating are not regulated by the state; it is left to a district to administer any penalties according to local policy. The New York Times reports that in Atlanta, the school board was loath to criticize Dr. Hall, whom the directors felt had done much to improve the perception of their schools and city. Perhaps the lesson of Atlanta is that districts cannot be allowed to self-police as long as their test results are used to determine more than just student performance.

Measuring up education

A common complaint about education reform is the slow pace with which it takes place. I've often heard the analogy, "Improving a school system is like turning a battleship." In contrast, political changes can occur quite rapidily, as this state has witnessed over the past several months. And while the Forum's mission is to conduct timely and topical research, sometimes the policy world moves faster than we had anticipated. Such is the case with the report we release today.

The report, entitled "Measuring Up Education: Community-Driven Accountability in Milwaukee," was commissioned last summer by the Greater Milwaukee Foundation (GMF) in a quest to find community consensus on a dozen or so simple metrics that could be used to measure progress in the Milwaukee Public Schools.

Since that time, the voters have elected a new governor, and the state legislature has enacted new laws dramatically changing the landscape for local governments and school districts. These changes affirm the need for consensus when it comes to holding the district accountable, yet they also make consensus more difficult to achieve. And, in this case, they perhaps make consensus on turning the ship around less of a priority than simply keeping it upright.

Nonetheless, we believe the report contains important information for those seeking a simple framework through which to view the district's momentum. We suggest several metrics that could find consensus in Milwaukee based on experiences in other urban districts, the priorities Milwaukee education reformers have voiced, and the district's internal and external goals (as reflected in the MPS strategic plan and state and federal regulations).

In the end, while reasonable people will disagree about the specific strategies needed to improve the quality of teaching and learning at MPS, it would be constructive for community leaders at least to agree on how we will measure whether those strategies are succeeding, and how to ensure accountability if they are not.

Will an expanded voucher program cost more or less?

Gov. Walker’s proposed 2011-2013 biennial budget calls for an expansion of the Milwaukee Parental Choice Program by repealing the enrollment cap, allowing private schools anywhere within Milwaukee County to participate, and expanding eligibility to all City of Milwaukee families by eliminating income limits.

During tough budget deliberations, it would be good to know whether the expanded choice program is likely to save or cost state taxpayers over the long run. Either is possible—taxpayers save if the students who join the expanded program otherwise would have been students at more costly public or charter schools and taxpayers lose if the new voucher users would have otherwise been free to the state as tuition-paying private school students.

There is a debate over the likelihood that the program will be able expand considerably, as capacity for new students in the county’s existing private schools appears constrained at this time. However, the debate so far has overlooked the fact that the proposed budget would allow new voucher users to be existing private school students starting in the 2012-13 school year. There is a real concern that the expanded program may, in fact, increase costs for the state over the long run by increasing the total number of Wisconsin K-12 students who receive state support for their education.

Analyzing data from other years in which the legislature expanded the program can give a sense of how likely it is that significant growth in the program will come from existing private school students. When the choice program expanded to include religious schools in 1998, the state Department of Public Instruction (DPI) collected information regarding the type of school each voucher user had attended the previous school year. From that data, we know that 50% of the new voucher users in 1998-99 were already enrolled in private schools—2,512 of the 4,995 new voucher users.

We can also look at growth in voucher use compared to total growth in private school enrollment. In 2006, when the enrollment cap was raised, more private school students took advantage of the opportunity to use vouchers than public school students. In fact, 60% of new voucher users were existing private school students in 2006—1,408 of the 2,355 new voucher users. In the Catholic and Lutheran schools in particular, new voucher users tended to be students that were already attending these schools. The Lutheran schools, for example, had 467 more students using vouchers in 2006-07 than the previous year, but total enrollment in Lutheran schools grew by only one student during that time.

If these previous experiences are a guide, it is not unreasonable to expect that about half of the new voucher users in 2012-2013 will come from within the private schools joining the program. A quick analysis of private schools located outside the city limits that may be enrolling significant numbers of Milwaukee residents indicates at least six such schools: Indian Community School, St. Thomas More High School, Dominican High School, Milwaukee Jewish Day School, St. Bernard School, and St. Robert School. The likelihood that the student populations of these private schools could generate significant demand for new vouchers is quite high; these six schools enrolled a total of 1,729 students in 2009-10.

It is clear that assuming all, or even most, new voucher users in the coming years will save taxpayers money by switching from public or charter schools is not realistic. There will certainly be growth in the total number of elementary and secondary students receiving state taxpayer support. The debate should be about the affordability of these extra costs in the short- and long-term, whether these higher costs can/should be considered an investment in a better future, and what the effects of a more costly choice program might be on the public and private schools.

