Leadership Matters August 2013 issue.pub

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.

“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. “

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)

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