Standardized testing has long been derided as an imperfect way to measure a school’s performance. But it’s a metric that’s easy to access and easy to understand.
When a school tests well, they boast. When scores are bad, they point out how it’s not the best criteria to focus on.
This week on the VOSD Podcast, education reporter Will Huntsberry joins hosts Scott Lewis, Andrew Keatts and Sara Libby to explain a new metric for understanding and evaluating test scores. It takes into account poverty levels, a crucial factor that heavily influences a school’s test scores.
Huntsberry broke down some of the results of the new analysis by VOSD and the Center for Research and Evaluation at UC San Diego in this episode.
And the Real Estate Hits Keep Coming
As podcast devotees know, Lewis was out last week. So in an effort to bring him up to speed on all the hot municipal real estate drama, Keatts and Libby dish the latest.
This week, the lenders behind the city’s Civic Center Plaza lease moved to evict the city and hundreds of its employees from their place of work. A few weeks ago, the city decided not to make its July rent payment. So, like, cause and effect, right?
And up in Kearny Mesa, the city’s still working toward a facility that’s supposed to fix up fire trucks. It’s been four years since the city started a long-term lease there and zero trucks have been repaired at the site.