UPDATE: To clarify, low-income private school students who reside in Milwaukee and attend a participating private school in Milwaukee are currently eligible to use vouchers. The budget bill does not change the income limits for these students. However, it does expand their schooling choices to include participating schools throughout Milwaukee County.

Federal revenues and the state budget: What happens when the gravy train goes off the rails?

Wisconsin annually ranks below average when it comes to recouping our share of federal aid. In 2008, for example, the state was 38th in percentage of revenue received from the federal government.

But in 2009, the amount of federal aid available to states increased dramatically due to the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), and the amount of federal revenue received by Wisconsin increased 26%. Wisconsin did relatively well in garnering our share of the ARRA gravy train--in total, federal aid to the states increased 16%.

While most of the federal aid Wisconsin receives continues to be categorical aid in the form of public welfare assistance, such as Medicaid and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF), we appear to have gained some ground in terms of discretionary, competitive federal grants. The increase in our public welfare grants from 2008 to 2009 was proportionately less than our overall federal revenue increase, at 20.5%.

Nationally, the total amount of federal categorical and competitive grants to states increased 13% from 2008 to 2009, much of which was attributed to $82 billion in education stimulus aids. The latest issue of Education Week has a great graphic ranking the states by receipt of federal education stimulus funds. Since the passage of the ARRA, $100 billion in federal economic stimulus funds have aided education, including $5.3 billion awarded through six competitive grants, the most noteworthy being the Race to the Top initiative.

Of the 40 states receiving competitive education stimulus funds, Wisconsin ranks 28th in total grants awarded. Our state received $4.1 million in the Investing in Innovation program, to be used to scale-up promising educational programs, and $13.8 million to implement a statewide longitudinal student data system. When our total competitive stimulus winnings are analyzed per-pupil, however, our ranking drops to 30th. The competitive stimulus aid amounts to $20.55 per Wisconsin public school student.


The education stimulus funds are arguably more impactful than the other types of stimulus monies, because over a third of Wisconsin's state budget is spent on education. Our below-average showing in the education stimulus competition means more budget pressure for us than for most other states. On the bright side, when these stimulus funds dry up, Wisconsin will feel the pinch while big winners like Florida and New York may feel a vise grip.

Metrics for boosting educational attainment in Southeast Wisconsin

Recognizing that a prosperous metro Milwaukee depends on an educated workforce, a new Talent Dividend Initiative has emerged in Milwaukee to boost regional educational attainment. The initiative - which is comprised of workforce development, economic development, and educational organizations across southeast Wisconsin - has set its sights on increasing the percentage of adults in the region with four-year college degrees by a full percentage point by 2013.

The initiative grew from a campaign launched by CEOs for Cities (a national network of urban leaders) based on their research suggesting that a one percentage point increase in the number of bachelors degree holders in a metro region can produce a $763 increase in annual per capita income. In southeast Wisconsin’s seven counties, CEOs for Cities estimates that increasing bachelors degree attainment from the current level of 28.7% of the population to 29.7% would produce 13,146 new degree holders and a resulting “talent dividend” of about $1.5 billion annually.

With that goal firmly established, the local initiative is considering two questions:

1. Where should resources be targeted to most effectively attack regional educational attainment?
2. How can the success of these strategies be measured?

The Public Policy Forum was commissioned by the Regional Workforce Alliance's WIRED Initiative to help answer those questions. A report we released today, entitled "Educational Attainment in Southeast Wisconsin," provides an overview of the region's educational pipeline from preschool to college, noting that the majority of new degree holders will come from the 525,000 students already engaged in the pipeline. It contains a series of metrics that provide insights into how the various points of the pipeline are performing and how progress can be assessed. The report also cites several opportunity points for boosting student success and attainment, including:

• Developing college-going behaviors among high school students. Our report finds that while 55% of high school graduates plan to attend a four-year college and 19% of graduates plan to attend a technical college, 17% are undecided about their post-high school plans. Programs to increase the number of college-bound students might set their sights on these undecided students.

• Re-engaging adults who have earned some college credit, but have not completed a degree. More than 20% of the region’s non-degreed adults have attended college at some point and may be interested in continuing their education. Identifying those who are just a few credits short of earning a degree would be the logical starting point.

• Increasing student transfers between two-year and four-year colleges and universities. Completing the degree requirements at a two-year college before transferring to a four-year college can help students reduce the cost of earning a degree. More data are needed, however, to understand and track college transfer trends in the region.

