From the VDT. Seems like we are blaming this on a certain group.

Three out of 10 Lowndes schools miss the AYP mark

By Johnna Pinholster

August 06, 2008 09:41 pm

VALDOSTA – Three out of 10 schools within the Lowndes County School system failed to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress standards.
Clyattville Elementary, Pinegrove Elementary and Lowndes High schools were the failing institutions.
The three schools did not meet the AYP standards because of two populations of students, Superintendent Dr. Steve Smith said.
“The most frequent reason was there was not enough student achievement in the areas of students with disabilities and the minority student area,” Smith said. “There was not enough gain with student achievement, specifically with some of the minority students at the high school.”
Clyattville Elementary School for both the Language Arts and Math CRCT tests scored below the 59.5 percent meets and exceeds range in each area.
The failing areas came from the students with disabilities, minority and economically disadvantaged sub-groups.
Pinegrove Elementary scored below the CRCT standards for the English Language Arts area in the students with disabilities sub-group.
The math CRCT scores had the minority and students with disabilities scoring below the 59.5 percent meets and exceeds standards.
The Georgia High School Graduation Test saw failing results for both the minority and students with disabilities sub-groups.
The minority sub-group scored 64.1 in both English Language Arts and Math and the students with disabilities score was 68.3, both below the meets and exceeds standards of 74.9 percent.
During the summer the schools scheduled day to day staff meetings that analyzed the test data and identified which sub-groups didn’t make AYP and why they did not, Smith said.
“We are in the process of formulating a school improvement plan and they are doing this on a school level and at a classroom level with personal enhancement plans,” Smith said.
The school improvement plan will help the schools address the overall deficiencies that exist with the institution.
This was the first year Pinegrove and Clyattville Elementary failed to make AYP. Lowndes High School had made AYP for the two years prior to this one, but had not made it before the previous consecutive years, Smith said.
The goal of AYP and No Child Left Behind is to get every child in school reading at grade level by 2014. Each year a school makes AYP the average a school is expected to meet is raised a little bit higher.
System wide, Smith said, he is happy with the AYP results, though he does expect improvement.
The AYP results for all schools in Georgia can be viewed at http://public.doe.k12.ga.us/ayp2008/search.asp.

]]> http://winnersville.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/3-of-10-lowndes-school-did-not-make-ayp/feed/ 0 winnersville http://winnersville.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/only-4-out-of-9-schools-in-valdosta-system-pass-ayp/ http://winnersville.wordpress.com/2008/08/11/only-4-out-of-9-schools-in-valdosta-system-pass-ayp/#comments Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:59:39 +0000 winnersville http://winnersville.wordpress.com/?p=53 ]]>

ok, help me with this. You are going to come up with a plan to address the issue….but some of these schools have failed for 4 years in a row!!!

What the heck was the old plan and why do they always have a plan that will soon be implemented?

We don’t need another education PLAN …….we need to EDUCATE!

Valdosta falls short of AYP

By JOHNNA PINHOLSTER

August 06, 2008 09:39 pm

VALDOSTA — Five of the nine schools within the Valdosta City School System failed to make AYP this year.

Valdosta High, Valdosta Middle, Newbern Middle, Southeast Elementary and J.L. Lomax Elementary schools all failed to meet the Adequate Yearly Progress standards that were released in late August.

Superintendent Dr. Bill Cason said he is not happy with the system’s results.

“We can do much better and we should do much better,” Cason said. “We are going to increase our focus on all the things that determine how we make AYP.”

While some of the failing scores can be accredited to the special population of students, that is not the only reason the system did not meet AYP, Cason said.

Attendance, graduation rates and math scores were also key factors and the sub-par scores.

Students with disabilities scored 31.7 percent overall while the economic disadvantaged sections for the CRCT math section of the AYP standards scored 55 percent. Both were below the 59.5 percent meets or exceeds rate.

For the math section of the Georgia High School Graduation Test the score for all students was 63.6 percent well below the 74.9 percent meets or exceeds bar.

“Five schools that did not make AYP this year is unacceptable,” Cason said. “We will be taking a stronger look at a lot of areas across the board academically.”

The process for improving the scores began earlier this summer, but the process will not be something that changes overnight, he said.
A balance score card will be implemented at all the schools that will help gauge the strengths and weakness in all academic areas.

“With this we will be able to identify individual needs of each student and provide concentrated help where it is needed most,” Cason said. “I firmly believe you have to accept the fact that you do have a problem and then find a way to fix it.”

The system will make improvement plans for all schools with input from both administrators and teachers but heavy focus will be on those that failed, Gayle Golden Assistant Superintendent for Teaching and Learning said.

