By Savage Pacer, Staff Reports

None of the three school districts that draw students from Savage made the grade this year in terms of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) towards the goals set by the federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act.

For Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District 191 this is the fifth year the district has not made AYP. For Prior Lake-Savage Area School District 719 and Shakopee School District 720, the districts have missed AYP four of the five years statistics have been kept.

Local school districts are not alone in its so-called failure — nearly half of the state’s 1,920 schools rated under NCLB are in that category. More than 200 schools dropped from the list of those making AYP last year, with only 983 meeting criteria in 2008 as compared to 1,191 in 2007. A similar drop occurred between 2006 and 2007.

If the trend continues, it will be difficult for Minnesota schools to meet the NCLB requirement that 100 percent of its students be proficient by 2014.

So what’s the problem?

Superintendents of all three school districts say their teaching staffs are working hard to make sure students pass the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment II (MCAs) exams, the test results that are the core of the system that measures AYP.

AYP is measured through participation in standardized reading and math tests as well as the accompanying scores, attendance and graduation rates. The requirements get incrementally more rigorous each year. Due to a change in the test the past few years the requirements were stagnant; but now they will increase between 4 and 10 percent annually, depending on the subject and grade level. Students are tested in eight different subgroups, broken down by racial/ethnic categories, students with disabilities, English-language learners and economically disadvantaged students as determined by the free- and reduced-lunch program. A pool of 40 students for each subgroup at each school must to be tested to qualify as a subgroup.

District 191

For students from Savage attending District 191 schools, the schools that made AYP include M.W. Savage Elementary School and Harriet Bishop Elementary School; but schools not making AYP include Eagle Ridge Junior High School, Hidden Valley Elementary School, Burnsville High School and Cedar Alternative Learning Center.

In spite of increasing sanctions, headway toward the goal of 100 percent proficiency has been made, according to school district officials. Last year, five schools out of the total 17 tested made AYP for a 29.4 percent passage rate; this year six schools made it for 35.2 percent.

“Our teachers are working very, very hard and focusing their efforts to help students pass the MCA’s,” said Superintendent Randy Clegg.

Clegg said the results are a good indicator of where efforts need to continue. “We’re committed to doing what we need to do to close the achievement gap for our students,” he said. “The ultimate goal is to not have a child’s background be a predictor on MCAs.”

The tests, though, carry significant weight.

“(The State Department of Education) look(s) at all the criteria, if you have one group that doesn’t pass, you don’t make it at all,” said Sandi Novak assistant superintendent of teaching and learning.

For example, at Hidden Valley Elementary, all subcategories except for black, special-education and free- and reduced-lunch students were proficient in reading. All students were proficient in math.

At Eagle Ridge Junior High, students were proficient in reading in all subcategories except free and reduced lunch. Math scores, however, did not meet the requirement in four of the seven tested categories: Hispanic, black, limited English proficient (LEP) and free- and reduced-lunch program students.

BHS tested at a proficient reading level. But like Eagle Ridge, four of the subcategories of students, did not pass the math tests: black, LEP, special education and free- and reduced-lunch program.

The overall student population was not large enough to be broken into subgroups at Cedar Alternative Learning Center, but students did not pass either the math or reading tests.

“As we look at all the students, the two groups that didn’t make AYP were low-income children and special-education children,” Clegg said.

District 191 was tested at 17 institutions; special education students didn’t make AYP at seven of 16 tested campuses for both reading and math. Students qualifying for free- and reduced-lunches did not meet the requirements for reading at five of 16 tested schools and eight of 16 tested campuses in math.

The lone subgroup passing at all institutions in both math and reading was the Asian subgroup.

“(Pointing out) diversity is not intended as an excuse, it’s just the reality,” Clegg said. “The schools serve different populations … how one population learns isn’t always the same as another.”

For example, Harriet Bishop had just two subcategories, white and free/reduced lunches. While BHS had six: Asian, black, white, LEP, special education and free/reduced lunches.

Clegg said one student can qualify for four subcategories and he is in the process of looking at how many students fit into multiple categories to get a better idea for the target population and how to focus the teaching.

“The strategy needs to be the most appropriate to the subgroup,” Clegg said. “We want to figure out what factors are most inhibiting to our students to do well on the MCAs … We hope to fine tune and bolster those areas.”

The ramifications for schools not making AYP is a mandated plan with increasing federal involvement depending on how many consecutive years an institution receiving Title I money has not made AYP. Non-Title I schools are not impacted by the federal government.

“For the district, we need to create a plan for improvement, which we have done each year, and update it,” Novak said.

This year, that will include a transportation option for parents of children attending three Burnsville elementary schools -- Edward Neill Elementary, Vista View Elementary and Sky Oaks Elementary -- which did not make AYP to any District 191 school that did make AYP.

“This is the first year this district has had to offer that,” Clegg said.

Clegg said the nationwide trend is that not many parents take the option of moving their students from one school to another, so he doesn’t anticipate many parents will transfer their kids. “Primarily because most people like the school they go to,” he said.

One bright spot in the statistics is that last year’s plan for improvement worked at M. W. Savage Elementary as the school missed AYP requirements last year, but passed this year.

The reward, Novak said, is pleasure.

“There’s a satisfaction of doing a job well,” she said. “Knowing their students are performing well in all subgroups.”

District 719

Prior Lake High School and Twin Oaks Middle School missed the AYP goal in the 2008 analysis of school data by the Minnesota Department of Education, meaning the district as a whole did not make AYP, either.

This is the second year Prior Lake High School and Twin Oaks Middle School did make AYP.

