Just the Facts, Ma’am: Getting at the Truth about our District

As someone who is passionate about accuracy, I often find myself frustrated by misinformation I hear about our district. In this spirit, I want to do a bit of myth busting. I sometimes hear information from the district administration and even some board members that is contradicted by data. Well meaning community members and parents will sometimes share incorrect information based on what they have been told. There are several important topics that are difficult to understand, and require either research or broader context to see how they impact our district. Once misinformation is out there, it's hard to undo.

Why do I care about having the facts? That has a lot to do with who I am and my background, which you can read more about at the end of this post. But ultimately, I think we cannot solve problems if we aren’t honest about what they are and what is causing them. So it’s critical to know the truth. To be clear, my source for data in most cases is either publicly available from the state or from the board itself through its board packets and minutes. Let’s dive in, shall we?

 

CHARTER SCHOOLS 

We’ve had an alarming increase in charter school enrollment over the past five years, and some of the trends I observed historically have shifted. So here is what we know:

Charter school enrollment has grown by 58% since 2014, with an average of 200 students enrolling in charter schools from our district each year. This is a huge budgetary problem because of the expense of charter schools. The district is required to pay tuition based on a state formula that has numerous flaws and forces the district to pay out more than it saves through not having that student enrolled. One of the biggest issues is that this formula calculates special education costs using an assumption that 16% of students are special ed. In CASD, that number is closer to 25%. The result is that the district pays thousands more to charters for special ed than it would if the formula considered the ACTUAL number of special ed students. WHYY has several great articles on charter school funding and how it can decimate budgets in districts like ours.

Why are people leaving? In the charter committee meetings held by the district, participants cited discipline and special education services as the top two reasons for the exodus. We also encouraged the district to "be real" about improvements and challenges. However, despite this feedback, the district decided a publicity campaign would be the best solution - they started producing glossy marketing brochures and holding “Rediscover Coatesville” events. So CAP produced a survey to try to put more data behind the feedback I and other members gave at the charter meetings. The survey results showed that word of mouth and school rating reports were the key reasons people never tried the district, but that discipline, bullying, safety, and class disruptions were among the most cited reasons people withdrew their children from the district. That’s something a glossy brochure won’t solve!

TEST SCORES

I delve into this topic with some trepidation. We know that the best predictor of test scores is socioeconomic status. We also know that CASD has more than 60% of its students qualifying for free or reduced cost lunch. So we wouldn’t expect the district to benchmark well against affluent districts like T/E or even Downingtown. It’s important to look at markers of improvement in test scores and to benchmark the district against similar schools. I asked the district what they believe is the best tool to use and was told they use PVAAS (Pennsylvania Values Assessment Program) data.

When we look at the PVAAS, the data is somewhat alarming. CASD was rated as having “significant evidence that the district did not meet the standard for PA academic growth” for all three keystone exams, “moderate evidence that the district did not meet the standard for PA academic growth” for PSSA English, and only met the PA growth standard for PSSA Math. Benchmarking the district against similar schools, its growth index caused it to rank in the bottom half for all tests except PSSA Math. With keystones, where growth rates were the worst, socioeconomic disadvantaged students have been performing at the “below basic” level in increasing numbers each year, and at a rate that far exceeds that at comparable schools.

CONCLUSION

Without the facts, we can’t understand how to address the problems. The data helps show that despite policy and curriculum changes, we continue to lose students to charter schools, and student growth rates in their test scores are well below goals set by the state. When talking to administrators, board members, and those running for board, I hope you ask them about this data and get their insight on how they plan to reverse these two trends that are detrimental to taxpayers and students alike.

ABOUT ME

My name is Liz Muirhead, and I have lived in the district since 2004. My children both attended Reeceville Elementary School K-5, and my older child attended Scott and is currently at the high school campus. My son entered a gifted magnet charter school in 6th grade and is in his second year there. I’m married and work in the finance industry as a senior investment analyst and manager. I am a CFA charterholder, which is a professional designation for people in my industry that emphasizes knowledge in ethics, financial statement analysis, and investments.

I’ve been involved in the district since moving here, starting first by co-founding and later leading the Coatesville Taxpayer Alliance during and following a proposed 24% tax increase. I chaired the district’s Act 1 commission in 2006 and was a frequent volunteer at the schools, including being an active member in the PTA/PTO and booster organizations. More recently, I participated in the district’s Charter School Committee and was a board-appointed member of the strategic planning committee for my expertise in gifted education.

When I met Lyryn and she started to gather up a group of concerned citizens to create CCAP, it was a great fit. I had already been tracking data on charter school enrollment, teacher turnover, and progress on test scores. But posting this data on Facebook or sharing it with the board wasn’t accomplishing enough. By joining CCAP, I hoped I could combine my knack for analysis with the skills, talents, and passion of others in order to get our district headed in the right direction.

Written By Liz Muirhead