Now we're going to have a wonderful panel from some state education chiefs who will talk to us a
little bit about the context of some of this work in action. These state education leaders will
talk about policy and practice in their own states and its connection with NAEP and NAEP results.
We are very grateful to each of them for making the time to be with us today and sharing their
insights. The moderator for this morning's panel is Terry Holliday, a former commission of the
Kentucky Department of Education and a past member of the National Assessment Governing Board.
Please welcome Terry. (Applause) It's great to be back with the National Assessment Governing
Board. An exciting day for state chiefs all across the nation when the NAEP results are
released. As a former state chief, I can certainly verify how important this data was to advocacy
groups, to our general assembly, to our state board of education, to our governor when they were
recruiting industries to our state, so it's very exciting to be back here today. And I'm just
delighted that I don't have to worry about it, that these guys have to do the work now. With me
today are some strong leaders with the state chiefs. Jillian Balow, who is superintendent in
Wyoming, Thomas Brady, the director of the Department of Defense education activity, Glen Price,
who is the deputy chief at the California Department of Education, and Pam Stewart, the
commissioner of the Florida Department of Education. The big question is, all this money, all
this time, all this effort, so what do states do with this data? The big question for you guys --
and we'll just go down in alphabetical order here -- state-level policy and practice, is there a
connection with NAEP results? Jillian? Well, thank you, Terry for moderating. It is always
wonderful to see and work with my colleagues from across the nation. Thanks also to NAEP. It
was really interesting to accept the opportunity to be on a panel before the scores were released,
when you're going am I the consolation. Just talking a little bit about Wyoming. Wyoming is a
rural state, a large rural state. When we think about the main driver for our success on NAEP, it
boils down to adequate and equitable funding. We have a unique model, funding model, in Wyoming
that affords us to truly focus our time and energy on teaching and learning versus local
inequities from district to district. We've also through equitable and adequate funding been able
to create a system where every student really can take full advantage of the educational
opportunities that are available to them. And also because of our funding model and the focus of
funding, we've been able to target our spending. We've really made a difference with our
economically disadvantaged students and our students with disabilities in particular. So, in
short, how Wyoming distributes and utilizes our funds underpins our success on NAEP. Let me just
quickly explain what our funding model looks like. Our local revenue, instead of being used to
fund local schools, is captured by the state and combined with state revenue and then distributed
equitabl through a complex formula to everyone in the state. Additionally, special education is
reimbursed at 100%, and also we have high teacher salaries. Inequities from district to district
are off the table for us. Here's how that makes a difference when we look at the NAEP metric.
Number one, we have relevant support and interventions that we're able to provide as a cornerstone
to every initiative in action that we take in education. The state education agency provides data
retreats, cause analysis training, PLC training, and the science of teaching training. Also, our
state agency engages stakeholders in an ongoing exercise of just building buy-in. This has really
created an atmosphere of confidence in a system, a system that includes curriculum, standards,
assessments, and teaching and learning that equates to being rewarded or recognized inside of our
accountability system. Finally, when we think about sustaining, when we look at the data that
was presented today, again we really are closing the gap with our economically disadvantaged
students and our students with disabilities in particular and holding our own everywhere else.
We'll seriously analyze our landscape after the NAEP scores, and we'll immediately move to procure
and provide professional development and technical assistance and interventions with the focus on
where we have the greatest challenges. We'll also continue to move forward with education reform,
and that reform means reform of the whole system. That's not always transformational. That's
tweaking here and there. That's making sure that we are up to date on everything that's
happening. And finally, Wyoming is in some what we might call dire straits with respect to
revenue. There's always that challenge of assuring our legislators and our stakeholders that our
investment in education and our commitment to targeted funding for all subgroups is vitally
important, but that's becoming more difficult, so we always have to be up for that challenge.
Again, thank you, Terry, for giving me the opportunity to share. Thank you. Very interesting
news from a rural state out there. Thank you, Jillian. Tom, you've got a unique setup too.
