University of Mississippi eGrove Electronic Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2015 Mississippi Statewide Accountability System: A Measure Of Academic Attainment Or Other Factors Eddie De Anderson University of Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://egrove.edu/etd Part of the Educational Leadership Commons Recommended Citation Anderson, Eddie De, "Mississippi Statewide Accountability System: A Measure Of Academic Attainment Or Other Factors" (2015). Electronic Theses and Dissertations.edu/etd/505 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at eGrove. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of eGrove. For more information, please contact egrove@olemiss.
MISSISSIPPI’S ACCOUNTABILITY SYSTEM: A MEASURE OF ACADEMIC ATTAINMENT OR OTHER FACTORS A dissertation presented in partial fulfillment of requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Philosophy in the Department of Educational Leadership and Counseling The University of Mississippi by Eddie De Anderson May 2015 Copyright Eddie De Anderson 2015 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ABSTRACT This quantitative study analyzed the construct validity of the Mississippi Statewide Accountability System through an analysis of the relationship between teacher, financial, socio- economic, and social characteristics and the Quality of distribution index of public school districts in Mississippi. This study sought to determine if there were constructs outside the control of schools and districts that significantly correlated to outcomes of the Mississippi Statewide Accountability System that were not accounted for in the calculations. Educational leaders, communities, and other educational stakeholders have paid close attention to the Mississippi Statewide Accountability System as legislators have chosen to use it to rank schools and districts from A-F. The major component of the Mississippi Statewide Accountability System is the Quality of Distribution Index which is based on student test scores.
This research used the Quality of Distribution Index results from 148 public school districts from SY 2011-2012 as the dependent variable. Data was collected from reputable sources from SY 2011-2012 for twelve independent variables, not in control of school personnel that were a part of all school districts. Correlations were determined using a Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient and a Coefficient of Determination at the .01 level (two tailed) of significance. The research findings indicated a significant correlation between Quality of distribution index and eleven of the twelve constructs and thus: The Mississippi Statewide Accountability System has issues with construct validity.
ii DEDICATION This dissertation is the product of a wife, Cerita, who has spent countless hours encouraging her husband and for that, I am and will be forever grateful. Thank you for just being the beautiful person you are, inside and out. Jason and Daniel, and Sierra, you have always been the motivating factor for my work, my prayers, and my dedication. I thank God for my family.
This document is as much yours as it is mine. I would be remiss, if I did not dedicate this document to a mother of 14 who greatly loved each of her children, Eddie Mae Anderson. She believed in us and she and God are the reason why all of her children are successful. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I extend my thanks to Dr.
Douglas Davis who guided me from day one until the very last day of this process. I thank you for allowing me to complete a dissertation that was important to me, as an educator. I thank you for encouraging me when I was not progressing as quickly as I would have liked. I also thank the other members of my committee for your patience and encouragement: Dr.
Joe Blackburn, Dr. Dennis Bunch, and Dr. Special thanks go to Dr. Debra Petty, an outstanding educator, who encouraged me to continue my education and the Lord blessed her to always call, email, or drop by when I was at my lowest.
Your belief will always be remembered. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT…………………………………………………. iv TABLBE OF CONTENTS …………………………………….……………………………… v LIST OF TABLES……………………………………………………………………………….vi CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………. 1 CHAPETER II: LITERATURE REVIEW………….
22 CHAPER III: METHODOLOGY…………………….…… 39 CHAPTER IV: DATA ANALYSIS…….… 77 LIST OF REFERENCES………………………………………….…… 107 v LIST OF TABLES 1. Data for Correlations……………. Descriptive statistics for district QDI and district teacher characteristics ………. Correlation between district QDI and mean teacher salary…………………….
Correlation between district QDI and average teacher experience (N=148, α =. Correlation between district QDI and NBCT’s (N=148, α =. Correlation between district QDI and teacher diversity (N=148, α =. Descriptive statistics for district QDI and district teacher characteristics……………….
Correlation between district QDI and per pupil expenditure (N=148, α =. Correlation between district QDI and taxes levied per student (N=148, α =. Correlation between district QDI and federal funding per pupil (N=148, α =. Descriptive statistics for district QDI and district socio-economic characteristics.
Correlation between district QDI and assessed property per pupil (N=148, α =. Correlation between district QDI and percent of students receiving free lunch ……. Descriptive statistics for district QDI and cultural and historical characteristics…………. Correlation between district QDI and student attendance index (N=148, α =.
Correlation between district QDI and white flight index (N=148, α =. Correlation between district QDI and total number students (N=148, α =. Strong and high moderate collinear relationships (Pearson r >. Moderate collinear relationships (Pearson r between.
Summary Results of the 12 null hyp. tested in the research by category of variable…. Summary results of the 12 null hypotheses tested in the research by strength……. QDI Ratings for High and Low Poverty Districts in Mississippi SY 2010-2011……………84 vii CHAPTER I Introduction Accountability is not a new concept in education; rather, the practice of holding educators and schools responsible for student knowledge, behaviors, and college preparedness began as early as the early nineteenth century (Kirst, 1990).
