Rory Linnane:

Did DPI try to make schools look better?

To see how the new formula would change schools’ report card scores, DPI officials ran the new formula on the old 2019 data, which had already been run through the old formula for the 2019 report cards.

After running the numbers, DPI saw that the new formula resulted in lower scores statewide compared to the old formula, with the same 2019 data.

To offset that change, DPI officials changed the numeric goalposts for their standards, so that the same number of schools would meet expectations under both formulas using the same 2019 data.

That way, when people compared a school’s performance over the years, the formula change wouldn’t be as disruptive, DPI said.

The goalposts, also known as cut-scores, were lowered for most performance categories:

Significantly exceeds expectations: stayed the same
Exceeds expectations: moved from 73-82.9 to 70-82.9
Meets expectations: moved from 63-72.9 to 58-69.9
Meets few expectations: moved from 53-62.9 to 48-57.9
Fails: moved from under 52.9 to under 47.9
DPI officials denied any bias in the process. They said they based their changes to the cut-scores based on running the 2019 data through both formulas, before looking at how it would impact 2021 data.

When they ran the 2021 data, it so happened that the same percentage of schools, about 87%, met or exceeded expectations.

What do the report cards actually tell us?

While statewide trends are hard to discern, viewers can still find trends by looking more carefully at report cards for individual districts and schools in various years.

Each report card breaks down a district or school’s standardized test scores for different populations and subject areas, as well as attendance rates and graduation rates.