Thank you, Terry. I appreciate that. I want to thank the National Assessment Governing Board for
the invitation. It is quite an honor to be here. For those of you who were surprised the
Department of Defense has a school system, let me tell you what we do. We have 168 schools around
the world. We are divided into three regions -- the Pacific, Europe, and the United States. We
have schools in 11 countries, 7 states, in Guam and Puerto Rico, and we service pre-K to 12, the
children of the men and women who were in the armed forces around the world and department of
Civilians. It's an honor that we have that mission. We have 15,000 dedicated professionals to
make sure that we provide the best educational services we can. That's us in a nutshell. We
have a headquarters here in Washington, D.C., which acts as the state. That's where the SEA
functions, policies, distribution of resources, et cetera, et cetera, that's conducted here in
Washington, D.C. the schools obviously are around the world. We looked at the NAEP results and
are delighted. Again, it's humbling in some cases. We have some gaps. We're working on those,
but specifically what we've done in the last four years that impact, I think, on the beginning of
these NAEP results is the introduction of national standards. College and career standards
throughout the system. The work began about four years ago, began with mathematics in the
elementary, literacy, we're continuing to do with that. It's with fidelity. It is about a five
or six-year process to get all the national standards impacted, so we're in the process of doing
that. We've also aligned our instruction system, so the resources are aligned behind what we were
doing in the standards. We also have a focused collaboration. Our great teachers around the
world have deliberate focused collaboration efforts, and they are overseen by our equally talented
administrators. We have a robust evaluation system, and we are looking at a comprehensive
assessment system as we go forward. Then finally, we've reorganized for student success. We've
took some of the business functions, we centralized them, and we took those positions and put them
into a center of instructional leadership. We have three centers of Instructional Leadership in
the regions. This is where the professionals, who are the instructional specialists, can go to
schools, provide coaching and professional development as our teachers work through the new
standards and the implementation. All of those impact and will continue to impact as we go
forward, so I thank you for the opportunity to tell you a little bit more about the Department of
Defense schools and what we're trying to do to improve our educational process for our kids.
Thank you. Glen, I know California probably has one of the more interesting recent changes
to funding systems and local control. Hopefully, you'll touch on that in your remarks, but tell
us how California uses the NAEP data. It's one of my favorite tops topics. Thank you so much
for having me here today. Our superintendent couldn't be here today due to urgent business in
California. He asked me to express his deep appreciation to the NAEP governing board for the
invitation. As I was gathering my thoughts for today's event, what came to mind were the words
of our state board president. He said, we should always approach the work with patience,
persistence, and humility. The word humility came to mind again as I saw the results for the NAEP
scores across the country. I'll talk about how we're going to be utilizing those in California.
To understand some of the major changes we've been undertaking in the California public education
system, I'd like to introduce the rubric that we've called the California way, kind of the
framework and guiding principles that we use for our work. There's five guiding principles. The
first is a core belief that educators want to excel. The second is that we can trust our
educators to improve if we provide them and deploy the proper resources to do so. The third --
and I'll talk about this, Terry, as I get into the local control funding formula a little bit --
is the flexibility for local schools and districts, those closest to the action and problems, to
be able to deploy resources in a flexible way. The fourth being engagement. How do we
effectively engage our stakeholders to effectively support public education? The fifth is a
fundamental commitment to equity and supporting that commitment to equity with a concrete
investment strategy, which I'll get to in a second. We've supported those core principles with a
funding, accountability, and a continuous improvement framework. The funding strategy is known as
the local control funding formula. The good news in California is that since the recession we've
been able to utilize the local control funding formula by $44 billion, which is quite an
accomplishment. On an annual basis the local control funding formula moves the $10.1 billion on
an annual basis to prioritize English learner populations in our state. Along the way, we've also
been able fortunately to invest about $1.25 billion in support for the common core state standards
and the professional learning that needed to accompany that. That's kind of the funding
framework. If Dr. Kerst were here, he'd describe the policy framework that's emerged from that
with effective classroom instruction right in the center of a wheel. It's right in the center
where every policy connects to as spokes effective classroom instruction. A central spoke
connected to that effective classroom instruction is a multiple measures approach to
accountability. We've been looking at how do we look at the whole child, how do we think about a
multiple measures approach to accountability. The work supporting strong standards and that work
around multiple measures of accountability has been made possible by the development and
maintenance and ongoing cultivation and nurturing of a strong guiding coalition. We pay a lot of
attention to that in a California. That includes labor. It includes management. It includes
equity groups and advocacy groups and parents as a broad range of stakeholders. What we have
seen today, the results have been encouraging. We know we have a long ways to go. High school
graduation rates are way up to historical levels in California and our gaps are closing.
