What should we measure to determine the success of a student, a school and American education in general?

America’s education systems (public, charter, parochial, home-based & private) are all struggling with the same basic concepts:
1. How do we measure the effectiveness and quality of our schools?
2. How do we measure accurately student achievement & progress across different school districts?
3. How do we measure the quality and capacity of the staff that works in the various educational schools?
4. How do we measure the quality and effectiveness of our different educational systems?
Parents, teachers, superintendents, chartering organizations, students, vendors, are all struggling with these questions and the varied answers that we have to them. Since the late 1990’s, we have attempted to measure schools through a variety of state and national testing models. These “standardized test” have all promised to:
· provide an apples to apples comparison of the development of a student,
· the educational gaps that the student is experiencing and
· can be used as the toolkit for helping low performing students to improve.
30 years into this model and we still haven’t gotten to a clear consistent model to answer these questions. Students are still struggling, businesses are having trouble finding prepared workers for the positions of the future and parents continue to struggle with finding the right school for their children. This cycle seems not to end and we are getting no closer to solving these basic issues. Spending 10 active years during my lobbyist career, lobbying on educational issues for parent advocacy, educational issue and educational product vendors provided some perspective on what is not working within our educational industry. Being a parent and having two smart, engaged young men, gave me a more practical and tangible relationship with the difference in education from when I was a student. These combined experiences, coupled with countless interviews, discussions, focus group sessions and other research engagement with parents, teachers, education reporters, policy experts, legislators and independent research have led me to communicate the following practical approach to making education work.
This independent model I’m offering is something that I believe can encourage pragmatic dialogue on this issue and spark a better debate on education. There is no easy, simple solution to this and there is not a simple cost controlled way to merge the gaps and improve educational outcomes across all boundaries.

Real fixes
1. Add attendance, parent participation, GPA, course difficulty & extra-curricular activities to student achievement metrics — The way to measure a student should be more involved than just the latest set of test scores. The development of a child is broader and should be broader than just standardize testing. Starting with Kindergarten, a student’s development should include
a. Their attendance (absences & tardies)
b. The GPA for in-class work
c. Course difficulty (encouraging school systems to offer classes above the baseline curriculum standards & parents & students to go into more challenging classes)
d. Extra-curricular activities (academic clubs, music, theater, sports, cross district cultural activities, career/employment development)
e. Sports related activities
2. Fund school operations to allow for expanded school day. To keep students from non-functioning households to stay for education development & meals & reduce time in toxic home (stays open to 8pm) — In a growing number of urban, inner-ring suburban and rural communities, the traditional family structure has missing and the normal positive stimuli that helps them grow as students. Traditional 8am to 2pm schooling is not enough to stem the negative influences or lack or supportive environment for these students. Identifying the cost for providing a longer school day and paying staff for continuing development activities with students is critical to breaking these cycles.
3. Reduce charter school model to high performance schools & implement voucher program, to encourage Catholic and Lutheran schools to return to inner-city neighborhoods) — As a product of parochial schooling, the graduate rates, college admission and college graduation rates for students of color is higher than either distressed public education districts & most charter school provider systems.
a. Provide for the voucher model to allow parents to take the per pupil funding & Title I/II/III funding tied to their child and use it to pay for parochial education, especially in the lower performing educational districts across the country.
b. Keep the charter school providers who have a minimum 10 year positive track record with the metrics noted in the first policy section plus graduation rate, college admission & college graduation rates of students and retain them to supplement the mix.
4. Real world career pathing tied to grade levels starting at 1st grade — Build an industry and career path focused supplemental education track into each grade level. The best way to introduce & prepare to our future workforce for the employment & entrepreneurial sectors is to build them into your curriculum, classroom activity plan, field trips and parental engagement strategies.
5. External activity programming to introduce students to world & experiences outside of their neighborhoods — Take advantage of the social divide within our country to use education as the bridge builder. Coordinate cross district programming between urban, suburban & rural school districts, school districts across state, ethnicity & socio-economic boundaries. This programming should include:
a. study exchange opportunities,
b. video conferenced joint classroom sessions,
c. extended travel field trips to different regions within and outside of state boundaries,
d. academic and athletic contests, especially non-traditional sports introduction (hockey in urban school districts as an example)
e. Cross teacher & Staff programming (staff swapping for cultural & training development)
6. Start elective course options by 5th grade, including foreign language courses & career based courses as options (law, medical, insurance, advertising, etc.) — In addition to the traditional subject matter in K-12 education curriculum, add elective course options for students starting no later than 5th grade. Adding a requirement of 1 to 2 elective classes per semester will guide parents and students towards these classes, which will add to the student’s educational development.
7. Require continuing education & teacher subject capacity assessments each year — In addition to modifying the “scorecard” for evaluating the development of students & quality of schools, implementation of an evaluation, continuing education and skills assessment model for teachers and principals is a necessary requirement for ensuring that education staff stays current on knowledge improvements that impact curriculum and student development. This three tiered model would work as follows:
a. Annual evaluation — Prior to the start of the school year, evaluations of each teacher & principal would include the individual student under their homeroom control, students taught in core subject matter, overall school performance (principals only) based upon the scorecard model addressed in my first policy section
b. Continuing education — Set a standard level and number of continuing education activities that both the teachers and principals must participate in each school year. This can include classes, training sessions, workshops and other programming that will enhance their knowledge of their teaching subjects.
c. Skills assessment — each teacher must take a subject based assessment annually, to determine their continuing proficiency in their subjects and develop their continuing education plan for the upcoming year.
8. Curriculum standards above state requirements — each state sets a base level of curriculum standards for each grade level. This allows school districts, charter school providers, parochial & private school providers & home schoolers to align their textbooks and lesson plans to meet these standards. There should be a requirement for low-performing school districts to set their curriculum standards above these base standards and align their lesson plan and teaching material procurement to that point.
9. Reduce testing to only twice a year — When my children were in school, they had to take up to 4 different standardized test during the course of the school year. 45% to 55% of the instruction time was spent teaching the students to prepare for the test. Part of the education overhaul must include a reduction in the number of standardized testing cycles, to no more than 2 per school year. Redirect the classroom focus to course based instruction which will improve overall student performance and holistic development.
These are practical solution steps that can be built upon with the following additional tools
· Changing the understanding of who the primary customer is and what customer types exist, the parent — Parents make the educational purchase
· How parents purchase a school product for their children — What are the types of purchasing questions that must be answered, to get parents to buy your school for their children and does your school answer the purchasing questions that you need?
· School & system based marketing analysis — assessing what a school offers as products & services that impact the purchasing choice of parents
In my next articles, I will drive into these aspects of changing the educational paradigm.