Louisiana preschool grading criticized

BATON ROUGE — Louisiana's planned method for grading its preschool programs has "serious flaws," two education groups said Monday. The Advocate reports (http://bit.ly/1HXZmL4 ) a study by the groups says the proposed grading plan fails to detail how programs can be improved, relies too heavily on a single grade to judge quality and lacks guarantees needed for fairness. The study was released by the Policy Institute for Children, which advocates for children, and Education's Next Horizon, which advocates for public education improvements. Leaders of both groups have been heavily involved in setting up the new system. Gov. Bobby Jindal pushed for a 2012 law requiring improvements to replace a pre-K setup that critics say is plagued by inequities in funding and quality. New rules to take effect next school year will include early performance guidelines for children from infants to age 3; academic standards for 3- and 4-year-olds; and report cards that grade early childhood education sites. The report says Louisiana's Department of Education plans to issue report cards that measure two areas: one on teacher-child interactions and the other to measure the aggregated scores of all programs in a network. However, the report says no other state relies on a single grade to measure how students and teachers are faring. "While teacher-child interaction is one important measure of quality, it must be combined with other critical markers of quality to be effective means to achieve improved child outcomes," the study says. It also says the state has failed to ensure that independent, third-party assessors will handle the review of how students and teachers are faring. Officials with the state Department of Education didn't comment on the criticism, saying they haven't read the report. --- Information from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com



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