Suspension rates are on the way down. We've had an over 40% drop in suspension rates. We've
seen a 30.4% increase in eligibility for the University of California and a 53.5% increase in
eligibility for our California State University system again with the gaps closing. What does
NAEP mean in this context for California? Well, as a member of the smarter balanced assessment
conconsortium, it corroborates what we've seen through our annual administration of the S-back
results. What we have seen is slow and steady growth. Today's NAEP results show California up in
eighth grade math, up in fourth grade reading, and showing one of the largest gains in the nation
in eighth grade reading. Those gains are occurring across all percentile levels, so we're looking
forward to diving into those results. We'll use them as a flashlight. We'll use them to help
inform work at every level of the system. I just want to close with what Dr. Kerst's words of
patience, persistence, and humility. Continuous improvement. Had the opportunity over the weekend
with my family to see the movie "black Panther." I was struck by the words of black panther's
sister who said just because something works doesn't mean it can't be improved. That's what we're
going to be working on in California. (Applause) Pam is a chief in Kentucky. A couple of
years her NAEP scores went up. I got a call from the other chiefs who scores went down. They
want to know what you do state and policy-wise that we might want to consider. Even got a call
from the Secretary of Ed congratulating us on improvement. In the years we were down, I was
calling folks like you. What are the state policy issues you're doing in Florida that you can
highlight for us? Thank you, Terry. It's an honor to be here. I, like Jillian, was invited
was thrilled and hope that indicated some good news for us with regard to NAEP. Want to thank the
NAEP governing board also for allowing us to be here and talk about some of the great work that's
happening in Florida. We are the third largest state in the nation. We have roughly 2.87
billion students. About 190,000 teachers. Yet we only have 67 school districts. In some ways,
that makes the work a little more manageable. And I think that there are many factors that go
into our improvement in Florida. Certainly, it is not by happenstance. This is very focused
work. It is hard work, and it is not for the faint of heart. We adopted more rigorous standards,
and this group of NAEP fourth graders is the group that have only been taught those more rigorous
standards from the time they entered kindergarten all the way through fourth grade. The eighth
graders had these more rigorous standards in a phased in approach, but in their entire middle
school experience they had the most rigorous college and career-ready standards. That process was
an arduous process that we went through, and we took input from stakeholders, thousands of input
across our state. Then we aligned assessments to those standards and have more rigorous standards
to see how our students are performing. The fourth graders had only taken the more rigorous
assessments. Florida has long had an accountability system that's allowed us to have continued
improvement. That is the system we put in place so that the adults in the system can see where we
are and where we are going, where the weaknesses are, where our strengths are, and what we can do
to improve. Our accountability system includes not only the performance on our assessments but
also the growth and focusing the growth of the lowest 25% of our students, no matter their
subgroup. If they're performing in the bottom 25% in a school, then that is included in the school
grade as to whether or not those students make learning gains. We also include our graduation
rate and acceleration, so we have seen a higher percent of students performing or participating in
advancement, such as A.P., and performing better on those assessments. Our accountability system
has certainly contributed. Like my of -- many of my colleagues have mentioned, teacher quality
is something that impacts how our students perform. That is the most important factor in the
classroom as to how our students will improve, so we have focused our efforts there as well. Our
certification exams that our teachers take in order to become certified have become more rigorous
over time in measuring the teacher's ability to understand content and then to convey that
content. Also, how the students improve is included in the teacher's evaluation as a component.
