Washington, D.C. — U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced approval of two high-quality growth models, which follow the bright-line principles of No Child Left Behind. Michigan is immediately approved to use the growth model for the 2007-2008 school year. Missouri's growth model is approved on the condition that the state adopt a uniform minimum group size for all subgroups, including students with disabilities and limited English proficient students, in Adequate Yearly Progress determinations for the 2007-2008 school year.

In May 2006, North Carolina and Tennessee received approval to implement their growth models for the 2005-2006 school year. Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida and Iowa received full approval to implement their growth model for the 2006-2007 school year. Additionally, Ohio submitted a quality growth model that was conditionally approved by the Department in May.

"Once states had developed the framework to take a snapshot of student skills each year, as the law requires, I invited them to join me in combining those static measurements to demonstrate progress over time. After early pioneers proved that this method was viable, I invited all eligible states to adopt this more sophisticated measurement system, also known as the growth model or value-added approach," Secretary Spellings said. "Michigan and Missouri proposed models that will support educational innovation while continuing to hold schools accountable for the goal of every student performing at or above grade level by 2014. I look forward to seeing the positive results these changes will help produce for students."

The Department used a rigorous peer review process to ensure that the selection process was fair and transparent for all participating states. A panel of nationally recognized experts reviewed and made recommendations on states' proposals, choosing Michigan and Missouri for approval.

The Department intends to gather data to test the idea that growth models can be fair, reliable and innovative methods to measure student improvement and to hold schools accountable for results. Growth models track individual student achievement from one year to the next, giving schools credit for student improvement over time. The pilot program enables the Department to rigorously evaluate growth models and ensure their alignment with NCLB, and to share these results with other states.

The Department intends to invite states to submit growth model proposals in fall 2008 for implementation during the 2008-2009 school year. Further details about this next round of review will be forthcoming.

The bright-line principles for high-quality growth models are:

1. Ensure that all students are proficient by 2014 and set annual state goals to ensure that the achievement gap is closing for all groups of students;
2. Set expectations for annual achievement based upon meeting grade-level proficiency and not upon student background or school characteristics;
3. Hold schools accountable for student achievement in reading/language arts and mathematics;
4. Ensure that all students in tested grades are included in the assessment and accountability system, hold schools and districts accountable for the performance of each student subgroup and include all schools and districts;
5. Include assessments, in each of grades 3 through 8 and high school, in both reading/language arts and mathematics that have been operational for more than one year and have received approval through the NCLB standards and assessment review process for the 2005-06 school year. The assessment system must also produce comparable results from grade to grade and year to year;
6. Track student progress as part of the state data system; and
7. Include student participation rates and student achievement as separate academic indicators in the state accountability system.

The peer reviewers, who represent academia, private organizations and state and local education agencies, reviewed each proposal based on the Peer Review Guidance (http://www.ed.gov/policy/elsec/guid/growthmodelguidance.doc) issued by the U.S. Department of Education as a road map for developing the models.

The reviewers are as follows:

Chair: Ann O'Connell, Ohio State University

Academia:

• Harold Doran, American Institutes for Research
• David Figlio, University of Florida
• Chris Schatschneider, Florida State University
• Martha Thurlow, National Center of Educational Opportunities

State and District Practitioners:

• Bill Auty, Independent Consultant
• J.P. Beaudoin, Research in Action
• Robin Taylor, Delaware Department of Education

Education Organizations:

• Charlie Barone, Independent Consultant
• Catherine Freeman, National Academy of Sciences
• Dianne Piché, Citizens Commission on Civil Rights

For more information on the Growth Model Pilot, please visit: http://www.ed.gov/admins/lead/account/growthmodel/index.html

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