To measure school success, the right numbers needed

Recently I attended a meeting of the Bangor City Council to comment on the school portion of the budget. That evening I was struck by the differences between how these meetings are conducted. Council meetings do not begin with an admonition by the chair warning the public about proper decorum, questions may not be answered and comments may be ended at the discretion of the chair. At council meetings, the public is allowed to comment not only at the start of the meeting but on each item on the agenda; this gives the public direct input in the process of government.

My comments on the school budget were not directed at the spending but at the measurement of the outcomes: What are we getting for the money we spend? Part of the recent Bangor Communique, published by the Bangor School Department, contained a “Report Card” from the superintendent of schools, a requirement of the No Child Left Behind Act. I was hoping to read an objective evaluation of how my tax dollars are spent. Instead I found a report rampant with errors, omissions and obfuscated or misleading data.

The report card is also available online. I am curious how a complex report could be posted but simple contact information for school board members is not.

The first error (page 13) is that 94 percent of seniors “go on to college.” That is preposterous; further training or education, maybe. The school board touts this number as being important or an accomplishment. I disagree. For the number to be really useful a breakdown is needed into categories such as four- and two-year colleges, vocational training, military, etc. An essential distinction should be made between training and education. It would also be useful to see these same numbers one and two years subsequent to graduation. The same chart also says 1 percent of the seniors were undecided. As a former college professor, I can assure you that a high percentage of 18- and 19-year-olds are – and arguably should be – undecided about their life’s vocation.

The second error (page 17) is in the survey of the parents of 4-year-olds. The published results are based on 59 out of 102 surveys returned. What happened to the other 43? If 40 percent of the surveys returned were invalid I would question the survey. I would like to have seen equal numbers of positive and negative selections.

No mention is made of the fact that several Bangor schools failed the federal standards. Most folks familiar with NCLB realize that there are a number of flaws with the standards; nonetheless they are federal standards to be complied with.

One misleading item is the National Merit Semifinalists chart on page 16. The chart shows Bangor High School as the leading school in the state with the most students in this category. Since we are one of the largest schools in the state it’s hardly surprising that we have a large number of semifinalists. This chart may be construed as a measurement of how the top 2-3 percent are faring. I would disagree. There may be a stronger correlation to socioeconomic demographics such as median income and education levels than quality of the school system. This is not a fair indicator of the quality of the whole system.

Mean SAT scores are also misleading. The chart shows small sample sizes on the subject matter tests. Are entrance requirements for Advanced Placement tests uniform nationwide? It also shows small differences in the mean scores on reading math and writing. I would argue that these three factors negate the statistical significance of any differences.

Much of pages 14 and 15 is devoted to the results of the Maine Educational Assessment test. Most of these charts show Bangor ahead of the state averages. These charts present interesting but obfuscated data. Comparing Bangor to state averages using preset standards is invalid on its face unless they are also weighed against systems with socioeconomic demographics and similar spending patterns.

As a part of the budget process allocating 40 million tax dollars to our city schools the City Council has an obligation to gather information on the quality of our schools. This “Report Card” fails. I call on our city leaders to develop a valid set of measurements to evaluate how the tax dollars are spent. You have a year to do this. I would suggest several ways to compare our schools with other systems. Socioeconomic demographics including median income and average education levels are a good start. Another set of measurements is economic such as spending per student or average teacher’s salary. Also we may want to compare our schools with other schools sending 90-plus percent of their graduates on to further education if this statistic is as important as the school board would have us believe. What are the drug and alcohol use rates, dropout rates and teen pregnancy rates at the high school? We hear a lot about both ends of the bell curve: What about the 80 percent in the middle, those who are not star athletes, outstanding students or officers of student government?

As a taxpayer, I am not sure how good the Bangor school system is. My feeling is that it probably is quite good. Better evidence of this would be useful rather than the spin and puffery we are receiving.

Nick Bearce is a resident of Bangor.