Accountability Report Card Update
The department’s accountability team is already working on the 2021-22 Accountability Report Card. Note updates below for this year’s Report Card.
Addendum
In March, the Department of Education submitted an addendum to its 2021-22 State Plan required under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, as revised by the Every Student Succeeds Act. Recognizing COVID’s continued impact on schools in school year 2021-22, and particularly the challenges around securing valid and reliable data, if approved by the U.S. Department of Education, the changes would impact accountability for the current school year (Report Card issued fall 2022).
Summary of proposed changes:
- Shift long-term goals forward by two years (goals for Academic Achievement, Graduation Rate, and English Learner Progress)
- Use only one year (school year 2021-22) of assessment data, rather than the typical three years, to calculate the Academic Achievement indicator
- Not report School Performance Index scores publicly; however, the state would report those scores privately to school districts and identify schools for improvement based on those scores (list of schools in Improvement would be public, just not scores)
Changes to the CCR Indicator
The department plans to change the College and Career Readiness calculation. Currently, a student needs to be both assessment and coursework ready. To be coursework ready, they may be a CTE concentrator, receive a C or higher in a state-sponsored dual credit program, or pass an Advanced Placement exam.
Last year, a new option was added. It looks at students who earned at least one high school graduation advanced endorsement. Starting with the 2020-21 school year, districts must indicate if a student has earned one or more of the graduation advanced endorsements. The options are advanced endorsement, advanced career endorsement, and advanced honors endorsement.
The department will be simplifying the coursework readiness indicator to only look at high school advanced endorsements. Why?
- To meet graduation requirements, all students can earn one or more advanced endorsements at no cost, providing equal access to meet the CCR indicator. Some students experience different levels of access to CTE courses, AP courses, or dual credit courses due to a variety of factors, which creates a fairness issue within the current CCR indicator.
- By focusing on high school advanced endorsements, students have more paths to indicate that they are coursework ready.
- The high school graduation advanced endorsement indicator already acknowledges the other options. For example, if a student is a CTE concentrator, the student has already achieved one of the two requirements for the advanced career endorsement.
- By using the high school graduation endorsements, the indicator does not require districts to offer optional programming, like AP exams or the state-sponsored dual credit program. High school endorsements are required for all students, so this helps streamline programming decisions for districts.
Changes to designation
South Dakota’s State Plan has been amended to change the calculations for school supports. The main change removes the confidence intervals for Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) and Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI). Another change identifies TSI and ATSI schools when their subgroups perform at the bottom across all eligible indicators when compared to the same subgroup at all other schools. If you have questions about this, contact the department’s Title team.
Training Opportunities
The Accountability Report Card has a lot of useful information that educators can use to understand their schools, students, and outcomes. The department’s Accountability Team is discussing opportunities to help districts overcome challenges in navigating, understanding, and using the Report Card. Details to come this fall.
Tentative timeline
The state has determined a tentative timeline for the release of the report card. Below are some key dates for districts to keep in mind.
Aug. 24-Sept. 8 - Districts can submit appeals related to their Report Card data. This is the ONLY appeal window. Appeal window closes at 5 p.m. CT on Sept. 8.
Oct. 5 - Department makes final decisions on appeals.
Oct. 13 - Public Report Card goes “live” with state-, district- and school-level data
Questions
If you have questions about the 2021-22 report card, please contact DOE.Accountability@state.sd.us.