In addition to that, we have a tiered system of support for our schools as to how they are
performing. Every school system in the state receives some support from the state level, and it
is tiered depending on how that district is performing and the areas where they are needing
specific support. Those are the main factors that I think have impacted how Florida has been
performing over the years. Thank you very much, Terry. All right. 30 seconds each on this
question. Then I want to make sure we have time for the audience to participate. I know all of
you are very active in the council of chief state school Officers. I know you've been very
engaged in that organization in closing achievement gaps. You have a huge equity agenda, and
you've recently advertised for a chief equity officer. All right. How do you then move equity --
what are the two things that you're really going to push as state chief to close achievement gaps
which then in turn would help this nation close achievement gaps? We've been working on this for
quite some time. As the data show, we're not getting there. Let's start with Tom. Two things
you're going to do as state chief. 30 seconds. 30 seconds. We're implementing a Department
of Defense evaluation system. It is data driven. It will be remarkably detailed. It will be
driven in the classroom so teachers and administrators will be able to identify by student where
they are and what plan -- what additional resources, additional outside interventions, we can
bring to ensure that we narrow that gap. We're blessed. We have done good work in the past to
narrow that gap, but we still need work to do. We'll primarily look to that. Glen? I
just want to applaud the work of the chief state officers in keeping this vision in front of the
nation. We'll certainly be supporting it all the way in California. Three things that come to
mind immediately, Terry, are, one, to continue to not forget an investment strategy needs to back
up the equal for equity. We need to think of equity not as a slogan, not as a form of rhetoric,
but how are we actually backing that up with investment. We'll be continuing to figure out how we
can do that and increase levels of investment in California. Secondly, we'll be continuing to
work on the development of our system of support. We're also working a tiered system of support,
kind of following from the groundbreaking research and work that's been done around multitiered
systems of support, reflecting that at a state level where we have support that's provided for all
than for a few and then for a very few. Then as we're doing that, making sure we're serving each
and every child. We've been focused on this work on closing the achievement gap for quite
some time. I've held some convenings with the school superintendents so we can focus on this
work. We're really focused on four different areas -- chronic absenteeism of our students and what
do we do to improve the attendance of our students, the discipline gap, the ninth grade retention
we know is a factor, and chronic absenteeism. We've been focused on that. Also, I think that our
work on the lowest 25% and focusing on that in each of our school grades has made an impact and is
certainly very important. We also took the tenents from good work on equity. We personalized that
for school superintendents to be able to utilize that in their school districts as well. I
love going last because I could just say ditto, but I'll add to that and say that, you know, one
of my main responsibilities as chief state school officer in Wyoming and in the nation is to make
sure that we think comprehensively all the time about equity. Pam brought up the ten tenents, our
equity commitments, as an organization. In Wyoming, where we don't have a lot of racial disparity
but we have a lot of equity issues with respect to poverty, disabilities, rural versus urban, so
always bringing all inequities and all equity issues to the table so make sure it remains a
comprehensive issue is important. Second of all, we have a refined accountability model that no
longer just looks at students who are ready for college, but we look at students who are ready for
careers and are ready for military service. I'm really excited to give that a chance to work. I
think when we look at everything from our insides to the training that we offer to the modes of
instruction that we offer in our state, just letting all of the reform efforts inside of our states
work over the next few years will be telling and really prodding that along with the equity
conversation. Excellent. We have just a few minutes for a couple of questions. These guys
are so good. You have no questions. I'll give a little wait time. I know you're focusing
on modes of equity, but with all the research that talks about the impact of teacher belief
systems, how are y'all working with that, with your educators, in the districts throughout your
state to look at where money is going to go and we know where it is going to go. The question is
at the heart of what happens is what teachers believe about students. No matter what you spend or
give them, their belief is going to be an overriding and undergirding factor. How are you
addressing the belief systems as well? Open it to the panel. I'll take one stab at it
because this has been something we've been focused on. One of the works that addresses that from