During the early 1800’s, teachers were paid according to student success on standardized tests. Regardless of the early beginnings, performance-based pay and accountability systems have not gained a prominent role in American educational policy until recent reform policies encouraged at the federal level. Currently, test-based accountability, teacher evaluation, and pay-for-performance systems are established or being established in almost every state in the United States as a result of No Child Left Behind (No Child Left Behind, 2002), and President Obama’s “Race to the Top” (2008). Given the current rapid expansion of performance-based policies, serious issues of fairness and equity among professional educators are raised if an educator is held accountable for test-based measurements of which he or she may have limited or no influence or effect.
The primary issue addressed in this research is the construct validity of the Mississippi Statewide Accountability System (MSAS). Construct validity is defined as the degree to which a test measures the specific construct for which the assessment was intended (Cronbach & Meehl, 1955; Cook & Campbell, 1979). Based on the characteristics of the Mississippi Statewide Accountability System as implemented in SY 2011-2012, the standardized state assessments, Mississippi Curriculum Tests, second edition (MCT2) and Subject Area Tests, second edition (SATP2), were used as a measure of teacher quality and professional performance. The current MSAS system 1 uses an outcome measure of student performance, school and district Quality of Distribution Index (QDI) scores to grade the performance of schools and districts.
Nonetheless, existing research indicates many other variables teachers or schools have little or no control over correlate to student performance indices such as the QDI (Baker, et al. The existence of possible covariates to student achievement unrelated to teacher classroom performance pose possible fairness and equity issues related to the validity of the Mississippi accountability policy’s use of curriculum-based criterion reference test scores to assess the quality of educational services schools and teachers provide. The purpose of this research is to assess the construct validity of the 2011-12 Mississippi Statewide Accountability System (MSAS). Statement of the Problem Policymakers continuously strive to design accountability systems to accurately measure the educational attainment of students and the effectiveness of teachers and educational leaders.
These systems are defined in many ways and include various facets of the educational process. Educational accountability systems are different across states but have common characteristics which typically include rewarding schools and professional educators for good student performance and punishing schools, and often individual educators, for poor performance. The ultimate goal of accountability systems is improved teaching and learning. Performance-based policies seek to measure the extent to which students have acquired knowledge and skills, how much students have learned when compared to others, which teachers and schools performed well and which performed poorly, which states are performing well, whether students developed critical and creative thinking skills, and whether students achieved projected levels of growth in learning curriculum objectives (Lingenfelter, 2003).
Regardless, accurate measurement of 2 student learning combined with a clear relationship between the quality of teaching and learning processes, and student performance are necessary for a valid and equitable performance-based accountability system. However, when significant correlations exist between the outcome measures, in this case performance, and other variables that are not recognized in the assessment process (e. socioeconomic status), the construct validity of the assessment system becomes questionable. If the system has high construct validity, possible extraneous covariates should have low correlations with the outcome, or dependent variable, of student achievement on a criterion assessment.
Given the complex social/cultural history and high levels of poverty in Mississippi, there are multiple areas of concern regarding construct validity and the MSAS process. In other words, if social and economic variables show a high mathematical relationship to a district’s QDI, the use of standardized assessments to provide a numerical rating that purports to indicate the quality of professional services provided by educators in a classroom, school, or district is an important policy consideration. Education Reform in America Modern education reform began in America following World War II. The first round of national reform, The National Defense Education Act of 1958 (NDEA) was passed in response to the Soviet Union putting a satellite into space (Pulliam & Van Patten, 1995).
Kennedy further emphasized the national need for improved education with a declaration that the United States would be the first to put a man on the moon. Kennedy recognized that this could only be done through a better educated populous. After the assassination of President Kennedy, a former teacher, Lyndon Johnson, signed into law the Elementary and Secondary Schools Act of 3 1965 (ESEA). This legislation was called the most sweeping federal education bill ever passed and ESEA became a key component of Johnson’s “War on Poverty” (Robelen, 2005).
The ESEA was designed to help children from disadvantaged homes take advantage of an educational system which could positively change every facet of their lives. Yet, almost fifty years later, there has been little progress in reducing the achievement gap between high and low SES students, and white students and students of color. There have been significant changes in the ESEA since its inception in 1965 and, arguably, none more sweeping than the changes mandated under the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB, 2002). Bush argued too many of our neediest children were being left behind and noted that it was time for a system of accountability, choice, and flexibility in Federal education programs (Paige, 2008).
The NCLB law required each state to establish guidelines to determine what levels of measured performance students would have to achieve to be labeled proficient at different grade levels. States were then required to ensure that all students receive the educational services to achieve at the proficient level. Mississippi’s Statewide Accountability System was developed in response to NCLB and is currently used to determine school and district ratings. Current United States Secretary of Education Arne Duncan suggested the retooling of NCLB or the ESEA in the United States (Klein, 2009).
Duncan advocated removing the principal of any school in the bottom five percent of schools in each state. His plan also included the possibility of replacing all teachers in a failing district and essentially starting over.