Finally, at all points in the pipeline, strategies to assist minority students offer a substantial opportunity to increase regional degree holders. Currently, just 12% of African-American and 10% of Hispanic residents in the region hold a bachelors degree or higher, compared to 31% of white residents. This is a logical focus for retention strategies, as minority student enrollment in higher education is on the rise, especially in the region’s 2-year institutions.

The Talent Dividend Initiative plans to regularly update the metrics presented in the report to measure the effectiveness of specific strategies toward the overall goal. The full report can be accessed here.

When standardized tests measure the test, not the student

New York state's standardized education exams, like tests in Wisconsin and many other states, have been used to gauge the effectiveness of school reform efforts. The reforms that have been credited with improving test scores in New York City include mayoral control, charter schools, and teacher bonuses. But critics have long taken issue with these findings by raising questions about the tests themselves.

A recent in-depth story in the New York Times reveals that problems with the New York state tests have been a well-known secret for several years among city and state leaders. The tests themselves were recalibrated this year in order to address these problems and, as a result, achievement rates dropped dramatically. The tests will soon be redesigned altogether.

Says the Times:

New York has been a national model for how to carry out education reform, so its sudden decline in passing rates may be seen as a cautionary tale. The turnaround has also been a blow to Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and his chancellor, Joel I. Klein, who despite warnings that a laserlike focus on raising scores could make them less and less reliable, lashed almost every aspect of its school system to them. Schools were graded on how much their scores rose and threatened with being closed if they did not. The scores dictated which students were promoted or left back, and which teachers and principals would receive bonuses. The test scores were even used for a new purpose this year: to help determine which teachers should receive tenure.

The specific problems with the New York tests are not present in the Wisconsin state tests. Wisconsin's exams are neither as short nor as narrowly focused as the New York exams, and the questions are not released publicly after the annual exam period. It is these facets that have made the New York exams easy to predict, and therefore easy to master. The result has been tests that do not accurately measure student learning, but in fact measure the tests' passability--an incredible 81% of all students in the state were deemed proficient in math and 69% were proficient in reading according to the 2008 test results. (The 2009 tests resulted in 84% of all New York City public schools receiving an A in the mayor’s grading system.)

While many educators, policymakers, and researchers were aware that the scores were too good to be true, the stakes seemed too high to reverse course. However, John King, New York’s deputy education commissioner, told the Times, “If people had known what an effective lever the tests would be of driving behavior, I think they would have designed the tests differently.”

This is a good lesson for Wisconsin as our state embarks on a process to design and adopt a new standardized testing scheme--tests must be designed with all their purposes in mind. To date there has not been a vigorous public debate in Wisconsin about the potential uses of the new tests. To what extent will they be used to measure teacher performance and determine teacher pay? Will they measure students' skills as well as content knowledge? Will they measure student performance in comparison to national norms or as a reflection of state standards? Will individual student growth be measured? Will the tests be used to measure the effectiveness of governance reforms, school choice, virtual schools, and/or charter schools?


Standardized tests do not paint a complete picture of student learning, but they are the easiest method of measuring and comparing student achievement and thus play an out-sized role in education policy. Awareness of standardized tests' limitations should underlie any policy or educational decisions that will be determined by them.

Merit-based pay for students and parents?

The notion of linking teacher salaries to student outcomes has been one of the country's most talked-about education reform topics of late, causing us to wonder in an earlier blog whether Milwaukee's new superintendent had this controversial idea on his radar screen.

But now, out of Houston, comes a concept that undoubtedly would generate even more controversy if attempted locally: paying students and parents for improved academic performance.

A recent article in the Houston Chronicle describes a $1.5 million pilot program approved by the Houston Independent School District (HISD) that will allow families at certain HISD schools to earn more than $1,000 for enhanced student achievement in fifth grade math. The program will be funded by a Dallas foundation.

According to the article, fifth graders at the selected schools will be able to earn up to $440 for passing tests showing they have mastered certain mathematical concepts. Parents of successful students can earn another $400 as a reward for making sure their children did the necessary work to pass the tests, as well as $180 for attending nine parent-teacher conferences. There's also something in the deal for teachers, who can earn up to $40 per student for holding the parent-teacher conferences.

Interestingly, a third party to this seemingly radical idea is Harvard University's Education Innovation Laboratory, which has formed a research partnership with HISD. The same Harvard researchers conducted a comprehensive experiment of the "pay for grades" concept in Chicago, Dallas, New York and Washington that was featured last spring in Time magazine. The research team will compare student test scores at HISD schools that are participating in the program with schools that are not. It also will examine the incentives' impacts on other barometers of student success, such as attendance rates and behavior.