This was the first year J.L. Lomax has been placed in the needs improvement category, while Valdosta Middle School and Valdosta High School are in their second year of missing AYP.

Newbern Middle and Southeast Elementary are in their fourth year of missing AYP, Golden said.

Scores for all schools in Georgia can be found at http://public.doe.k12.ga.us/ayp2008/search.asp.

From the Athens paper and the effects of No Child Left Behind on their schools:

No Child Left Behind is untenable framework

Editorial

In a sad irony that should be lost on no one who cares about educating this country’s young people, the federal No Child Left Behind Act now is working to leave children behind.

The law requires that public school students be offered the opportunity to transfer out of schools where various performance benchmarks aren’t being met. At first glance, that appears to be a common sense way of ensuring that young people get at least a shot at an adequate education. However, the law doesn’t contemplate what happens when most, if not all, of the schools in a given jurisdiction fail to meet those benchmarks.

Sadly, in the Clarke County School District and elsewhere, that is exactly the circumstance in which public school administrators are finding themselves. According to a Friday story in this newspaper, all four Clarke County middle schools and both high schools now are in “needs improvement” status for failing to meet federal testing standards. Thus, there’s no place for any Clarke County middle school or high school student, at least within the county, to go in the hope of getting a better education than he or she currently is receiving.

As the Friday story noted, administrators have another option for getting students who request a transfer into a better-performing school. Administrators can ask their counterparts in nearby school districts to accommodate students who want to transfer out of their current school. Clarke administrators did just that, but were told by Barrow, Jackson and Oconee County school system officials that they didn’t have the space to accommodate Clarke students. The neighboring Madison County school system also was approached by Clarke administrators, but because Madison’s middle and high school also are in “needs improvement” status, it would make no sense for students to transfer across that county line.

But, even if a neighboring school system could accommodate students in underperforming schools, there’s no reason for those systems to offer up the space. Why should those systems be interested in taking in any students who, by virtue of having been in an underperforming school, might drag down that school system’s test scores and other performance measures?

Indeed, the transfer option presents problems, even when students can be accommodated at schools within their own district. A report last week in the Savannah Morning News noted that transfers to the three high schools in that community that are meeting performance standards “is rocking the boat … causing overcrowding, behavior problems and putting more students at academic risk.”

The No Child Left Behind Act tries to establish a mandate that students be placed in an environment conducive to learning, relying on a couple of dubious assumptions.

The first of those assumptions is there are no endemic problems within school systems. This assumption says there is no reason that, say, high schools serving demographically indistinguishable student bodies in the same community can’t produce radically different outcomes in student achievement, so that if one of those schools is substandard, the other won’t be substandard.

The second of those assumptions is that schools that do meet performance benchmarks will be willing, even if they are able, to take on students from lower-performing schools.

As the situation in Clarke County illustrates, those are dangerous assumptions, and they prove that the federal educational accountability initiative is deserving of a failing grade.

From the ajc

Parents concerned with latest math curriculum

By LAURA DIAMOND
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 08/10/08

Georgia parents were outraged after thousands of students failed statewide math exams in May.

Now with the start of a new school year, parents fear for their children as the state expands the new math curriculum to high schools.

Fayette County parent Wendy Ashabranner worries how her son will handle this new math when he starts at Fayette County High on Monday. He was among the 38 percent of the state’s eighth-graders who failed the state’s new, redesigned math exam, which was based on harder material.

While parents and teachers expected some students to struggle with the new math, they were shocked by the high failure rates.

“It’s a trust factor, and I’m very leery of trusting the state,” she said. “I know they’re hoping these new standards will work, but what if it backfires? It’s our kids who will pay the price. Why are they using our kids as guinea pigs?”

New curriculum

After years of criticism that the state’s math curriculum was too weak, the Georgia Department of Education drastically changed the way students learn the subject. Officials adopted an “integrated” design, which weaves elements of algebra, geometry and statistics into a single math class, rather than teaching each separately. Elementary-school students use more hands-on activities to learn about numbers, geometry, multiplication and division. Middle school students learn some of the algebra previously taught in high school.

State schools Superintendent Kathy Cox said the new curriculum will better prepare students for college and jobs.

Some parents were so bothered by the changes they formed Georgia Parents for Math. They accuse the state of not providing enough training or classroom resources. They say more emphasis should be placed on math theory and basic concepts.

More parents joined the battle, anxious because failing math in high school would make it difficult for their children to graduate and almost impossible to get into a top college.

Meeting standards

The state began rewriting its curriculum for all subjects about five years ago after education groups, teachers and parents complained the old standards were too vague and broad and caused Georgia’s poor performance on national exams.

