With an eye to improvement, New Hampshire educators propose new way to assess schools

As New Hampshire public schools grapple with funding challenges, declining enrollments, and increasing fiscal scrutiny from voters, some metrics suggest that the schools continue to perform well nationally. 

On Monday, Gov. Kelly Ayotte touted the latest analysis; a study by WalletHub that used a mix of proficiency scores, graduation rates, advanced placement course takeup, attendance, and more to declare that New Hampshire schools are in the top five nationwide. 

“New Hampshire is proud to have some of the best schools in the country,” began a statement from Ayotte reacting to the ranking Monday.

But measuring a school’s success is a complicated task, where diverse metrics can tell competing stories. And this summer, a task force of school leaders is recommending that the state reevaluate that process.

In a 61-page report released in June, the State Accountability System Task Force issued sweeping suggestions to overhaul how schools are assessed by the state, by building in new data points such as science testing scores and five-year graduation rates and providing more support to struggling districts through state funds and inter-school “peer reviews.” 

The goal, administrators say, is to move away from a system that incentivizes checking boxes and toward one that inspires improvements and collaboration. 

“The redesigned system is meant to foster a culture of continuous improvement and learning among educators in the state,” wrote Keene Superintendent Robert Malay, the task force chairman, at the top of the report. 

The report’s proposals come as Republican lawmakers have focused on increasing financial accountability for districts. This year, Ayotte signed Senate Bill 586, requiring districts to carry out prompt annual audits or risk the loss of state funding; House Bill 564, requiring school districts to separate their SAU administrative budget and allow residents to vote on that budget; and House Bill 1807, which requires districts to publish reports displaying the average cost per pupil, average teacher salary, average administrator salary, and the exact salaries of the top 10 highest paid administrators before every budget vote.

But the June report is concerned with the performance of public schools, and how districts can improve.

“I think it is a better and more accurate tool for schools in New Hampshire to show what they’re currently doing already,” said David Backler, superintendent of SAU 20 in Gorham and a member of the task force. “I want to make sure it’s a tool that schools actually can use to chart a course to be successful.” 

Two assessment methods

Currently, New Hampshire uses a two-track system to evaluate individual public schools. One track, known as the input-based accountability system (IBAS), measures how well-equipped a school is to provide an adequate education. That includes whether the school’s facilities, curricula, staffing, and programming meet the state’s minimum standards. 

The second track, known as the performance-based accountability system (the PBAS), evaluates schools on student outputs, such as student assessment scores in reading and mathematics, year-over-year academic growth, four-year graduation rates, absenteeism, and post-secondary readiness metrics such as AP course participation rates.

The two assessments exist independently and are measured differently: The PBAS is federally mandated and driven by hard metrics, while the IBAS relies on a survey completed by school leaders once every two years.

But some administrators argue the IBAS — a key warning system for a school struggling to fulfill its mission — has become a rote, pre-determined process. Failure to achieve a “fully compliant” determination requires the school to create a corrective action plan and invites strict scrutiny from the state that can last for years. So school leaders are incentivized to present the best possible narrative, and use written explanations to avoid negative outcomes, critics say.

“Right now, completing the IBAS forms is viewed by task force members as a compliance exercise,” the report states. 

The solution, the report argues: Expanding the two-year review requirement to three, changing the responses to simply yes/no binaries, and providing immediate state support, not punishment, in the event of any “no’s.”

To encourage districts to make improvements and not just avoid consequences, the report makes another recommendation: a six-year “peer review.” Under that system, schools would conduct their own assessments of their adequacy, from the experience of their teachers to quality of their instructional materials, and devise a list of goals. Every six years, a cohort of superintendents would put together review panels of those self-assessments, look at student performance data, and give constructive feedback on the goals and areas of improvement.

“We’ve done the review internally,” said Patrick Connors, the principal of Epsom Central School and a task force member. “However, this brings in the potential to have educators outside of our building helping guide, similar to what we would potentially do for others.”

Adjusting the metrics

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The task force proposed a number of changes for the performance-based side of school assessments, too. 

To start, the report argues schools should be scored based on how many students graduate in five years, not four. That, educators say, would align the state with its broader push to focus on “competency-based education” where the goal is mastery of the material rather than completion of a class. But it would also incentivize schools to keep struggling students enrolled past four years by allowing that fifth year graduation to count, the report states.

The task force also issued a number of suggestions to better measure student growth. Currently, Backler said, students with test scores that dip below a certain level can fall off the radar.

“If I have a third grader who’s below what is considered proficient, but is making more than a year of progress, I’m not worried about that student,” Backler said. ”The same could be said for a student who is just barely above proficient, but their growth isn’t making the number. That’s a higher concern to me, because that student is going to fall below proficient in the future.”

The report suggests that in the future students be compared against other students across the state with similar test scores. Then, any growth the student made in a subsequent year could be put into context against that same cohort — and improvements would be easier to catch. 

“You want to make sure that you are focusing not just on the students in the lowest areas, but that everybody’s growing,” Connors said.

The task force also urges the state to measure the collective growth of the lowest-achieving 25% of students in each school, creating a reward for schools to work to improve that group rather than rely on their overall averages. 

Finally, the report suggests adding new data points to the scoring matrix to reflect more areas of success, and improvement. 

The task force suggested the state apply a stringent attendance measure that would flag a district with less than 90% attendance, even if the absences are excused. 

It recommended adding science assessments in grades 5, 8, and high school to the performance-based metric. And it said the state should count more pathways toward “post-secondary readiness,” such as capstone projects, extended learning opportunities, industry credentials, and military service. 

“I can think of the kid going to the University of Chicago to study economics: That’s a huge success,” Backler said. “Just as important is a student who is going to be an apprentice plumber. His eyes light up when he talks about boilers. He already has a succession plan to take over this business. Talk about a success.” 

Funding needs

While school leaders have expressed enthusiasm for the proposed shift in attention to improvement incentives, some of the recommendations would require funding, approved by lawmakers.

For instance, the six-year peer review proposal would cost about $257,000 per year, the task force estimated.

And a proposed grant program to help struggling schools could cost about $50,000 per school per year.

To construct the databases necessary to collect the new measurements would cost $200,000 upfront and $50,000 per year, while the state Department of Education would need to hire new administrators at a cost of $440,000 per year, the report states. 

Backler said the investments would pay off with better, data-informed teaching methods.

Education, he said, is a little like hip surgery. 

“If you went in to get hip surgery 30 years ago, they went in and they did a bunch of work and it was like a six-month recovery and then two years of PT before you were really walking again,” Backler said. “Now they have a different way to go in through the back and and fix the hip and you’re actually walking that next day. 

“I think about that in education. The objective stays the same: We want learning. … But how you do it changes over time.”