The InformED Report from edCircuit for April 17, 2017, led with the California School Dashboard, the state’s new online tool for showing how schools and districts perform. The edition also covered a rise in international applications to Canadian universities while some American institutions reported declines, and closed with Toyota’s donation of an engineering laboratory in Northern Kentucky to become a STEAM high school.
Each story concerned how students and families judge their options, through a state report card, a choice of country for university, or a new kind of public school.
In this edition
- California’s new School Dashboard replaces the single-number Academic Performance Index with color-coded measures, and its clarity is already under debate.
- Many Canadian universities report international application gains of 20 to 30 percent or more, with strong growth from the United States, Turkey, India, and Mexico.
- InformED Report spotlight: Toyota is donating its Quality and Production Engineering Laboratory to Boone County Schools to become the Ignite Institute, a STEAM school planned for 2019–2020.
How does the California School Dashboard measure schools?
California opened its new School Dashboard to the public in March 2017 at caschooldashboard.org. Government Technology, republishing a San Francisco Chronicle report by Jill Tucker on March 16, 2017, described the dashboard as being in field-test mode, sometimes with 2014 data, with an official launch planned for the fall. In place of a single score, it reports several measures, including graduation rates, suspension rates, the progress of English learners, college and career preparedness, and math and English test scores. Each measure shows a current level and whether performance has declined, held steady, or improved, color coded from red for the lowest performance to blue for the highest.
The dashboard replaced the Academic Performance Index, which ranked each school with one number on a 1,000-point scale based on test scores and had been suspended three years earlier as the state phased in Common Core testing. Parents had often relied on that number, while many educators disliked it. State Superintendent Tom Torlakson called the new tool a “high-tech report card,” and Michael Kirst, president of the State Board of Education, said it would become more valuable as more indicators came online.
Reaction was mixed. Superintendents in Alameda County and Pittsburg Unified said the dashboard gave a broader picture than one cut score. A San Francisco parent worried that the colors were confusing and did not give a score. For district and school leaders, the practical work was explanation: helping families read the new reports, and being ready to discuss each measure rather than defend a single number.
Canadian universities report a jump in international applications
Inside Higher Ed reported in March 2017 that many Canadian universities had seen large gains in international applications, while 39 percent of American universities responding to an AACRAO-led survey reported declines for fall 2017. At the University of Toronto, undergraduate international applications rose slightly more than 20 percent, with increases of 80 percent from the United States, 68 percent from Turkey, 59 percent from India, and 63 percent from Mexico, the last from a small base. McMaster University reported an increase of 34.4 percent.
University officials offered several explanations while cautioning that some were speculative. They pointed to political events in the United States and Britain, a weak Canadian dollar worth about 75 U.S. cents, stronger recruitment, Canada’s reputation as safe and inclusive, and a change to the Express Entry immigration system that gave extra points to graduates of Canadian universities. For American high school counselors, the figures signaled that Canada had become a serious option for their own students, and for American colleges they raised questions about future international enrollment.
InformED Report spotlight: Toyota gives a laboratory to a STEAM school
On March 17, 2017, Toyota announced that it would donate its Quality and Production Engineering Laboratory in Erlanger, Kentucky, to Boone County Schools. The two-story, 183,000-square-foot building comes with about 22 acres, and its high ceilings, equipment bays, and engineering workspaces suit robotics and automation work. Toyota was consolidating its North American headquarters in Texas.
The district planned to turn the building into the Ignite Institute at the Roebling Innovation Center, a free public school focused on STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics) and scheduled to open for the 2019–2020 school year. It would initially serve grades 9 through 12, with room for 1,000 students from across Northern Kentucky and, with additional support, from the wider Greater Cincinnati region. Governor Matt Bevin also announced a $6.8 million Work Ready Skills grant to Boone County Schools.
For district leaders, the project showed how a corporate departure can become an asset for public education when a district, the state, and local employers plan together.
Sources
- Jill Tucker, “California Pilots School Dashboard That Digs Deeper Into How Schools Perform,” Government Technology, March 16, 2017.
- Elizabeth Redden, “Canada’s Moment,” Inside Higher Ed, March 20, 2017.
- “Toyota Donates Engineering Laboratory Building to Create STEAM-Focused Education Center,” Toyota Newsroom, March 17, 2017.
About the InformED Report
The InformED Report is edCircuit’s short news program on education. This edition first ran on April 17, 2017. In 2026, edCircuit re-presented it with a new anchor and this full written account. Both report the stories as they stood on that date and link the original reporting, so readers can see exactly where each claim came from.
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