2006 Identification Methodology

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. A school's relative performance is the distance between its 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.

Longitudinal Data

If longitudinal data are available, the elementary analysis only evaluates students continuously enrolled for three or more years in the school and/or district. The middle and high school analyses only evaluate students who were continuously enrolled on the campus for at least one year.

In addition, when prior performance data are available for the middle and high school analyses, students were separately analyzed in two prior performance groups: students who entered the analyzed grade at or above the state passing standard, and students who entered the analyzed grade below the state passing standard.

Consistent Performance

To ensure that consistently high-performing schools are identified, three years of performance data are used.

Criterion Referenced Exams

Criterion-Referenced Tests (CRTs) are strongly preferred to Norm-Referenced Tests (NRTs).

Measure of Performance

When available, an average scale score is used as the measure of performance for each tested grade, subject, and (for middle and high school analyses) prior performance group in the analysis. When average scores are not available, performance rates (that is, the percent Proficient for each tested grade and subject) is substituted.

Consistent Performance

NCEA's model allows for a trade-off between average performance and the inconsistency of that performance across grades and years (for a given subject and—for middle and high school analyses—prior performance group), 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 trade-off 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.

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 (for example, Writing) where AYP data are not available, at least 85 percent of the enrolled students had to be tested on their state's standardized exam.

Number of Students

There must be at least 10 continuously enrolled students in each grade, subject, year, and (for middle and high school analyses) prior performance group in the analysis. There are a few exceptions to this rule; if there were six 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 students.

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 school's grade and subject level percent College/Career Ready on the exam and the percent College/Career Ready of the top comparable schools with similar demographics (for a given subject and prior performance group). 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 College/Career Ready rates while, when available, the high-performing analysis is based on an average test score), it is important to ensure that the identified schools seem appropriate under both models.

Performance Rate Floors

In all three years of the analysis, schools may not have any performance rates on the highest standard below 15 percent. Also, in all three years of the analysis, schools may not have any passing rates below 75 percent.