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Contact Joan Evans, Director of Standards-Based Education jevans1@lausd.k12.ca.us Summary Two Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) accountability documents are described:
Results Count! Results Count! is a report produced annually by LAUSD. The report, available both online and as hard copy, briefly states school demographics and instructional program practices for schools that showed a meaningful year-to-year increase in SAT-9 results. This is an example of a district report that highlights achieving schools and also offers ideas about sound instructional practices to other schools. Results Count! Local District Performance Measures The Local District Performance Measures (LDPM) is an accountability report scheduled for implementation in 2002. It reports indicators of research-based school process and student achievement. Results for each of LAUSD's 11 districts are reported as the percentage of schools meeting targets. LDPM establishes a School Organization Index by combining ratings in five domains of school processes. The school processes were derived from research findings on school effectiveness. Three measures of student academic achievement are reported:
Full Description Results Count! Schools within the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) making meaningful increases on SAT-9 results (e.g., 1999 to 2000) are published in Results Count! This spiral-bound hard copy and online publication serves to recognize successful schools and to provide other schools with ideas about instructional practices to adopt. SAT-9 annual gain scores, major processes or activities, and resources required are listed for each school. The report is divided into elementary and secondary schools (and cluster schools) by five categories: 1. Curriculum: Aligning curriculum to student learning standards; 2. Instruction: Conducting professional development opportunities to support using standards and assessment to improve instruction; 3. Assessment: Developing meaningful and fair assessments to measure achievement of the standards; 4. Partnership-Building: Developing student/parent/community partnership-building to support student achievement of the standards; and 5. Accountability: Determining systemwide process for accountability and continuous improvement of student achievement. The last page of Results Count! (2001-2002 Edition) identifies common practices in effective schools and includes a four-point scoring guide that schools are encouraged to use to rate their own practices. The guide was adapted from California Department of Education's Achieving Schools Recognition Program and has ten items: 1. Educators analyze student achievement data from multiple sources (state, district, and school levels) to identify progress toward standards and to determine appropriate future curriculum, instruction, and assessment. 2. A standards-based curriculum is provided to all students as specified in the Elementary Course of Study or Secondardy Guidelines for Instruction. 3. Textbooks and instructional materials are aligned to standards, curriculum, and assessment. 4. A systematic research-based instructional process (standards-based instruction model) is used to implement the Principles of Learning. 5. Criteria for evaluating student work are directly linked to standards and are communicated to colleagues, students, and parents via rubrics, criteria charts, etc. 6. Appropriate incentives for achievement recognition and interventions for students achieving below grade level are provided. 7. Educators are organized into grade levels/departments to assess student work with consistency, identify learning strengths/weaknesses, and develop appropriate instruction. 8. Evaluation of training is based on the National Staff Development Council Standards for content, process, and context to ensure sessions are assessed based upon educators' acquisition of practices most essential in increasing student learning and future sessions incorporate enhancements. 9. Leadership for implementing and sustaining standards-aligned education is systematically provided to a school team and supported by peer coaching and/or grade-level or departmental exchanges to reinforce use of practices. 10. Students, staff, parents, and community of learners organize efforts to collaboratively support student achievement. Results Count! Local District Performance Measures Local District Performance Measures (LDPM) is an approach to reporting a composite of indicators of school processes and student achievement. School processes are derived from research findings on school effectiveness. A pilot study was conducted in 2000-2001 and a formula for combining ratings into a School Organizational Index will be set in 2002. The plan calls for an annual report presenting the percentage of schools that met district targets for improvement within each of the 11 local districts in LAUSD. The LDPM indicators are:
LAUSD determines whether schools meet student academic growth targets by:
LDPM (/survey/interview/los angeles/ LDPM Y1 Report.pdf) |