Charles County Public Schools today released its School Progress Index (SPI), a new state accountability system that measures how schools are progressing toward specific goals.
The School Progress Index measures each of Charles County Public Schools’ 35 schools on individual goals. SPI measures progress by overall student performance, student growth, closing of achievement gaps between the highest and lowest subgroups and preparation for college and careers. The SPI replaces the accountability system known as Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP), which measured all students and each subgroup by a single indicator. Instead, SPI has additional dimensions and uses multiple indicators including: achievement, student growth, achievement gap reduction and college and career readiness.
“This is a school competing against itself,” said Superintendent of Schools James E. Richmond. “This system is more specific; SPI looks at more areas and sets a baseline for progress,” he said.
Using 2011 scores on the reading, math and science Maryland School Assessments (MSA) as a baseline, each school has an individual performance target. Schools must cut in half the percentage of non-proficient students by school and subgroups by 2017. Under SPI, the annual measurable objectives are differentiated by school and by subgroup; under AYP schools had common yearly targets and were required to reach 100 percent proficiency for all students and subgroups by 2014.
“Now, a school is competing against itself and the results measure progress across a number of areas. It gathers all the key ingredients rather than basing success on one test. This measures all three MSA tests – reading, math and science – with equal weight. It also looks at closing the gap by reducing the difference in scores between the highest and lowest performing subgroups,” Richmond said.
The SPI for elementary and middle schools is calculated through three indicators: achievement (MSA scores in mathematics, reading, and science), growth (student improvement on math and reading MSAs), and gap reduction (cutting the achievement gap between the low and high performing student subgroups at the school level in state assessments).
High school SPI is calculated through three indicators: achievement (High School Assessment (HSA) scores in algebra/data analysis, English, and biology); gap reduction (cutting the achievement gap between the low and high performing subgroups at the school level on the state assessments, as well as cohort graduation and dropout rates), and college- and career-readiness (cohort graduation rate and college and career preparation). College- and career-readiness is a measure of a students’ success in one of the following areas: Advanced Placement (AP); career and technology education (CTE) concentrators; or enrollment in college (two-year, four-year, or technical education program.)
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