Operation Public Education in Pennsylvania | The Center for Greater Philadelphia

Center for Greater Philadelphia

Operation Public Education

Theodore Hershberg

Operation Public Education in Pennsylvania

In the spring of 2000, the Center for Greater Philadelphia launched an effort to develop definitions of accountability by sponsoring a Conference on Teacher Accountability. What we learned then about the levers for meaningful reform inspired the broadening of the project to the Program on Educator Accountability which then led to the creation of a statewide initiative known as Operation Public Education: "Investment with Accountability. For our Common Wealth."

Operation Public Education's (OPE) objective is to change the nature of the current debate on school reform by focusing on the priorities of education spending and persuading key constituencies that new rules to govern our public schools will result in increased student achievement. We proposed that Pennsylvania develop an approach to public education that addressed three inseparable issues: adequate school funding, an equitable distribution formula and a new set of accountability principles to ensure effective results. We likened these issues to a three-part puzzle in order to provide a clear strategy to help voters and legislators make sense of the complex issues affecting school reform.

Using the framework of adequacy, equity and accountability, OPE developed a Foundation Budget which set minimum spending targets for providing a high-quality education in Pennsylvania and a comprehensive accountability system that could serve as the outline for legislative action.

The cornerstone of OPE's accountability system is value-added assessment, a method of analyzing test data that separates the contributions of the teacher and school from those of the student and family. It looks at a student's progress over time and not just final test scores. In that way, we can truly measure the impact of teaching on student learning. The OPE system evaluates educators based in part on their students' value-added results - marking the first time that evaluation has included student achievement in a way that is fair to teachers and administrators.

In 2001, OPE introduced value-added assessment to Charles Zogby, who at that time was Pennsylvania's Secretary of Education. These meetings played a large role in the Pennsylvania Department of Education's (PDE) subsequent announcement of a 32-district value-added pilot. In September 2002, the State Board of Education mandated value-added for use statewide, making Pennsylvania second state (after Tennessee) to utilize value-added assessment in all its schools. Currently there are 64 districts participating in the Pennsylvania Value-Added Assessment System (PVAAS), another 60 will be added in 2004-2005 with full implementation to begin in the 2005-2006 school year.

Although OPE had hoped to link its accountability model to the value-added pilot, Pennsylvania has decided to use value-added solely for diagnostic purposes as part of Pennsylvania's efforts to meet the requirements of No Child Left Behind.

In the Spring of 2003, OPE in partnership with the Pennsylvania Department of Education hosted a series of forums designed to educate school district leadership, local business groups and the state's institutions of higher learning about value-added assessment as a diagnostic tool and make them aware of the State Board of Education's decision to expand the PVAAS pilot program statewide. The goal was to begin building partnerships that could create community and institutional support for local PVAAS implementation. Eight forums were held across the state in regions designated by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, 60 of the 88 colleges and universities that train and credential teachers sent representatives. Similar forums were also conducted at eight chambers of commerce and for almost a third of all Pennsylvania's superintendents.

In the last year and a half our focus has shifted from working at the state level to working with individual districts as they implement value-added assessment. OPE has developed a menu of services to offer Pennsylvania school districts. These included seminars and materials for teachers and administrators on value-added assessment professional development on how to interpret the data that come from value-added for instructional decision-making, and support for districts to help their communities understand school performance through a value-added lens.

In 2005, OPE expanded its efforts to a national audience. It has always been clear that while Pennsylvania was our laboratory, the investment with accountability reform effort that OPE has developed is applicable across the nation. Learn more about OPE's national project.