About the OPI Ranges

As long-time readers know, I go through spells in which I don’t write much. They are usually followed by stretches in which I write too much. That doesn’t stop me from reading and tweeting profusely, however.

During the last eight days or so since I last posted, one of the things I’ve most enjoyed reading has been the Oklahoma Policy Institute article on our A-F Report Cards. Gene Perry provides a measured discussion of the ways in which the formula stacks the deck against high-poverty schools.

Perry mentions some of the flaws with the way growth points are calculated for the report card. I want to add a little bit of context to the discussion. Below, I have included two tables – one for reading and one for math. Each includes the Oklahoma Performance Index (scale score) range for all tested grades or subjects.*

2013 Reading OPI Ranges
Test	U	LK	P	A
3rd	400-643	650-696	703-870	903-990
4th	400-651	658-697	703-832	856-990
5th	400-639	645-697	705-828	860-990
6th	400-646	652-699	706-822	833-990
7th	400-666	668-694	700-797	818-990
8th	400-651	658-699	701-821	842-990
English II	440-608	616-699	702-814	817-999
English III	440-668	670-699	701-801	802-999

 

2013 Math OPI Ranges
Test	U	LK	P	A
3rd	400-627	635-697	704-792	808-990
4th	400-637	644-693	700-798	815-990
5th	400-636	644-697	704-788	800-990
6th	400-662	666-699	700-794	796-990
7th	400-673	680-695	702-798	807-990
8th	400-641	649-698	700-769	774-990
Algebra I	490-658	665-696	700-760	764-999
Algebra II	440-647	657-696	702-781	787-999
Geometry	440-629	637-698	703-775	781-999

The first thing I notice is that the OPI ranges vary considerably. The more important thing I notice is that from grade-to-grade, OPI growth can actually lead to a loss in score range. For example, a student with a 650 OPI in reading in grade three would be in the Limited Knowledge range, but a student with a 651 (gain of 1 point) in grade four would be Unsatisfactory. A similar pattern follows other years of growth:

2013 OPI Growth Quirks
Subject	Span	Lowest LK	Highest U	Growth
Reading	3rd to 4th	650	651	1
Reading	5th to 6th	645	646	1
Reading	6th to 7th	652	666	14
English	II to III	616	668	52
Math	3rd to 4th	635	637	2
Math	5th to 6th	644	662	18
Math	6th to 7th	666	673	7
Math	8th to Alg. I	649	658	9

This matters because parents, teachers, and even legislators to whom I have spoken all find the calculation of growth points to be the hardest part of the report card to understand. This is supposed to be transparent. This is supposed to be easy and sensible. It is not.

In both years that we have had A-F Report Cards, it has bothered me (along with many other people) that growth is only calculated using students whose OPI scores increased. Among the many problems I have with that is that we don’t even have consistent lines of demarcation between each of the score ranges. If your OPI increased, but your performance level decreased, does that show growth at all?

*This analysis does not include OMAAP tests. Doing so would open another can of worms altogether. Since the OMAAPs are sadly gone after 2013, I’m going to leave that particular can closed for now.