The new standards were developed by teachers, college professors and curriculum specialists. The math follows the integrated approach used in Japan and other countries. For example, Georgia’s high school freshmen will take “Mathematics I: Algebra/Geometry/Statistics” while they used to take just algebra or just geometry.

Martha Reichrath, deputy superintendent for the state Education Department, said the new lessons explain why students need math, whether to determine business profits or find the surface area of an object.

“We have not come up with some foreign math,” Reichrath said. “It is an enriched math. Our students will do better with this math. I do believe we will be the national leader in math.”

Georgia is the only state using a pure integrated math. The new standards have received high marks from different education and business groups.

But will it work?

“Is Georgia right? It’s too early to tell,” said Francis “Skip” Fennell, an education professor at McDaniel College in Maryland and a member of the National Mathematics Advisory Panel.

Fennell said other states are struggling with how to teach math. Students must understand fractions, decimals and other prerequisites before they can master algebra, which is considered a gatekeeper to success in college and the work force, he said.

Georgia’s math does not provide enough of the basic concepts students need, said Tammy Lucas, a founding member of Georgia Parents for Math. The group has about 500 members from across the state.

Time of adjustment

The state’s new system requires math teachers to act more as facilitators, meaning they lecture less and use fewer drills. Students must demonstrate what they know and show how they reached their answers.

Teachers say the new method is an adjustment.

“These math standards are new to us, too,” said Annette Muhammad, a math teacher at Washington High in Atlanta. “There will be days when we all want to pull our hair out. But we’re going to work hard to make sure we get this right.”

Teachers have attended training sessions this summer to learn the new material. State officials say test scores will improve as teachers get used to it.

Those promises provide little consolation to the students who are the first to get the new curriculum.

“You can tell when your teachers are doing something new and they don’t like it or don’t understand it,” said Evan Champion, Ashabranner’s son. “I hope they spend more time explaining the units more carefully and take more time answering our questions instead of saying, ‘We don’t have time,’ and then moving on to the next unit.”

More for parents, too

The ninth-grade math course has six units, so teachers will have enough time to spend on each, said Janet Davis, the state’s program manager for math.

Schools can offer a math support course that students take in addition to the regular math class, Davis said. Students would take this class instead of an elective, such as band or art.

Some parents say all the changes mean they must pay closer attention to their child’s assignments.

“We’ll be talking about what she did in math every night, and I’m going to monitor everything she’s doing,” said Eddie Bruce, a Cartersville father whose daughter just started ninth grade. “If you’re a parent, you’re worried about math.”

Local parents here are hearing bad numbers and that a lot of students are going to be in summer school this year.

Statewide 40% of eight graders are being held back because of math? Only 20- 30% of students passed social studies?

Our schools are not failing, they have failed.

Students miss mark on key test
Failure rates for CRCT prompt state response

By Laura Diamond
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 05/20/08

Georgia public school leaders were so shocked by dismal scores on state math and social studies tests, the state superintendent released a statement Monday to prepare parents and others for the results.

According to the unofficial results, only 20 to 30 percent of Georgia’s sixth- and seventh-graders passed the state social studies exam. In math, about 40 percent of eighth-graders could be held back because they failed the test.

The state will release official scores from the Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests next month.

Parents whose children failed the math test will be notified by local schools. The state requires eighth-graders to pass the reading and math exams to move to high school.

Students who failed math exams —- as well as those who might have failed reading —- can retake the exam this summer. Schools will provide optional free classes to get them ready. Students who failed the social studies exam don’t face any consequences under Georgia law.

State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox said test scores in both subjects dropped because students took harder tests to match the state’s tougher and more rigorous curriculum.

“When you raise standards and expectations, it is not unusual to see a temporary dip in the percent of students who are meeting those expectations,” Cox wrote in a statement released Monday afternoon. “We have seen this in other grades and other areas of the curriculum.”

Cox was puzzled by the drastic drop in social studies, calling it “cause for concern.” Last year, about 83 percent of the sixth-graders passed the social studies test, as did about 86 percent of the seventh-graders, according to state figures.

She wondered whether the new social studies standards were clear and if some of the detailed test questions caught students off guard. Cox will ask a group of teachers and curriculum specialists to determine what may have happened.

“We have to do better with this,” Cox said.

Changes could be made to the test and to the material teachers teach, said Dana Tofig, spokesman for the state education department.

Parent Stephanie Kratofil said her daughter described the seventh-grade exams as some of the hardest tests she’s ever taken. The straight-A student told her mother the social studies exam included material never taught in class.

