Value Added Model for Seattle Math not for Teachers but for Materials

Here I apply the Value Added Model not to the teachers but to the Superintendent's $1.2 million math materials expenditure. "Discovering" $800,000 for texts and $400,000 for professional development.

See this for the complete letter with the statistics:
http://www.box.net/shared/x2qidvsozb


Dear Seattle School Director, September 5, 2010

Why if you are interested in “Struggling Students” and closing the achievement gaps in mathematics do you not apply the Value Added Model to the recently adopted $1.2 million “Discovering Mathematics” high school instructional materials program?

Porter, Mass, and McLaren in their lawsuit against the district noted that the Board did not consider all the evidence in the adoption decision made on May 6, 2009.

There is no dispute that the original 1100 page transcript of evidence clearly only supported the Superintendent’s proposal. It omitted all the evidence submitted by the public sent to the board that did not support the proposed action item. The public’s 300+ pages were later added to form the entire 1400+ page administrative record, which should have been used by the Board on May 6, 2009.

Appellants claimed in their appeal it highly likely that the adoption of “Discovering” would likely further disadvantage Seattle’s “Black” students and “Limited English” students. Value Added Modeling reveals that the appellants’ claim is confirmed by OSPI’s spring 2010 HSPE test results for Seattle’s grade 10 students.

How much longer must these two segments of Seattle’s educationally disadvantaged students continue to be discriminated against with Seattle’s instructional materials and practices? Why is the Board continuing to support the Central Administration’s discriminatory vertically aligned mathematics program when much better choices remain available? Why should any Seattle voter approve a $48 million levy given current wasteful discriminatory leadership?

Sincerely,
Danaher M. Dempsey, Jr.

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Seattle's Black students 2009 grade 10 math scores retained 91% of their middle school scores
Limited English speaking students retained 94%

At the State level in 2009 Black students retained 85%
Limited English speaking students retained 78.6%

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With the new OSPI HSPE testing in 2010 the same method showed
At the State level in 2010 Black students retained 65.4% of their middle school average
Limited English speaking students retained 93.9%

In Seattle in 2010 at the end of one year of "Discovering" scores were much worse.

Seattle's Black students 2010 grade 10 math scores retained 51.2% of their middle school score value.
Limited English speaking students retained 56.5%