Resetting the goal posts: Rochester Public Schools discusses new ways of measuring student success

Jordan Shearer, Post-Bulletin, Rochester, Minn.
·2 min read

Oct. 12—ROCHESTER — Before diving into the work of improving academic performance itself, Rochester Public Schools is trying to reset the measurements with which it gauges student success.

The School Board discussed the issue during a study session Tuesday evening, but didn't actually make any decisions on the matter.

"We were setting improvement targets that really were arbitrary," Superintendent Kent Pekel said about the district's previous strategy. "We set a 2% improvement target last year because we were not positioned at the time to have a more substantive approach."

Rather than picking a target arbitrarily, Pekel said the district should simply measure definitive improvements in performance, no matter the amount. He said the district should strive for "statistically significant improvement."

"Essentially, statistical significance is using the data set in such a way (that) we can be very sure that the change, if any change happened, is unlikely to have been random chance," Pekel said.

During his initial presentation, Pekel spoke about a handful of proposed indicators to measure student success, social-emotional well-being and the work environment for staff.

As part of those indicators, the district would implement the pre-ACT test for ninth-grade students. The district also plans to use a program called FastBridge, which is used "to measure growth in learning and identify students needing intervention."

Board members discussed the merits of the proposed change, and the nuts and bolts of the methodology. Board member Jess Garcia said she appreciates the proposed system but emphasized the district needs to have consistency when looking at how it measures progress.

"We need to decide what the goal posts are and leave them there," Garcia said. "We need to decide what we're doing behind the scenes when we're running the statistical analysis and not change it so that we're consistently looking at the same thing."

Pekel framed the proposed changes in the broader context of the district's new strategic plan and other fundamental changes that have been made over the past year, such as the hiring of the new director of research, assessment and evaluation, Peter Wruck.

He also explained that one of the reasons setting arbitrary goals is unrealistic is due to the fact that there are more factors affecting student outcomes than just the school environment.

"This approach that we're recommending still is firmly rooted in the fact that schools matter," Pekel said. "But it doesn't suggest that we single-handedly determine the factors that influence student outcomes."