|
|
|
When the state’s school report cards came out earlier this month Dr. Randy Crump, superintendent of Eureka Schools, found a mixed bag.
The good news: Davenport Grade School made adequate yearly progress — or AYP — in reading and math. The school got a passing grade.
That was where the good news for Eureka Public Schools began and ended.
The news at Eureka Middle School was not good. The school made AYP in reading, but failed to make AYP in math.
The news at Eureka High School was all bad. The school failed to make AYP in both reading and math.
The failure to make AYP in both subjects has landed EHS on the state’s early academic warning list for the first time in the school’s history.
Whole picture
Looking at AYP alone EMS and EHS are failing and the district is failing.
But, is one criteria enough to judge whether these are failing schools?
“No,” said Crump.
“They’re both excellent schools. This is just one snapshot of our district.”
Crump said there is more than one measure of a school or a district. He said educators and parents put a lot of credence in the scores on the report card, but that they should not be the sole criteria against which a school or district is judged.
“For ISAT (Illinois State Achievement Test) and PSAE (Prairie State Achievement Test) together for 2011 we had a score of 90.5. That’s the highest in the history of the district,” Crump said.
“We had an overall 22.4 SAT score, also the highest in district history.”
Digging deeper
When one goes beyond the surface and digs deeper into the information about the two schools a better understanding emerges.
Crump said the passing grade on AYP across the board at Davenport was no surprise.
The situation at EMS, Crump said, was a disappointment.
EMS students failed to make AYP in reading in ‘10, but made AYP in math.
In ‘11 the situation was exactly opposite. EMS students made AYP in reading and failed to make AYP in math.
“I’m disappointed, yes. We were surprised we didn’t make AYP in math,” Crump said.
“We’re investigating. We’ll be looking at interventions in math.”
Crump said making AYP in reading was a validation of the reading intervention efforts the district took last year after EMS failed to make AYP in reading.
The group of students who brought scores down in reading were students with disabilities.
When the state’s school report cards came out earlier this month Dr. Randy Crump, superintendent of Eureka Schools, found a mixed bag.
The good news: Davenport Grade School made adequate yearly progress — or AYP — in reading and math. The school got a passing grade.
That was where the good news for Eureka Public Schools began and ended.
The news at Eureka Middle School was not good. The school made AYP in reading, but failed to make AYP in math.
The news at Eureka High School was all bad. The school failed to make AYP in both reading and math.
The failure to make AYP in both subjects has landed EHS on the state’s early academic warning list for the first time in the school’s history.
Whole picture
Looking at AYP alone EMS and EHS are failing and the district is failing.
But, is one criteria enough to judge whether these are failing schools?
“No,” said Crump.
“They’re both excellent schools. This is just one snapshot of our district.”
Crump said there is more than one measure of a school or a district. He said educators and parents put a lot of credence in the scores on the report card, but that they should not be the sole criteria against which a school or district is judged.
“For ISAT (Illinois State Achievement Test) and PSAE (Prairie State Achievement Test) together for 2011 we had a score of 90.5. That’s the highest in the history of the district,” Crump said.
“We had an overall 22.4 SAT score, also the highest in district history.”
Digging deeper
When one goes beyond the surface and digs deeper into the information about the two schools a better understanding emerges.
Crump said the passing grade on AYP across the board at Davenport was no surprise.
The situation at EMS, Crump said, was a disappointment.
EMS students failed to make AYP in reading in ‘10, but made AYP in math.
In ‘11 the situation was exactly opposite. EMS students made AYP in reading and failed to make AYP in math.
“I’m disappointed, yes. We were surprised we didn’t make AYP in math,” Crump said.
“We’re investigating. We’ll be looking at interventions in math.”
Crump said making AYP in reading was a validation of the reading intervention efforts the district took last year after EMS failed to make AYP in reading.
The group of students who brought scores down in reading were students with disabilities.
Excluding students with disabilities, the district had a math score of 94.5 percent meeting or exceeding standards.
However, students with disabilities scored only 72.1 percent with a score of 78.6 percent required to make AYP.
In reading, excluding students with disabilities, the score was 92.2 percent meeting or exceeding standards.
Students with disabilities scored 66.2 percent, doing well enough to make AYP.
The year earlier students with disabilities had failed to make AYP in reading. They fell 8.1 percent short of the goal.
That prompted the district to enact intervention opportunities for reading. Those efforts, Crump said, looking at the data, worked.
Crump said the school will be working with this group of students on math.
At EHS there is no one group of students to blame for failing AYP scores. There are no numbers listed for students with disabilities listed because the student body as a whole failed to make AYP in both reading and math. This is the second year in a row for that failure.
In reading a score of 77.5 percent meeting or exceeding standards was needed to make AYP. Overall, the reading score was 69.7 percent.
In math a score of 77.5 percent meeting or exceeding standards was needed to make AYP. Overall, the score was 66.4 percent.
“It’s a surprise,” Crump said of learning EHS failed to make AYP in both subjects two years in a row.
That failure put the high school on the state’s academic early warning list. This is the first year, so, Crump said, there are no real consequences to the school’s teachers or administrators.
“At year two there has to be some state intervention,” Crump said.
The school is not waiting for that, Crump said. He said the district already has intervention programs in place.
Overall, Crump said, the two schools are in fine shape. The scores required by the No Child Left Behind Act, Crump said, are the issue. He said every year the benchmark for student performance just keeps going higher and higher.
“For 2011 we needed 85 percent of students meeting or exceeding standards. For 2012, the number goes up to 92 percent,” Crump said.
“The one thing that has been positive about No Child Left Behind is it makes us look at test data and put interventions in place for groups that are failing. On the downside there are unrealistic expectations of achievement.”
Despite the expectations and the failure to make AYP Crump said he stands behind the teachers and administrators at the two schools.
“They’re both excellent schools. Our SAT and other test scores are at historic highs. We are improving every day,” Crump said.
“As I said before, this is just one snapshot.”
