New York

2006 New York Middle School Identification Criteria

Grades Included: 8th Grade

Subjects Included: Mathematics, English Language Arts

Years Included: 2003, 2004, and 2005

All three years used NYS Testing Program data

Performance Rate Used: An average of percent "Meeting Standard" and percent "Exceeding Standard" was used.¹

The table below details the three areas of identification process issues:

Data Components – the types of information preferred in the analysis;
Model Specifications – the ways that schools are compared to one another, and;
Criteria – the specific goals schools must meet to be considered high-performing.

Data Components	NCEA Model	New York
Longitudinal Data	If longitudinal data are available, the analysis only evaluates students who were continuously enrolled on the campus for three or more years.	Longitudinal data were not available, so snapshot data were substituted.
Consistent Performance	To ensure that consistently higher performing schools are identified, three years of performance data are used.	Because longitudinal data were not available, consistent enrollment could not be measured.
Criterion Referenced Exams	Criterion-Referenced Tests (CRTs) are strongly preferred to Norm-Referenced Tests (NRTs).	NCEA model applied.
Measure of Performance	When available, an average scale score is used as the measure of performance for each tested grade and subject in the analysis. When average scores are not available, performance rates (i.e. the percent Proficient for each tested grade and subject) is substituted.	The percent "Exceeding Standard" was used in Math, and an average of the percent "Meeting Standard" and the percent "Exceeding Standard" was used in English Language Arts.

Model Specifications	NCEA Model	New York
Similar Schools	Schools are compared to one another based on a combination of demographic factors that include the schoolwide percentages of low income students, the enrollment of the school, and several ethnicity percentages.² A school's relative performance is the distance between their performance rate and the average performance rate of schools similar to them. This analysis is always adjusted for the number of students whose performance is being measured.	The model used the following demographic factors to compare schools for each year, within each subject and grade: schoolwide percentages of low income, English Language Learners (ELL), African-American, Hispanic, and Asian students, the school enrollment, and the size of the group being analyzed. (2005 ethnicity variables were not available, so 2004 schoolwide percentages were used in the 2005 analyses as well.)

Criteria	NCEA Model	New York
Consistent Performance	NCEA's model allows for a tradeoff between average performance and the inconsistency of that performance across grades and years, so that less consistency (higher variation) must be accompanied by higher average performance for the school to meet the requirement of consistent higher performance. This tradeoff is represented by a line on a graph whose y-axis is average performance, measured by the average of the standardized regression residuals for different grades and years, and the x-axis is consistency, based on the standard deviation of those residuals.	The intercept of this line (for a school with zero variation in its performance across grades and years) is an average residual of .5, and the slope is .5, meaning that the average residual must improve by .5 for every one-standard-deviation increase in the variation of the residuals across grades and years.
Participation Rates and AYP Status	In years and subjects where Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) ratings are available, the school must meet AYP standards. In years or subjects (i.e. Writing) where AYP data are not available, at least 85% of the enrolled students had to be tested on their state's standardized exam.	NCEA model applied; AYP data were available for 2004 and 2005.
Number of Students	There must be at least 10 continuously enrolled students in each grade, subject, and year in the analysis. There are a few exceptions to this rule; if there were 6 or more tested grades included in the analysis of a subject, then schools may be missing consistent performance calculations for one tested grade in the first two years of the analysis due to too few student.	NCEA model applied.
Opportunity Gaps	In the most recent year included in the analysis, schools may not have any opportunity gaps below -30. The opportunity gaps are a central part of the main Just for the Kids school reports, and are the distance between your schools grade and subject level percent "Meeting Standard" on the exam and the percent "Meeting Standard" of the top comparable schools with similar demographics. Although these gaps are not calculated in exactly the same way as the higher performing analysis, and in most cases do not utilize the same measure of performance (opportunity gaps are based on "Meeting Standard" rates while, when available, the high-performing analysis is based on an average of percent "Meeting Standard" and the percent "Exceeding Standard"), it is important to ensure that the identified schools seem appropriate under both models.	NCEA model applied.

¹ (((%Meets the standard ) + (% Exceeds the standard))/2) This works out to the equivalent of 1 point for every student that just meets the standard, and 2 points for every student able to exceed the standard. back
² These factors may vary from state to state and based on the available data. back

National Center for Educational Achievement / Just for the Kids

New York Affiliate

2006 New York Middle School Identification Criteria