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The first paragraph of Education Next’s Grading Schools: Can Citizens Tell a Good School When They See One? discusses the widespread availability of school standardized test score data. Reading that, I thought I knew what the article would be about. Citizens judging schools based on test scores alone, rather than more meaningful measures. It resonated with me, because the same day I read the article, I had fallen prey to that trap. I was talking about a really great school...and talking only about its test scores. Someone called me on it. I could have mentioned the amazing parent engagement at the school. Or discussed how students at this school--over 90% of whom receive free or reduced price lunch--collected money to send to relief efforts in Haiti. In imparting such citizenship to its students, this school must be doing something right. I know all this, about this school and many others. But I still talk mainly about test scores. We do need to look beyond test scores in determining a school’s quality, but do most citizens actually do so?

Of course, by the end of the second paragraph I knew that was not what this article was about. Instead, it described a study that looked at whether citizens judge school quality based on performance data, or whether indicators such as the racial or class makeup of the school sway their perspective. An entirely different question, but also very interesting.

So I read the article. And while I am not sure I entirely trust their methodology, I am somewhat heartened to learn that citizens do judge the quality of their schools based on student proficiency rates in core academic subjects, not racial demographics. They do take into consideration the percentage of a student body that is poor, but those considerations do not overpower judgments based on information about academic performance. For parents of school-age children the relationship between proficiency rates and school ratings was more than twice as strong as it was for other respondents, though they were also more responsive to poverty rates than others. Importantly, trends held among demographic groups--in other words, disadvantaged populations were just as aware of school quality as other citizens.

The researchers also found that while citizens were responsive to student achievement levels, they were not as responsive to achievement growth as a measure of school quality. Nor were they responsive to school performance on national standardized tests, only the state tests for which results are readily available to them.

The researchers describe two policy implications of this study: that growth measures should feature more prominently in school accountability systems, so that citizens pay more attention to them as a measure of school quality; and that realigning state standards or moving towards common standards would help citizens more accurately understand the performance of their schools in a national context.

While I may not have been thrilled with the methodology used here, I am really displeased with these implications. My interpretation of their findings is that citizens pay attention to the public data on their schools. So why simply call for more prominently featuring growth measures? Why not branch out from an accountability system based almost entirely on standardized test scores to one that includes multiple measures of school performance? Since the public is responsive to what we say about school quality, let’s let them know about what we actually believe are the most important aspects of a school, not just basic reading and math scores.

But a larger concern I have with this study goes back to my initial question: Are citizens judging schools based on more than test scores? What would have happened if those who conducted this study had asked not, “Is this a good school?,” but “Would you send your child to this school?”

A white upper-middle-class parent living near a KIPP* school might be able to say, “That school is good.” He sees in the paper that the school is good. The school celebrates its achievement by putting flyers in mailboxes and banners on the building. But would that parent send his child to that school? If not, how “good” does he truly believe that the school is? Until we start getting at this issue, are we really learning what our citizens think about our schools? Or have we assigned a definition to school quality that they don’t respect?

Image by Andeggs

*Not to pick on KIPP schools, but many are considered "good" schools while serving a mainly disadvantaged population rather than a racially or economically heterogeneous one.