The Chronicle story engendered howls of outrage from readers commenting on the paper's website, many of whom questioned why anyone should be rewarding parents for fulfilling their parental responsibilities and students for doing what's in their own best interest. School district officials quoted in the article argue, however, that over-worked and over-stressed low-income parents may need an incentive to become more involved, and at this point it's just a research project aimed at determining whether financial incentives truly would make a difference.

Given the political outcry that likely would occur even if the pilot turns out to be successful, it's difficult to imagine it taking hold across the country. Still, in light of the constant refrain for bold and innovative reform in our urban schools, can you blame Houston for trying?

PPF annual analysis of school district performance: How's your district doing?

The Forum's annual analysis of public school districts in southeast Wisconsin is released today, and finds the regional academic achievement scores continue to come more in line with the statewide scores. Unfortunately, lower scores in the rest of the state contribute to the smaller difference as much as improved scores in the seven-county region.

The report also finds that while the region does well on ACT and AP exams, as compared to the rest of the state, it is lagging more and more in graduation rates, mostly due to the low graduation rates in MPS.

The region's large racial achievement gap has been highlighted in several previous editions of the report. This year's analysis shows little progress has been made toward closing the gap in scores between white and African-American students--it is nearly as large now as it was five years ago and is persistent across all districts. All districts also show a significant gender achievement gap in reading, with girls outperforming boys at every grade level.

Other findings:

• This year's 8th graders' reading proficiency rate slipped down as compared to the rate for last year's 7th graders, a trend that has been true statewide in previous years but has occured in the region for the first time this year.


• Total enrollment in the region remained virtually static, but the number of minority students attending public schools in the region grew by 39%.


• The number of students participating in the free or reduced-price lunch program grew significantly this year for both the region and the state as a whole. Almost all districts in southeast Wisconsin had more students qualify for the program serving low-income children.

The full report, as well as a poster-sized summary detailing data from individual districts, can be found here.

Underwriters of this year's edition include: Alverno College, Multiple Listing Service, Northwestern Mutual Foundation, Southeastern Wisconsin Schools Alliance, Stifel Nicolaus, and Waukesha County Technical College.

Reforming the teaching profession, part 2: Pay-for-performance

Like tenure reform, discussed in yesterday's post, tying teacher salaries to student outcomes is a controversial education reform strategy that is gaining traction across the country, but has yet to be debated in Milwaukee. Many of the recent efforts come from the federal Race to the Top grant guidelines, which expressed a preference for states that included student outcomes as a factor in teacher evaluations.

But even before Race to the Top, several districts already had implemented merit pay plans, most notably the Denver Public Schools. The DPS scheme, call ProComp, was approved by Denver voters in 2005. Teachers new to the district are automatically part of the program and other teachers may opt-in. In exchange for a higher base salary, teachers agree to accept pay raises based on participation in professional development activities, working in a hard-to-staff school, showing proficiency in teacher evaluations, and/or exceeding student achievement goals. The goals of ProComp are to improve student outcomes and to attract and retain quality teachers.

A recent evaluation of ProComp found that the program appears to have contributed to the district's gains in reading and math scores and to have attracted new teachers with better student outcomes in their first year of teaching.

Other programs have shown less promise. An evaluation of a state program in Texas that provided grants to high poverty schools to implement merit-based bonuses found that over the three years of the program, schools that gave bigger bonuses had less teacher turnover; however, no relationship between the merit bonuses and student outcomes was found.

Despite the mixed results of these and other pay-for-performance strategies, federal, state, and district officials continue to seek ways to connect teacher pay to student achievement. In two districts, controversial new superintendents have received approval to implement merit pay plans starting next school year. Michelle Rhee and the Washington D.C. plan were discussed in a previous post. A superintendent that has often been compared to Rhee, Mike Miles, will implement a plan in the Harrison School District of Colorado Springs in which all teachers and principals in the 11,000-student district will forgo salary step increases in favor of raises based on performance.

The Harrison plan stands out among merit pay schemes in its reliance on classroom observations to measure teacher effectiveness. Soon after joining the district in 2006, Miles started intensive professional development for principals in the art of classroom observations. In addition, he established an extensive professional development infrastructure so that principals can refer teachers to training opportunities based on what was observed. Principals are to conduct frequent "spot" observations of 10 to 15 minutes, as well as longer formal observations of entire lessons and/or classes, and give constructive feedback to teachers.

The observation scores will be matched to student performance scores on, at minimum, the state standardized test, progress-monitoring and interim assessments, and district assessments. Together, the observations and student performance scores will place the teacher in one of nine salary tiers. Teachers can move down the tiers, as well as up, and their salaries will be adjusted accordingly. For current teachers, the adjustments will be made from their current salary.

