5
The question refers only to the principal and fails to refer to any other type of administrator who might be
the principal’s designee, such as an assistant principal, department or division chair. How are teachers
supposed to answer that question in a case where other administrators have visited their classrooms
regularly?
Those are three general areas of concern that remain even after the issue of comparing all Illinois schools to
CPS schools. We believe that ultimately this survey could be a useful tool, but not as it is currently
constructed and administered. The premature release of this first-year data very likely will paint a distorted
picture of many schools and be one more weight placed on school districts and administrators, who will be left
to try and explain the flaws in the survey when all the media and the general public will focus on will be the
summative conclusions.
Why rush to release data that may not be reliable,
especially in the form of comparative summative ratings?
As I said earlier, it would seem to be a more prudent
approach to sit down with stakeholders, take a look at all
of these issues with an eye toward improving the survey
and use this year’s results to start forming a benchmark.
If these first-year results must be made public for some
reason, then we believe those results should be reported as the percentages for each response (for example,
25 percent “Strongly Agree,” 70 percent “Agree,” 3 percent “Disagree,” and 2 percent “Strongly Disagree.”) It
is simply too early to try and use comparative data and make a summative evaluation based on norms that
are not yet well established.
In summation, due to the inaccuracies because of the invalidity and unreliability of the survey results, the
consequences of the release of information from this survey as it currently exists could be very hurtful and
harmful to school districts. We do not believe that is the goal of ISBE. Thank you for your consideration of this
letter. As a statewide association, IASA stands ready to assist you in a good-faith effort to review and improve
the 5Essentials Survey.
Sincerely,
Brent Clark, Ph.D.
Executive Director
Illinois Association of School Administrators
in Wisconsin. She said she considers education as one of the most important pursuits in this world, and
wants her work at IASA to reflect the importance and priority she places on constantly improving the
education agenda.
A story about ISBE’s new Value Table for Growth Metric, an attempt to provide school districts with a tool
to show growth rather than just the pass/fail data that gets reported regarding AYP.
IASA stands ready to assist you throughout the school year and to continue our advocacy for public
education in Illinois. Our Annual Conference is scheduled for October 9-11 in Springfield, so please mark
those dates on your calendar. We have an outstanding group of speakers lined up, and we plan to feature the
upcoming conference in the September issue of
Leadership Matters.
I again want to thank you for all that you do to offer top-notch educational opportunities for the children of
Illinois. It’s not easy work. It can be thankless work in terms of public perception and feedback, and often it’s
made even more difficult because of budget cuts and additional mandates. But your work is vitally important
to the future of your community, state and nation because that’s what your students represent – and those
students are the bottom-line reason we all chose this profession.
Dr. Clark’s ‘Back to School’ message ————————————————————
(Continued from page 3)
“In summation, due to the inaccuracies
because of the invalidity and unreliability
of the survey results, the consequences
of the release of information from this
survey as it currently exists could be very
hurtful and harmful to school districts. We
do not believe that is the goal of ISBE. “
