Guest opinion by DR. MARY GERVASE
Dr. Mary Gervase is the assistant superintendent of the Blaine County School District.
The Idaho State Department of Education has just released its rankings of spring 2005 test results based on how students performed on the Idaho Standards Achievement Test (ISAT), and the results once again accentuate that Blaine County School District (BCSD) continues to serve its students well. School district officials found that the majority of their students are meeting or exceeding state standards. Test results indicate that 86 percent of BCSD students met reading proficiency compared to 83 percent of students statewide. Also, 81 percent of BCSD students met mathematics proficiency compared to 77 percent of students statewide.
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) requires that test results be reported separately for all groups in the school, and that each subgroup is expected to meet Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) goals as set by the state. Achieving AYP can be a tough challenge. Each school has about 42 different subgroups, all of whom must meet AYP. If a school is in alert status for one subject area two years in a row, the entire school fails to make adequate yearly progress and is labeled as needing improvement.
Even though we continue to be one of the highest performing school districts in the state, we have identified areas to improve through our testing program. Hailey Elementary received a "needs improvement" rating as a result of insufficient progress being made by three small, disaggregated groups (Hispanic, limited English, and economically disadvantaged students) in the area of reading. Between eight to 14 additional proficient students in these subgroups would have kept them out of "needs improvement" status. Hailey received an alert status for three disaggregated groups in mathematics.
Some schools are in the first year of alert status. For some subgroups, Wood River High School received alert status for reading and Wood River Middle School received alert status in reading and math. Additionally, Bellevue was placed on alert status in reading for third grade. One additional proficient student at Bellevue would have kept them out of alert status. In math, they exceeded the state proficiency quota by over 10 percent.
One of our major concerns about NCLB is that it focuses on whether schools and their subgroups met a specified proficiency quota. There is no "credit" or recognition for individual student improvement or growth. It is analogous to telling our students that they all need to be 5 foot 3 inches by the end of fifth grade, and anyone not reaching that height is in need of improvement. It doesn't matter if some students grew a foot in nine months ... or some students were already 5 foot 6 inches. The same expectation is applied to all fifth-grade students, whether it is realistic or not.
While BCSD is addressing the subgroups not meeting AYP, they will continue their focus on ensuring each individual student's growth. In reading, half of BCSD students who were not proficient in spring of 2004 raised their scores to proficient or better this spring. The figures for math and language usage are lower, but still impressive. In math, 36 percent of BCSD non-proficient students raised their scores to proficient or better this spring. In language, the figure was 42 percent. The state has not set goals for actual student improvement. However, we believe this is the type of progress that assures the public that we are doing a good job educating their children. We will continue to update our patrons on status of progress and programs.
No Child Left Behind requires that parents be notified when any disaggregated subgroups of students in their schools are not making adequate yearly progress for two consecutive years. BCSD will be sending letters to Hailey Elementary School parents notifying them of the above subgroups not making adequate yearly progress. Parents have the option to transfer their children to another school in the district providing there is room. School officials expect a minimal response to this option. The district is already an open-enrollment district, enabling parents to transfer their students as it is.