Twin Oaks did not meet goals in the reading exam for special education students, and the high school did not meet marks for special education students in math.

All other Prior Lake-Savage Area Schools met AYP goals this year.

Both Twin Oaks and the high school missed AYP last year in the group tested that participates in the free- and reduced-lunch program; but this year it was the special education subgroups at both schools that didn’t meet AYP.

Superintendent Sue Ann Gruver said results can be confusing to the public, as an entire school or district doesn’t meet AYP based upon the performance of one subgroup.

“All of the other subgroups made it,” Gruver said.

In fact, this year’s Prior Lake High School juniors showed some of the top improvement in reading in the state on the test that measures AYP. The students raised scores from 63 percent to 81 percent in the MCA-II reading exam.

Gruver said the areas that didn’t meet AYP testing standards will be a focus for the coming year, while the school staff members continue to work to raise the bar for all students.

“Many high schools have a subgroup within their populations that is struggling,” she said. “This year, we’ll give them special emphasis.”

Hidden Oaks Middle School, WestWood Elementary School and Grainwood Elementary School, all which did not make AYP in 2007, met standards in 2008.

Gruver said it’s encouraging that schools that had a lagging subgroup were able to correct the issues pointed out in last year’s data. “They did come out of (not meeting) AYP in the cells they focused their attention on helping,” she said.

This year, the staff members and a new director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, Mary Noel, will look at making sure needs are met for the subgroups highlighted.

District 720

Only two of the eight schools in Shakopee are making AYP and, of the ones that are not, one will need to implement improvement plans in the coming school year.

Superintendent Jon McBroom said he is not surprised by the results, but he is frustrated and disappointed.

“We’ve tried to improve in a number of areas with the methods we’re using,” McBroom said, noting that some teaching methods are being customized for the students who need the most help and class sizes are being kept small. “Our people are working very hard … our students are working very hard.

“Realistically, to expect everyone to be proficient is a worthwhile goal, but not really feasible, in my opinion,” he said.

In addition to developing a two-year improvement plan to turn around its performance, Sweeney Elementary must offer its students the option of choosing another school in the district to attend during the 2008-09 school year, but McBroom said the requirement “is not as big a thing as it could be.”

Already, parents are allowed to choose any elementary school in the district for their children to attend and many choose outside of attendance boundaries for convenience due to day care or employment locations. About 300 students enrolled in K-5 attend a different school than they are assigned.

And, McBroom pointed out, even though Sweeney had been on the “not making AYP” list last year, parents still opted for their children to transfer into that school over the school within their neighborhoods.

District Curriculum Director Chris Correa stresses that just because the bulk of the district’s schools don’t receive federal funding, it doesn’t mean that the district isn’t also looking at making improvement in those schools. She also said that families in the Shakopee School District should not be discouraged by the AYP data.

“People like the schools and we have good teachers,” she said.

Also falling off the “making AYP” list for 2008 were Shakopee High School, Red Oak Elementary and Pearson Elementary.

Sun Path Elementary School was the only school to move from the “not making” to “making” AYP list this year, while Eagle Creek Elementary earned a “making AYP” rating in its first year of operation.

While not detracting from their success, McBroom said these schools have an advantage because they are two of the district’s smaller schools and may not have enough students within the designated subgroups to be counted. If there aren’t a minimum number of students in a subgroup, it is not flagged as failing regardless of its results. This could change in coming years because those schools’ student enrollments are increasing.

The junior high remains on the “not making AYP” list for the second consecutive year but it also is not subject to improvement requirements under the federal program.

The middle school also did not meet requirements but, since the school was in its first year, it didn’t have a safe harbor index to work from, according to Correa. That means that no bar was previously set so a seemingly arbitrary number was given for how many students would be required to meet proficiency levels. Now that those numbers have been established, the middle school will be able to turn that rating around if 10 percent of the students currently listed as failing show improvement next year.

All of the established schools had to reach a predetermined level of proficiency and that bar is raised every year for schools must to a new target.

“Every year it becomes more difficult,” Correa said.

The most common subgroups for failing to meet proficiency in Shakopee schools are Hispanic, LEP, special education and free- and reduced-lunch program students.

The same standards apply to all students regardless of abilities.

“It’s a no-win situation for special-ed kids,” Correa said, “but we do the best job we can to help them meet the standards.”

AYP results are determined by state testing, including the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment Series II (MCA-II). Schools and districts are required to test 95 percent of all students in grades 3-8 in reading and math; 10th-graders in reading only; and 11th-graders in math only.

“The system is what it is and, until it changes, we will continue to see schools placed on the list,” McBroom said.

Right now, he said, reaching a 100 percent proficiency level by 2014 “is an unattainable goal” and he doesn’t believe any school district will be making AYP by 2014.

He also is concerned with the long-term effects of the AYP ratings: “If we keep telling kids they’re not good enough, they’re going to believe it.”

Last year, the Minnesota Department of Education and a diverse group of Minnesota education organizations issued several recommendations for improving NCLB, including an increased focus on systemic school reform, improved data systems and providing the resources or changes to the law needed for implementation. The consensus of the group was that NCLB should be “mended, not ended.”

Congress has yet to act on reauthorization of NCLB.

“As long as the requirement is for 100 percent proficiency by 2014, we will aim for that goal,” state education Commissioner Alice Seagren said in a press release. “With or without NCLB, we need to focus on preparing every Minnesota student to succeed. 

Ruth Anne Maddox, Joanna Miller and Keighla Schmidt all contributed to this story. Maddox can be reached at rmaddox@swpub.com, Miller can be reached at jmiller@swpub.com and Schmidt can be reached at kschmidt@swpub.com.

 

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