By John R. Moses
Frontiersman
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The usual reason for campuses not making all their Annual Yearly Progress marks is lower test scores among subgroups of students with physical or developmental disabilities. Most campuses had one to three small groups that didn't make the mark, Director of Education Susan McCauley reported to the school board Wednesday. A school that fails in any one area does not meet its AYP.
“In some schools that did not meet AYP there are still significant improvements,” McCauley said. Colony Middle School, for instance, didn't make all 31 markers but met one more category than before. “It's very easy to conclude that in schools that do not make AYP there is not significant progress. That is not the case.”
Houston Middle School, for instance, missed in math proficiency for students with disabilities. At Meadow Lakes Elementary, the school didn't get a high enough showing for Language Arts scores, which reflect reading and writing skills. McCauley said the NCLB Act is to ensure “that we're not overlooking populations or groups of students who may present more of a challenge.”
Other factors can sneak up on a school. Burchell High, which is geared toward helping students succeed in a more non-traditional environment, lost its AYP in the graduation category. McCauley said the situation there isn't that Burchell High kids don't graduate, but a fifth-year senior is the same as a dropout under the federal standards for No Child Left Behind.
“It isn't simply if they graduate. It's if they graduate on time,” McCauley said. Some Burchell High seniors are not on a four-year track. “Ideally, we want kids to graduate in four years. If it takes five years to graduate, it takes five years to graduate.”
Twindly-Bridge Charter School had another kind of statistical glitch - not enough students who are counted as “economically disadvantaged” showed up for testing. While the actual population of that subgroup is 28, information about which students are economically disadvantaged is confidential, McCauley said. Every subgroup must have 95 percent of its members present for the test scores to count.
Twindly-Bridge's principal was given some simple advice for next year - do whatever you have to do to get all students in school on testing days.
The state is working with the federal government on No Child Left Behind compliance. Alaska is one of nine states that has a federally approved growth plan that gives districts time to get students who score lower than average back on track without losing ground in test scores. The formula involves averaging test scores over the number of years a student has between the year he or she first takes the test and the student's 10th-grade year.
Students take a standards-based assessment test at the end of each school year in grades 3-10, a state document explains.
“The first year that a student is tested on an SBA is considered the student's ‘base year,' and the student's scaled score on that test is the student's “base score.'” State Department of Education and Early Development Commissioner Roger Sampson says in a letter to U.S. Department of Education Acting Assistant Secretary Dr. Kari Briggs. “If the student's base year is grades 3-6, the student is given four years to become proficient. If the base year is grade 7 or higher, then the student is given the difference between the base year and 10. So, for example, if the student's base year is grade 7, the student is given 3 years to become proficient, and if the student's base year is grade 9, the student is given one year to become proficient.”
McCauley told the school board that if a student has four years to improve his or her scores by 40 percent, he or she would have to average a 10 percent improvement rate per year to be considered “on track” and count toward a school still attaining its Annual Yearly Progress totals.
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