Spending Without Knowing

Schools like to whine about not having enough money.

They are convinced that more money will solve all their problems.

But here’s the deal.

As long as schools don’t know how the money they are given impacts young learners, why should they receive more of it?

Earlier this year, USA Today online published an article addressing this issue of school districts spending money on projects and initiatives without knowing how those projects and initiatives made a difference, or didn’t, with student learning. The article begins,

“Tampa, home of the nation’s seventh-largest school district, offers a glimpse into the country’s multiracial future: White students make up less than a third of students, Hispanic students another 38%, Black students 21% and Asian students 5%.”

“The percentages break differently when looking at academic achievement and discipline, however. Significantly larger numbers of white students enroll in calculus and advanced science classes, while Black students disproportionately experience suspension and expulsion – a consistent trend in schools across the nation.”

“To try to eliminate this disparity, Tampa puts a heavy emphasis on equity and racial justice when allocating the $36 million it spends each year on professional development for educators. Teachers can access online and in-person training on topics including implicit bias, culturally relevant pedagogy and connecting with English-language learners. ‘We really focus on building that inclusive climate and culture,’ said Jamalya Jackson, executive director of professional development for the Hillsborough County School District, headquartered in Tampa.”

“Yet the district doesn’t measure whether the training directly changes educator beliefs, teachers’ behaviors, or student outcomes. Jackson couldn’t point to a single evaluation method that asks a question deeper than whether teachers found the material useful. Even the district’s online training – potentially more easily evaluated or tracked – offers policy makers little insight into whether the investment is successful because it doesn’t measure student outcomes.”

“Tampa isn’t alone. For decades, urban educators have struggled to narrow the gap between Black and white students’ performance in school, which appears as early as preschool, and to end the disproportionate punishment and suspension of Black and brown children, and those with disabilities. From Title I to No Child Left Behind to the Every Student Succeeds Act, wave after wave of federal, state and local policies have attempted to solve the disparity, without much impact. While overall suspensions have declined in the last 20 years, Black students are still disproportionately suspended and expelled compared with white students. That puts them at higher risk for arrest and incarceration, a phenomenon known as the school-to-prison pipeline. The achievement disparity is even more stark: Not only do Black 12^th graders read at a lower level than their white peers; on average, they perform lower than white 8^th graders, according to the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The pandemic upped the ante, because learning losses overwhelmingly hit Black and Latino students.”

“In recent years, discussion of racism in public school has become a political punching bag, with states passing laws against so-called critical race theory and school boards across the U.S. banning books with themes of race and racism. Lawmakers in Florida and Texas have passed bans on diversity offices at the higher education level, and similar legislation is pending in Ohio.”

“Despite all this, public schools spend more than $20 billion annually on teacher training to help the nation’s teachers, a majority of whom are white, teacher across lines of racial identity. However, none of the 42 large U.S. school districts interviewed for this project measure the impact of their training against metrics or evidence generated in an objective research study. (This differs from how schools handle reading and math curriculums, which are often tested rigorously.) As a result, it’s hard to distinguish effective from useless diversity, equity and inclusion training, and that lack of clarity may prompt more criticism of equity-oriented professional development. In the current climate, effective teacher training is even more important, as many experienced teachers have retired and churn is expected to continue.”

…

“How do districts assess whether training is effective? Not systematically… Some merely ask participants about their experiences. Others collect student data or observe classroom instruction. But none used the gold standard: evidence from a controlled study or trial of that training. The profession simply doesn’t have the scientific data, experts said.”

The USA Today article addresses money spent on equity issues and not knowing that impact. But my experience in public schools tells me that this disconnect doesn’t stop with equity issues. Spending money and not knowing its impact happens in almost every public school function – curriculum, instructional strategies, discipline, and other professional development topics other than learner equity.

Either public schools get better at measuring young learner impact, or why should we continue to pour money into a system that is unreliable with the truth?

Til tomorrow. SVB