a more global sense is Carol's work on growth mind-set, but the other reading I share everywhere I
go -- and I had to pull it up to read the title -- is the impact of implicit bias. If you
haven't read it, I recommend that reading for everyone. We are on the mission from a ground swell
of doing that work with all of our teachers in the state. I'll also just add onto that and
say that stakeholder input from our teachers is probably the most valuable stakeholder input that
we get, and it drives policy, but it also helps build that confidence in the system. Our state
system of support, one of the biggest components in our state system of support is professional
learning communities and building leaders no matter if you're at the classroom level or the school
level or the district level. Sometimes even the community level. I'm a big believer in that we
don't have to look to the state for the best expertise. Utilizing pyres and really creating a
system and a culture of improving alongside shoulder to shoulder with each other is really
important and something that we'll continue to do. I certainly don't expect teaching to be a
static field. It needs to be very dynamic but to flood all our reform efforts with that dynamic
perspective is always important. Shameless plug. As the chair of the national board for
professional Teaching Standards, teachers go through that process with the five core teaching
principles. They discover issues they may have with bias. We have one other question right back
here. I'm a retired D.C. public schoolteacher. I forget who of you was talking about the
increase in graduation rates in your state. Who was that? That's what I thought. I was
wondering whether you have any inklings in your state of the sort of scandal we've had here right
in D.C. where huge numbers of students didn't show up to school, didn't do the work, didn't pass
the classes but through various subterfuges were passed anyway in order to increase the apparent
graduation rate. I've heard from other people that it's often happening in other cities. I know
I've gone in and sat in on classes after I retired when I was helping some other math teachers. I
would find in a first period class, which had 25 kids on the books, that maybe five kids would
show up at some point or another during the class. They didn't stay all day, but that's my
question. Has their been any -- is there any sort of general investigation in other states into
this sort of fraudulent increasing of rates of graduation? I have time for one response. Who
wants a go at it? Yes, there are a number of audits that occur around how to look for any
possibility of fraud. It's something that we all just need to be very vigilant about. It is
perhaps in some ways a feature or a result of some perverse incentives that we've been providing
to school systems. One thing we might want to -- one way to approach thinking about that and
we've been trying to incorporate in California is looking at not just the status of graduation
rates or suspension rates or academic performance but also the change and improvement and
combining that into a metric and recognizing that the actual action is in the improvement and
thereby try to take away some of the incentive for falsifying data on a purely static measure of
performance. NAEP is the gold standard. It's so critical for -- we have one more. You want
me to go over. Robert gave me permission to go over. Thanks for going over a second. Given
that we're seeing some of the high performing students improve and some of the low performing
students decline and the achievement opportunity gap, is there anything you're doing with
connecting with out of school time factors or experiences that you think is helping students in
their educational progress? Thanks. I'll take a shot at that. Going back to California
experience, yes. I would refer those here in the room and in the audience to look at
expandlearninginCalifornia.org. We've been taking full advantage of opportunities afforded by
Title 4. Thank you to everyone who has advocated to maintain those programs. Proposition 49
provides about $45 million a year for afterschool programs in the state. What we're still
learning about in California is how do you bring together after school times with K-12 and do that
effectively. Again, NAEP is the gold standard. The next couple of years, we will have a
delightful experience of everybody having their own opinion about what this data tells us. These
guys will have the wonderful opportunity to do something with it. Please join me in thanking this
excellent panel for their insight today. (Applause) One more round of applause as they exit.
(Applause) Very, very meaningful and stimulating discussion. We have now hit one of my
favorite topics, #equity. I think that what we're seeing is that as the best of us continue to do
better and those among us who continue to struggle continue to struggle, does the nation as a
whole stay static? That's not math. That's politics. We have a chart for that. I applaud all
the panelists for really talking to us about their struggles and the sophisticated ways and
complicated attempts to address the situation. It gives me faith that we are actually going to
have the courage and the dexterity to get this done.
I'm going to be bringing up our reading panel.
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