This new merit pay model, which requires not only investment in salaries and raises, but also substantial resources for professional development, is certain to be closely watched across the country as it moves forward. Will Milwaukee's new superintendent be watching as well?

Reforming the teaching profession, part 1: Tenure reform

Milwaukee is often called ground zero for education reform, and for good reason. We have been on the forefront of reforms such as budget decentralization, school-to-work, neighborhood schools, parental choice, charter schools and, the most recent attempt, governance reform.

There are two hot-button issues, however, that have not been on the agenda here: merit pay and tenure reform. But, with both of these tactics garnering more attention across the country, it seems unlikely Milwaukee will be a hold-out for long.

Merit pay, or pay-for-performance, has been implemented or is in the process of being implemented in several schools districts across the state. Tomorrow I'll post about a few of those efforts. Today's post focuses on tenure reform.

In one way, tenure reform has gained a foothold in Milwaukee. The recently passed legislation that gives the state Department of Public Instruction with greater powers over the Milwaukee Public Schools also eliminated tenure for principals in MPS. (MPS is the only district in the state with represented principals.) But it does not tackle teacher tenure, or permanent status, head-on.

Teacher tenure laws arose in the 1920s and '30s from the women's rights movement of the time. In an era in which female teachers were routinely fired for getting married or wearing pants, teachers needed protection from paternalistic employment laws, unfair rules, and arbitrary decisions by administrators. Today, through due process requirements, tenure still protects teachers from arbitrary dismissal, and also provides some protection from political, ideological, or other pressures from administrators, school boards, or parents. An argument also can be made that tenure helps balance out the limitations of the job, such as a low salary, and makes the profession more attractive.

Providing permanent status to teachers has both fiscal and educational drawbacks. From a fiscal perspective, dismissing a teacher is a long and costly process for school districts and districts. And from an educational standpoint, districts often struggle to hold mediocre teachers with tenure accountable for student performance. In addition, some argue that K-12 teachers are not in need of the same "academic freedoms" as professors and that there is not the same threat today of unfair working conditions or arbitrary dismissals.

Over the past year many states have begun debating tenure reform proposals. In fact, at least four states have had tenure reform bills introduced this spring that would bring teacher quality into the tenure/dismissal decision:

• Colorado: Last week Governor Ritter signed a "teacher effectiveness bill" into law that, among other things, grants tenure only after a teacher has three consecutive years of "demonstrated effectiveness" in the classroom. Tenured teachers lose their non-probationary status if they have two consecutive years of unsatisfactory evaluations. In addition, when layoffs are necessary, effectiveness will be considered before seniority.


• Louisiana: Gov. Jindal's proposal to tie dismissal decisions to annual performance evaluations has passed the Louisiana House and is awaiting a vote in the Senate. The bill specifies that the evaluations will include consideration of student performance. In addition, teachers deemed ineffective would receive "intensive assistance" for a year. Those judged ineffective a second time could be dismissed.


• California: Gov. Schwartzenegger's 2005 proposal to increase the probationary period for teachers from two to five years was defeated by the voters. He is now supporting a reform that would prevent layoff decisions from being made based solely on seniority. In addition, the Los Angeles Unified School district is planning to dismiss three times more teachers this year than last year, after the Los Angeles Times reported that an investigation of the district revealed no systematic process for evaluating teacher performance prior to granting permanent status.


• Florida: Gov. Crist vetoed a bill last month that would have eliminated teacher tenure and linked salaries to student performance. The bill kept tenure in place for current teachers, but tied their pay to performance evaluations. New teachers would have worked under one-year contracts and would have been dismissed for low student performance on end-of-year exams in any two of five years.

Other states also have debated or changed their laws regarding the number of years a teacher works before being eligible for tenure, including Ohio, Maryland, and Delaware.

Interestingly, Wisconsin is the only state in which districts are not statutorily required to provide tenure for teachers, although all districts currently do so. At first blush, it might seem that this unique status would allow MPS to more easily embark on an evaluation of the tenure process, potentially making changes of the type being debated nationally. In reality, however, the district is unlikely to seek any changes in teacher contracts that would make employment at MPS less attractive than in surrounding districts.

Will a district and a city accustomed to being at the cutting edge of education reform sit out this latest wave of reform efforts? The clock is ticking on when tenure reform will become part of the discussion about the urgent need to improve student outcomes in Milwaukee.

Part II, tomorrow: One superintendent's role in tying teacher pay to student achievement.