USBE has been about this task for a lot longer than the federal government. USBE even began work on its own competency-based education initiatives ahead of the expectations set up in Senate Bill 154 of 2003, which called for, among other items, early, diagnostic and progress-based assessments; personalized learning plans for all students; and interventions for students who struggle.
Beginning in 2002, the USBE disaggregated student data by subgroups. A year earlier USBE required student testing data from Utah Performance Assessment System for Students (U-PASS) be displayed by the percentage of students performing with proficiency rather than the average performance. Average performance indicators can mask students who are struggling and hide students who are accelerating. Percent proficient, disaggregated for racial, ethnic and low-income student characteristics, paints a much more accurate picture of student performance and draws attention to the needs of children who have similar characteristics.
We invite all Utahns to look at this data. We've put language arts and mathematics test results online in an easy-to-read format at http://www.usoe.k12.ut.us/pr/FngrFacts.pdf.
All of this was done before No Child Left Behind arrived on the scene.
U-PASS Ð which encompasses a series of local and national tests whose results are to be reported by school and district and in disaggregated form for racial, ethnic, low-income and special education subgroups Ð was enacted in 2000. U-PASS would have been in pilot form in 2002-2003 except that No Child Left Behind's mandates intervened, pushing U-PASS off the table and requiring its own adequate yearly progress plan that same year.
USBE's work on the U-PASS accountability plan began last fall and the plan's components are second to none in the nation. Many improvements over NCLB could be cited. But subgroup accountability is chief among the superior aspects of the U-PASS accountability plan.
Rather than only following subgroups as a whole - and rather than comparing one year's group of students to the following year's group of students, as NCLB does - U-PASS follows every child (not just a child's subgroup) and demands that all children either hit the proficiency target or make substantial progress toward that target or substantial growth beyond the target if a student is already accelerated.
It rewards performance but honors significant growth. It holds schools accountable for the performance of all of its students, each subgroup, and each child. It compares performance, year to year, by each child, measuring growth over time.
We think U-PASS is a superior system to NCLB for measuring school accountability. But once we have seen the problem - and there is one - we need to do something about it. As chairman of the USBE and state superintendent, let us assure you: Utah's public schools will do everything we can to eliminate the achievement gap.
USBE is happy to link arms with the board's Coalition of Minorities Advisory Committee and other members of the minority community to advocate for additional resources for tutoring, small groupings, after-school help and intensive summer studies for children who struggle.
Parental involvement in a child's schooling is the most important factor in achievement. We will not violate the trust we must engender from all parents, including those of the minority community. USBE welcomes all parents and taxpayers, including those representing minority communities, to come with the board members, for their fourth consecutive year in 2006, to address the Utah Legislature and the governor's office, advocating for the funds necessary to help all children succeed.
We need to pull together as a state and as a nation to solve these perplexing problems, not stand on any bully pulpit and point fingers at one another. The great moments of accomplishment in our country have been due to cooperation, resolve, statesmanship and innovation.
Let us rise to a common vision for all of our children, a vision that inspires and motivates, not punishes and regulates as NCLB is currently doing in our classrooms.
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Kim R. Burningham is chairman of the Utah State Board of Education and Patti Harrington is Utah superintendent of public instruction.
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