Politics

Common Core Testing Problems Continue with Money at Stake

Published

9 years ago

April 17, 2015

SALLY HO, Associated Press

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Federal funding could be at stake as Common Core testing problems continued in Nevada, Montana and North Dakota, state and U.S. officials said.

The three states contract with New Hampshire-based Measured Progress to administer the tests that are linked to hotly disputed, federally backed education standards.

“We expect states to hold Measured Progress accountable, just like we expect the states to hold the districts accountable” for testing, said Dorie Nolt, a Department of Education spokeswoman.

On Tuesday, the company’s server crashed due to capacity, causing spotty access and logistical frustrations before testing stopped. It also cost some schools money in the form of substitute teachers.

The state of Montana offered waivers Wednesday to the mandatory assessment for this year, which could put millions of dollars in federal funding at risk.

“I think it was best for those schools to make that decision for themselves knowing that the assessment is still important,” said State Superintendent Denise Juneau.

Most have not announced their decisions, although a small number have already declared that they will not test or will only partially test students. So far, about 20 percent of the state’s school districts committed to full testing.

Juneau said she expected most schools to finish the tests but the federal mandate may not be met.

“We don’t know — until everyone’s done testing — what the participating rate will be, but it will be high,” she said.

The U.S. Department of Education said in a statement: “The department has not had to withhold money — yet — over this requirement because states have either complied or have appropriately addressed this with schools or districts that assessed less than 95 percent of students.”

North Dakota said it is prepared for any consequences, given that some districts are ending the school year in as few as 20 days.

Officials encouraged finishing the computer test or ordering the paper test. Any school system that can’t get it done will document attempts in what could be a plea for leniency later.

“I think the Department of (Education) will look at the effort we give in,” said Kirsten Baesler, North Dakota’s state superintendent. “Did they give up the second week of April or was it a substantial effort?”

This week’s debacle was the second technical problem Measured Progress has had in recent weeks with the computerized English language arts and math tests for selected grades. In March, testing was delayed because of a coding issue.

The company said its servers couldn’t handle the number of students even though it increased capacity beyond what was indicated by the tests’ creator, Smarter Balanced.

Nevada likely overloaded the system because it has 210,000 of the 345,000 total students expected to take the test across the three states.

The state was put on its own server to do limited testing Thursday, which will continue Friday.

But problems appeared again as early as Thursday morning and led Nevada’s largest school system to cancel plans for the day.

“We can’t keep putting our kids in front of an error screen,” said Leslie Arnold, an assistant superintendent with the Las Vegas-based Clark County School District.

The country’s fifth largest school system said it expects all 150,000 kids to complete the test this year.

Meanwhile, Montana’s limited testing Thursday was successful and full testing begins again Friday. The state also defended Measure Progress, calling it a victim to the initial coding problems.

North Dakota said it’s not clear how it will deal with the company. Its three-year contract started this year and cost $4.68 million.

“When the dust settles and our students are taken care of and the school year concludes, then we’ll begin to look at what happened here,” Baesler said.

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Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of April 24 – 30, 2024

Published

3 days ago

April 26, 2024

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MAYOR BREED ANNOUNCES $53 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT FOR SAN FRANCISCO’S HOMELESS PROGRAMS

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the city a $53.7 million grant to support efforts to renew and expand critical services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.

Published

1 week ago

April 20, 2024

Oakland Post

Mayor London Breed

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

Wednesday, January 31, 2024

Contact: Mayor’s Office of Communications, mayorspressoffice@sfgov.org

***PRESS RELEASE***

MAYOR BREED ANNOUNCES $53 MILLION FEDERAL GRANT FOR SAN FRANCISCO’S HOMELESS PROGRAMS

HUD’s Continuum of Care grant will support the City’s range of critical services and programs, including permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and improved access to housing for survivors of domestic violence

San Francisco, CA – Mayor London N. Breed today announced that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has awarded the city a $53.7 million grant to support efforts to renew and expand critical services and housing for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco.

HUD’s Continuum of Care (CoC) program is designed to support local programs with the goal of ending homelessness for individuals, families, and Transitional Age Youth.

This funding supports the city’s ongoing efforts that have helped more than 15,000 people exit homelessness since 2018 through City programs including direct housing placements and relocation assistance. During that time San Francisco has also increased housing slots by 50%. San Francisco has the most permanent supportive housing of any county in the Bay Area, and the second most slots per capita than any city in the country.

“In San Francisco, we have worked aggressively to increase housing, shelter, and services for people experiencing homelessness, and we are building on these efforts every day,” said Mayor London Breed. “Every day our encampment outreach workers are going out to bring people indoors and our City workers are connecting people to housing and shelter. This support from the federal government is critical and will allow us to serve people in need and address encampments in our neighborhoods.”

The funding towards supporting the renewal projects in San Francisco include financial support for a mix of permanent supportive housing, rapid re-housing, and transitional housing projects. In addition, the CoC award will support Coordinated Entry projects to centralize the City’s various efforts to address homelessness. This includes $2.1 million in funding for the Coordinated Entry system to improve access to housing for youth and survivors of domestic violence.

“This is a good day for San Francisco,” said Shireen McSpadden, executive director of the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. “HUD’s Continuum of Care funding provides vital resources to a diversity of programs and projects that have helped people to stabilize in our community. This funding is a testament to our work and the work of our nonprofit partners.”

The 2024 Continuum of Care Renewal Awards Include:

$42.2 million for 29 renewal PSH projects that serve chronically homeless, veterans, and youth
$318,000 for one new PSH project, which will provide 98 affordable homes for low-income seniors in the Richmond District
$445,00 for one Transitional Housing (TH) project serving youth
$6.4 million dedicated to four Rapid Rehousing (RRH) projects that serve families, youth, and survivors of domestic violence
$750,00 for two Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) projects
$2.1 million for three Coordinated Entry projects that serve families, youth, chronically homeless, and survivors of domestic violence

In addition, the 2023 CoC Planning Grant, now increased to $1,500,000 from $1,250,000, was also approved. Planning grants are submitted non-competitively and may be used to carry out the duties of operating a CoC, such as system evaluation and planning, monitoring, project and system performance improvement, providing trainings, partner collaborations, and conducting the PIT Count.

“We are very appreciative of HUD’s support in fulfilling our funding request for these critically important projects for San Francisco that help so many people trying to exit homelessness,” said Del Seymour, co-chair of the Local Homeless Coordinating Board. “This funding will make a real difference to people seeking services and support in their journey out of homelessness.”

In comparison to last year’s competition, this represents a $770,000 increase in funding, due to a new PSH project that was funded, an increase in some unit type Fair Market Rents (FMRs) and the larger CoC Planning Grant. In a year where more projects had to compete nationally against other communities, this represents a significant increase.

Nationally, HUD awarded nearly $3.16 billion for over 7,000 local homeless housing and service programs including new projects and renewals across the United States.