opportunity index olicy presentation to school …€¦ · boston public schools opportunity index:...

BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS

OPPORTUNITY INDEX:

POLICY PRESENTATION TO SCHOOL COMMITTEE

Dr. Dan O’Brien, Northeastern University &Dr. Nancy Hill, Harvard University Boston Area Research Initiative (BARI)

Dr. Colin Rose Assistant Superintendent of Opportunity and Achievement GapsBoston Public Schools

BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLSBOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS

The Boston Public Schools will formally adopt the “Opportunity Index” as a

district-wide tool for making decisions that drive equity, coherence and

innovation. Aligned with the School Committee’s Opportunity and Achievement

Gaps Policy, the Opportunity Index uses data from students’ home

neighborhoods along with individual and family level data as a means for

measuring opportunity gaps throughout the district. In turn, the Boston Public

Schools will close these opportunity gaps by using the Index to make decisions,

such as resource allocation, program evaluation, and other prospective and

retrospective assessments. The Index will be updated annually to ensure the

most predictive factors and recent information available are incorporated.

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Opportunity Index Policy Statement


We know, and research supports, that there are many variables outside

schools’ control that affect student achievement. Students come to school with

an invisible backpack of varied opportunity.

Our Challenge: Although many of our measures (eg. WSF) align to national

best practices, we feel our current measures of student need are too

blunt…and we lack a common equity framework that we use as a tool for

making equity-driven decisions.

• The better we match need with resources, the closer we get to closing

opportunity gaps.

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Why Do We Need an Opportunity Index


• The Opportunity Index is a powerful new tool for examining the needs of

our students and their schools as a means toward increasing educational

equity across the district; it will serve as a more robust, accurate, and

differentiated measure of student and school need.

• The Opportunity Index is a composite index that introduces a range of

data that is outside of the schools’ control, yet is predictive of students’

academic outcomes, including neighborhood and individual/family

variables. By rolling multiple measures into one, more accessible metric,

BPS will be able to direct resources and supports to the students who

need it most.

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What is the Opportunity Index


• Aligns to Opportunity and Achievement Gaps Policy and Implementation

Plan

• Aligns to the professional learning and other tools of equity inside central

office and all of our schools in the district

• Resource allocation as a “values statement”

Equity, Coherence, and Innovation


MISSION: Create a place-based Opportunity Index that captures

inequities that arise from factors outside of the control of schools.




Residential Segregation in Boston(% White by census tract)




Racial Segregation in Boston(% White by census tract)

Individual and Family Characteristics Matter


Adapted from Reardon, S. Kalogrides, D. & Shores, K. (2016) The geography of racial/ethnic test score gaps. Center for Educational Policy Analysis Working Paper (16-10)

Schematic of our theoretical and policy model

Residential Segregation

Home Disparities--Family SES-Educational

Activities

Neighborhood Disparities

-SES-Resources

Between School Variations in

Need

Academic Outcomes

OI A

ssesses &

acco

un

ts for


Bottom Line First…

• Neighborhoods matter– Neighborhoods differed by as much as ~20 pts. on

MCAS scores.– Driven especially by public safety, socioeconomic

status, and academic attainment of adults.

• ELL, SPED, and FRP Lunch still matter, too.

• “Risk” indicators are a great way to predict future outcomes.– Though they don’t tell us why.

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Neighborhood Constructs

Academic Attainment (Adult) Public Safety Public Health

Socioeconomic Status

NewcomerResidential

StabilityCustodianship

Physical Disorder


**METHODOLOGICAL MINUTE**Isolating “Neighborhood Effects”

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Compare within:Individual-level factors

Compare Across:Neighborhood-level factors

BOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLSBOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLSBOSTON PUBLIC SCHOOLS

**METHODOLOGICAL MINUTE**Multilevel Models

• Accounts for the fact that people living in the same neighborhood are more similar to each other than people living in different neighborhood.

– Really important for racial and socioeconomic residential segregation

• Accounts for all other factors being considered


Effects of Neighborhood on MCAS Scores

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Academic Attainment (Adult) Public Safety Public Health

Socioeconomic Status

NewcomerResidential

StabilityCustodianship

Physical Disorder


Testing Neighborhood Effects

17Note: .03 ≈ 2.5 pts. between the lowest and highest scoring neighborhood


Neighborhood Opportunity Index

• Neighborhoods matter…

• …but there are clearly individual factors “outside of the control of schools.”

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Compare Across:Neighborhood-level factors


What do we mean by individual factors?

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Individual Demographics

Special Services

Prior SchoolExperiences

FRPL/Poverty

SPEDELL

AttendanceSuspensionsCourse FailuresMCAS Failures


Testing Individual-Level Factors

20Note: .1 ≈ 1.6 pts. difference between groups.


• Academic aptitude is formed continuously through development.

• Could we use performance in a previous school to determine the needs of students moving forward?

– Using “risk” indicators.

– Note: not possible for elementary school students

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Predicting Performance


Predicting Performance

22Note: .1 ≈ 1.6 pts. difference in test score.


• Place matters, the NOI can account for up to 20 points in MCAS– Various factors matter, including SES, Safety, Adult Ed

Attainment; for elementary, physical disorder & custodianship.

• Individual characteristics matter even more (the OI)

• For older students, we can predict future performance with “risk” indicators– But individual-level characteristics provide additional precision

• The OI can be effectively used to account for a substantial amount of the variation outside of the control of schools– It accounts for place-based differences in access to resources

and stressful environments…– And individual-level inequities across families within and across

neighborhoods. 23

Conclusions:


Uses Are Numerous- Here Are a Few Examples:

• Partnerships

• Programming

• Funding

• Equity analyses

Example:

Expanded Learning Time - Summer Learning

National Equity Leader in Resource Allocation:

• Innovative - Nothing as robust right now in K-12 education

• Advocating for Equity - Local, State, National

Possible Uses for the Index:

opportunity index olicy presentation to school …€¦ · boston public schools opportunity index:...

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