Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Another COVID Impact: Bad School Data

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by

James A. Bacon
in ,

by Matt Hurt

In a September 14th post, Jim Sherlock referenced some data points that were collected during the pandemic. Specifically he brought up the topics of chronic absenteeism and how the graduation rate didn’t seem to correlate with SOL scores. My intent here is not to refute any specifics; it is to inform readers that there were a variety of aspects that impacted the quality of data that we collected during that time.

First of all, to say that the 2020-21 school year was chaotic is the understatement of the century. Most school divisions began the year in a virtual setting. As the year wore on, students were allowed to come into the school at varying rates. Also during that year, families were ubiquitously allowed to decide whether their students would participate in person, given that was an option.

Many families changed their mind multiple times throughout the year. This by itself caused a great deal of chaos, and it was nearly impossible to accurately reflect each student’s method of instruction during that time period. Try to imagine how this worked out in schools. Johnny’s family chose to have him attend school in person. Then the COVID infection rates in the community increased and Johnny’s family decided that he needed to participate virtually. How hard is it to believe that many kids were marked absent incorrectly when they should have been marked as attending virtually?

Similarly, when students were attending virtually, there was no consistent standard of what was considered attendance across the state for those kids. In some divisions, students were marked present simply if they logged in to their Zoom lessons. That did not mean that they had to participate to be marked as present; they simply had to log in. In other divisions, students were marked absent when they did not turn in their work.

Secondly, when schools were shut down on March 13th of 2020, this put the graduation status of many high school students in jeopardy. Many of these students were underclassmen and were enrolled in SOL courses in which they needed a verified credit to graduate. The Virginia Department of Education granted all students who were enrolled in an SOL course a verified credit for that course if they were passing the course by the time schools closed and they needed that verified credit for graduation requirements. As we know from experience, there are many instances in which grades are inflated relative to SOL outcomes. Given this fact, many students were given the gift of a verified credit who would likely not have earned it that year. Therefore, comparing pass rates in 2022 to graduation rates in that same year is not all that instructive.

In conclusion, collecting data prior to COVID was not an exact science. The data that some divisions submitted to VDOE was more accurate than others. The chaos brought on by COVID significantly decreased the reliability of our data. In other words, the data we collected in 2020 and 2021 is likely not worth the paper on which it is printed.

Matt Hurt is executive director of the Comprehensive Instructional Program.

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6 responses to “Another COVID Impact: Bad School Data”

  1. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    I always appreciate your informed insight and my only complaint is that you apparently are too busy in your real job to offer more informed insight here.

    What you have said about absenteeism during Covid as an administrator “in the business” confirms what others, without actual experience have offered.

    There is a LOT of data collection going on under the general auspices of government transparency and accountability but the quality and actual meaning of the data is often assumed which can be a mistake.

  2. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead

    Mr. Hurt makes a valid point about the usefulness of the recent data reports from VDOE. It does serve a good purpose by underscoring how chaotic and disastrous the past 2 years have been.

    I am hoping that the new Bridging the Gap initiative can be informative. It would be good to have Mr. Hurt’s thoughts on the piloted individualized student reports and Personal Learning Plans.
    https://doe.virginia.gov/instruction/bridging-the-gap/index.shtml

    1. Matt Hurt Avatar
      Matt Hurt

      I think the reports have the potential to be useful. Most of our good teachers won’t need them, because they find out pretty quickly where their kids are and what they need. It might be useful when communicating with parents though.

      The part of it that I’m really concerned about is the requirement for the personalized learning plan. This has a great potential to cause a lot of extra work that may actually distract from the task at hand. Think about how we write a plan for all of our students with disabilities each year- has that made all those students successful? Think about it in another way- we have a bunch of schools who have been perpetually in school improvement and they produce a plan every year. If a plan magically made the difference we would have schools in Improvement for no more than one year at a time. Just because we require a plan doesn’t mean that it will yield the desired results.

      This issue is more about expectations for student achievement and educator performance, and we cannot apply an algorithm to make that work out right. We need effective leadership in our schools and divisions to make sure that we make up all that lost ground with our kids. Mandates from on high will not magically make things better.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        There seems to be a huge gulf between Matt’s perspective and Sherlocks.

        Public schools are subject to substantial top-down dictates these days that seem to have intensified with the advent of NCLB and SOLs in Va which began at about the same time.

        NCLB and SOLs were not done on a whim and one can argue that “keeping track” does not necessarily motivate effective changes. Lots of schools with not-good SOLs don’t seem to get better.

        And what we hear from folks who are actively involved in public education, including those now retired like Mr. Whitehead is that there is a “secret sauce” involved that to this point has not been fully institutionalized with a “recipe” that schools follow to assure desired results.

        We also know that kids from lower socio-economic circumstances do not get educated as well as kids from higher, better socio-economic circumstances and there is an expectation that public education can and should educate kids of different circumstances to levels where they can enter society and be able to compete for a job that requires a 21-century education – one that most developed countries do succeed at doing.

        So there are some complex issues that need attention but I don’t think efforts from on high to create a “tip” line, , outlaw “divisive concepts”, demagoguing parental “rights” will be productive – rather further damaging and undermining public education in general – increasing the pressure on administrators and teachers and encouraging them to leave the profession.

        Too bad, Youngkin doesn’t apparently have folks like Mr. Hurtt advising and instead gravitates towards folks who think that partisan top-down dictates are what is needed.

        Public Education is the defining achievement of developed countries that sets them apart from other countries and yet we can’t seem to resist using them as political whipping boys in this country.

      2. James Wyatt Whitehead Avatar
        James Wyatt Whitehead

        Thank you. Best wishes as you continue important work this year!

  3. James McCarthy Avatar
    James McCarthy

    Very helpful observations concerning terribly scary assertions originally reported on BR. Hopefully, further clarifications emerge.

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