The Next Phase of Closing the Honesty Gap U.S. Chamber Foundation March 6, 2016

The new ESSA world order  As you have discussed, the new ESSA law is giving state and local policymakers more power to get things right for kids.  Your thinking about this new local power should be informed by where we’ve been  And your voices will be key to making sure the new policies are as good as they need to be 1

Why should you care?? 2

New Legislature Reality Vast majority of state legislatures are controlled by the GOP – most in the modern era  Full State control: 23 Rs, 19 divided, 7 Ds  68 GOP state chambers (of 99)  31 GOP governors 3

Governors by Party CT DE MA MD NH NJ RI VT CA NV OR WA ID MT ND SD KS OK TX LA NE AR FL AK NM CO AZ UT WY MN MO IA IL IN OH KY TN PA NY ME VA WV MS AL GA NC SC MI WI HI Republican Democrat Independent

State Legislatures by Party CT DE MA MD NH NJ RI VT AK CA NV OR WA ID MT ND SD KS OK TX LA NE AR FL NM CO AZ UT WY MN MO IA IL IN OH KY TN PA NY ME VA WV MS AL GA NC SC MI WI HI Republican Democrat Split Non-partisan

State Control by Party CT DE MA MD NH NJ RI VT AK CA NV OR WA ID MT ND SD KS OK TX LA NE AR FL NM CO AZ UT WY MN MO IA IL IN OH KY TN PA NY ME VA WV MS AL GA NC SC MI WI HI Republican Democrat Divided Non-partisan

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The NCLB Era 8 We’ve been here before….  NCLB set out to increase transparency, measure progress, and meet achievement goals

The NCLB Era 9  It did NOT lead to massive improvements in college readiness!

Remediation vs. Completion Nationally  Complete College America (CCA) finds that 52% of students entering 2 year colleges, enroll in remediation.  Less than half (22%) of those students complete their remediation and college level courses in 2 years. 10

Remediation vs. Completion Nationally  Large Percentages of Hispanic Students Require Remediation 63% of Hispanic students entering 2 year colleges 35% of Hispanic students entering non-flagship 4 year colleges 11

Remediation vs. Completion in the States  Nevada 43% of Hispanic students entering 2 year colleges 55% of Hispanic students entering non-flagship 4 year colleges Just about one-third of these students complete college-level “gateway” courses within 2 years  Colorado 62% of Hispanic students entering 2 year colleges 41% of Hispanic students entering non-flagship 4 year colleges Less than one-third of these students complete college-level “gateway” courses within 2 years 12

Expectation vs. Reality  College readiness is key to college completion  Student perceptions don’t align with college readiness  86% of enrolling community college students believed they were prepared for college; 67% had to take remedial courses.  61% expect to achieve academic goals in two years – yet only 39% earn a degree of certificate within 6 years. 13

What’s holding us back? We have traditionally had an “honesty gap” in American education. 14

Proficient vs. Prepared  The NAEP test (best test we have)  “Proficient” means having the minimum skills expected in a subject matter  “competency over challenging subject matter, including subject-matter knowledge, application of such knowledge to real-world situations, and analytical skills approximate to the subject matter” 15

Honesty Gap (2015 Report)  Definition of proficiency was misleading students and parents  Percentages of students labeled “Proficient” by their state assessment was wildly different than NAEP  Over half the states, reported “Honesty Gaps” of more than 30 percentage points!  Only 6 states had “Honesty Gaps” of fewer than 15 percentage points in both subjects, while 18 states had “Honesty Gaps” of more than 35 percentage points 16

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Honesty Gap 2.0 (2016 Report)  States made great strides towards correcting their “Honesty Gaps” with higher standards, better assessments and rigorous cut scores!  Sixteen states eliminated/nearly eliminated their gaps, bringing them within 5 percentage points of NAEP  Nine more made significant progress by closing their gaps by 10 percentage points or more.  States that continue to dramatically mislead proficiency have not taken the three critical steps!  OK, TX, VA and IA (+ 30 gaps) lack higher standards, high- quality aligned assessments and/or rigorous cut scores. 18

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Honesty Gap 2.0 (2016 Report) 20

Proficient vs. Prepared 21 We can’t move the needle on proficiency until the entire system gets honest with parents and students. Transparency is now the rallying cry.

How to fix it?  Education leaders, governors, policy makers set out to implement a set of education reforms: Higher, more rigorous standards Better tests (giving real information to parents and teachers) Teacher supports Greater transparency to drive parental choice and accountability 22

Where do we stand?  44 states have raised standards  More than 30 states have new (and in many cases) better tests  though there is still much work to be done on determining quality assessments  Many states have learned hard lessons from implementation and are getting better supports to teachers  It is now time for quality information and transparency 23

What the Collaborative will be doing  Just like what we did with the Honesty Gap, we will work to put pressure on all players to deliver honest, accurate and transparent information.  We may need to build some coalitions and tools specific to helping us do this next phase of our work. 24

Online Education: State by State Information Platform 25

26 Online Education: State by State Information Platform New report: Georgia telling parents tall tales when it pronounces their kids proficient May 14, 2015

We will need your help!  Given the nature of the new ESSA law, there is not a lot we can do at the national level  You will be on the front lines of fighting the fight in your states 27

Questions to be asking  Are the standards high? (or what’s changed?)  Is the test aligned to the standards?  Is the test high quality? How do we know?  Are the cut scores adequately high? Comparable? How are they set?  What information do parents & educators get?  Is the test data made public?  Are scores disaggregated? 28

Questions to be asking  What are the goals?  What are the interventions if the goals are not met?  Are all categories of kids attended to? High performing, low income?  Is proficiency all that matters or will growth be rewarded? 29

Lessons learned the hard way  Communicate any change in a way that ultimately gets to parents (lots of communication across many platforms)  Ensure adequate public input/comment  Manage legislative and political dynamics 30

Lessons learned the hard way  Involve teachers in a high profile way  Ensure the solutions are locally grown  Tone and messaging matters – the new law is an opportunity 31

Emerging Threats  Teachers Unions  The new Republican party  The Trump factor 32

Messaging  This is a chance to move beyond the Common Core – that conversation is over  Local RULES (federal drules)  TRANSPARENCY is king  (this puts you on the side of parents) 33

 The stakes are extremely high – we’ve come too far to stop now.  Let us know how we can help. 34

Closing the Honesty Gap in FL 