From the Bloomington Herald-Times:
The question patrons of the Monroe County Community School Corp. should care about when it comes to spending additional tax money collected through the 2010 referendum is: How has student achievement been affected?
A report to the school board from a 21-person committee charged with trying to determine that suggests the spending has been successful when it comes to graduation rates, early literacy, standardized test scores and some other measures. But it will take another year or two to get a significant reading.
The data released with the report shows steady improvement in achievement from 2010 through 2012, but only a few of the measures have data for the 2011-2012 school year, the first that included full referendum funding. Across-the-board increases are seen on ISTEP scoring for the three years measured. The number of students who recorded high scores on advanced placement tests increased from 2011 to 2012. Other data in the “dashboard” cited in the report shows movement in the right direction, as well, but 2012 data is missing, so it’s unknown what impact referendum funding had in those areas. Reading levels, graduation rates and end-of-course assessments show improvements from 2010 to 2011. If they improve again when the 2012 numbers come in, that will be meaningful.
Tim Thrasher, director of business operations for the MCCSC and one of the co-chairs of the committee, understands the evaluation of referendum spending is far from complete. But the committee has organized data on the MCCSC website so matching how the money was spent with achievement of MCCSC students since the spending began in August of 2011 is transparent.
While that’s good progress, it’s way too early to declare victory in terms of referendum spending because the results just aren’t in yet. Continued scrutiny on objective measures is necessary before that can happen. We’ll know more next year at this time.
http://www.heraldtimesonline.com/stories/2012/08/01/digitalcity.not-enough-data-available-yet-to-measure-true-impact-of-referendum.sto
