Sample Opinion 1

A “Second Opinion” Regarding Implementation of the Nebraska Partnership for Quality Education Project September 9, 1999 George K. Cunningham, Ph.D. College of Education University of Louisville J.E. Stone, Ed.D. College of Education East Tennessee State University Martin Kozloff, Ph.D. Watson School of Education University of North Carolina – Wilmington all of the Education Consumers Consultant Network At the request of Ann Mactier–member of the Nebraska Board of Education–the Nebraska Partnership for Quality Education proposal was examined by the … Read More

Policy Highlights

Tennessee’s Race to the Top Application Significant Reforms Found By J.E. Stone, Ed.D. President Education Consumers Foundation February 15, 2010 (click here for PDF) Introduction Tennessee can take justifiable pride in its Race to the Top (RTTT) application. It is a bold plan and it succeeds by ensuring that the key elements of schooling enterprise—governance, hiring, compensation, and training—all treat student achievement gains as schooling’s top priority. Even retention for tenured teachers is subject to job performance requirements. In … Read More

About TVAAS

Tennessee’s Value Added Assessment: Why It’s Important and How It Works Ten years prior to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Tennessee enacted its Value Added Assessment System (TVAAS). TVAAS was and is a major advancement in educational accountability. It remains the most sophisticated and mature school accountability system in use today. It is TVAAS’s statistical precision that makes it possible to rank Tennessee’s schools according to their effectiveness in helping students learn. Prior to 1980, school … Read More

Dyer Elementary

2013 Value-Added Achievement Awards Winner: Brad Garner, Dyer Elementary School Second Place, West Division, Middle Schools Brad Garner, Principal Dyer Elementary School 322 East College Street Dyer, TN 38330 Gibson County Special School District Visit website (Additional pictures below)   Materials related to the Dyer Elementary recognition ceremony: Press release from the event PDF of School Performance Chart showing Dyer Elementary’s ranking; or visit ECF’s online interactive tool to make a chart that shows other schools by name PDF of TCAP/TVAAS “Birdshot” … Read More

State Performance in Connecticut

posted in: General Information |

Connecticut: Comparing schools and districts based on student proficiency The information below reflects the most recent data available to us; please contact us with questions or to request additional analyses. Analysis: Comparing schools and districts on third grade proficiency in reading and math Available charts: Poverty versus 3rd grade reading proficiency rates (2023) Poverty versus 3rd grade reading proficiency rates (2022) Poverty versus 3rd grade reading proficiency rates (2019) Poverty versus 3rd grade reading proficiency rates (2018) Poverty versus 3rd … Read More

Needed: Truth in Grading

posted in: Education Research |

It is a disappointment when a child does poorly in school.  It becomes a tragedy, however, when a child and his parents are not told the truth. Every year, hundreds of thousands of primary and secondary school students are tested and found to lack minimum skills despite having been promoted from grade to grade. Many have been socially promoted, i.e., moved ahead despite poor marks. Most, however, are the victims of grade inflation: They were awarded letter grades … Read More

2012 Winners

2012 Value-Added Achievement Awards In a May 14, 2012 ceremony held at the Tennessee Supreme Court, Education Consumers Foundation President J. E. Stone presented awards of $3,000, $2,000, and $1,000 to Tennessee’s highest performing elementary and middle school principals. (You can see rankings of every elementary school here, and of every middle school here.) Recipients were selected on the basis of their school’s most recent 3-year average achievement gains in math and reading/language arts. Only those principals with 5 or … Read More

For Parents

Support for Parents, Educators, and the Community For parents and others interested in pursuing improved student and/or school performance, the links below should serve as a starting point. An Overview of Resources from ECF The Education Consumers Foundation website offers a great deal of information for parents and others interested in effective K-12 education. Download this brochure for an overview of what’s available, presented in a format that’s easily shared with others in your child’s school. Books by Elaine McEwan … Read More

Are Tennessee’s Children Learning to Read?

posted in: Data Scoreboards, Graphic Tools Used in Tennessee, Tools for Rating Schools |

Reading is the most essential skill that children learn in school. It is taught over a 4-5 year period that begins in preschool or kindergarten and extends to 3rd grade. Beyond 3rd grade, schooling turns from learning to read, to reading to learn. Promoting children to the 4th and subsequent grades without sound reading skills not only reduces their chances of success, it misleads their parents about the child’s progress, it unloads poorly equipped and discouraged learners on … Read More

Value Added Achievement Awards

How School Rankings and Awards Validated Data-Driven Improvement Tennessee has gained a substantial measure of reform success because of local and statewide public and policymaker awareness of the objectively measured increases in student achievement produced by local schools. ECF’s school rankings played a key role.  They drew public and educator attention to the otherwise long-ignored TVAAS data and gave public recognition to the schools that were producing superior achievement gains.  For the first time, public attention was drawn … Read More

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