“There’s got to be something wrong with that test,” Kratofil said. “This is showing some horrible numbers for the state. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

While a failed math test carries more consequences than the social studies test, state education leaders had predicted only about 60 percent of students would pass the tougher exam, Tofig said. About 81 percent of eighth-graders passed the math CRCT last year.

Cox described the decline as a “temporary dip” because of the higher expectations placed on all students. This year every eighth-grader took algebra, while before only a small number took the class in middle school, she said.

The math scores are used to determine whether schools meet the testing goals required under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Schools that fail face increasingly severe sanctions, up to a possible takeover by the state.

Cox previously said she expected more middle schools to miss testing goals this year because of math scores. A report showing specifically how many middle schools missed the mark will be released in July.

]]> http://winnersville.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/dismal-scores-on-crct-for-georgia/feed/ 0 winnersville http://winnersville.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/how-no-child-left-behind-will-affect-our-middle-schools/ http://winnersville.wordpress.com/2008/04/26/how-no-child-left-behind-will-affect-our-middle-schools/#comments Sat, 26 Apr 2008 15:38:15 +0000 winnersville http://winnersville.wordpress.com/?p=27 ]]>

Our local middle schools will continue to be affected by this. The new test data comes out soon.

Georgia’s harder math tests could backfire

By LAURA DIAMOND
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 04/26/08

Georgia’s harder middle school math tests — created to match the state’s tougher new math curriculum — will probably have the unintended consequence of leaving some middle schools behind.

State Superintendent of Schools Kathy Cox predicts more students will fail these harder exams and that will cause more middle schools to miss the testing goals required under federal law.

The No Child Left Behind Act punishes schools that repeatedly fail. Last year, 66 of the state’s 450 middle schools missed testing goals solely because of math scores. Cox said last week she expects the number of failing schools to increase.

Her prediction is based on more than the curriculum that middle schools phased in over the past few years. This year, the state also requires a higher percentage of students pass the exams for schools to comply with the federal law. Students are taking the math tests this month.

“States that have increased rigor are getting penalized under this system,” Cox said. “We made changes to make our schools better for our children. We did the right thing and we’re getting punished for it. This is a problem with NCLB.”

The law punishes schools that repeatedly fail and rewards those that make adequate yearly progress, commonly referred to as AYP.

Schools meet testing goals if a certain percentage of their students pass state exams. The law requires states to gradually increase their passing rate to the point that 100 percent of a school’s students must pass state exams by 2014.

Georgia’s passing rates, set in 2003 and approved by the federal government, required 58.3 percent of middle schoolers to pass the math test last year. Under those guidelines, it was scheduled to increase to 66.7 percent this year.

However, those rates were set before the state approved its new, harder math curriculum in 2005. The passing rates and the new curriculum don’t match, so Cox asked for a waiver in February to change the math passing rate to 60 percent this year.

Cox said the federal government refused, citing a clause in the law that prevents such a change.

Cherokee County Superintendent Frank Petruzielo said he understands why the state wanted to change the passing rates.

“We’re expecting more from our students and teachers, so why would we use the standards from the old curriculum?” Petruzielo said. “It sounds like the state is trying to prevent a situation where our kids may look dumber, when in effect they may be smarter. The fact the federal government said no reflects the same obstinate behavior we’ve come to expect from the people who thought No Child Left Behind was a good idea.”

The U.S. Department of Education declined to comment, saying no formal decisions have been made.

“We are still considering Georgia’s requests and cannot comment while the department is considering any state’s requests,” said Jo Ann Webb, a spokeswoman with the U.S. Department of Education.

The mammoth education law is President Bush’s signature domestic initiative. Signed into law in 2002, the act seeks giant gains in student achievement and holds schools accountable for reaching these goals. Schools that fail face increasingly severe sanctions, up to a possible takeover by the state.

Georgia overhauled its curriculum in response to years of criticism from teachers and education experts who said the standards were too weak. The biggest changes focus on math. Middle school math classes cover more new material and less review than before.

The state’s concerns focus on middle schools because elementary school students historically test well in math and high schools have yet to teach the new math standards. Also, students’ math test scores typically begin dropping in middle school because the material becomes more difficult.

Congress could have solved Georgia’s problem by reauthorizing the law this year, but lawmakers can’t agree on all the details. So the law remains unchanged.

Georgia isn’t the only state frustrated by the law’s one-size-fits-all approach, said Jack Jennings, president and CEO of the nonpartisan Center on Education Policy. The Washington-based group tracks the law’s implementation.

Jennings said Georgia was right to improve its curriculum, but the state will likely suffer because of it.

“If the state had kept the weaker standards, it wouldn’t be in this situation,” Jennings said. “This is a conflict of good goals. The U.S. Department of Education is being a stickler on its goal.”