The school board presented the annual Report Card to the Public at a public hearing before the Jan. 20 school board.
The document compiles testing results for the entire school system, as well as individual testing results for the component schools, down to the level of individual grades. Preliminary results showing a five-star rating for Stikine Middle School – the only traditionally structured middle school in the state to achieve the Department of Education’s highest five-star ranking – were released over the summer. The Report Card to the Public shows detailed — and in the case of Wrangell schools, mostly positive – results, said Superintendent Rich Rhodes.
“It’s a continued significant accomplishment by staff on helping students reach targeted growth goals,” he said. “They understand where kids need to be and we’re able to find the resources to support that.”
The school system itself received a four-star rating, and the single greatest room for improvement is in attendance, where both Evergreen Elementary and Wrangell High schools came in five points below a perfect rating, according to Rhodes’ notes.
District-wide, students generally trounced state averages in the two positive categories – advanced and proficient – while testing well below state averages in the two negative categories – below and far below, according to the document. Wrangell students accomplished their best results on reading tests, where 91.7 percent of students tested advanced or proficient, compared with 78.3 percent statewide. Almost 82 percent of students (compared with 69.7 percent for the state average) tested advanced or proficient in math and 81.7 percent (compared with 73.8 percent for the state average) advanced or proficient in writing to round out the three ‘R’s. Students in grades three through ten test in these three categories. Unlike past years, new standards implemented this year combine academic achievement with attendance and district improvement, Rhodes said.
Wrangell students also tested 67.1 percent advanced or proficient in science, which compares to 57.3 percent for the state average. Officials administer science tests in the fourth, eighth and tenth grades.
The district also fared well on annual measurable objectives, meeting or surpassing state objectives for all students in four of six categories. The district missed state targets for attendance in most subcategories, tallying a 92.86 percent attendance rate across all schools (the state goal is 95 percent). The only subcategory of Wrangell students to meet that objective was the Asian and Pacific Islander demographic, which recorded 95 percent attendance. The school also missed state-set graduation targets, recording a four-year graduation rate of 88.57 percent, and a five-year graduation rate of 83.87 percent (The state-set goal is 90 percent).
The missed annual measurable objectives are in part a function of the small number of students in Wrangell schools, Rhodes said.
“It’s really unfair to judge us by the same figures” as other districts, Rhodes said.
For example, in a school with 50 graduating seniors, each senior who does not graduate represents only a two percent decrease in the overall graduation rate. In order to meet the state-set 90 percent goal, five students could decide not to graduate, and the district could still meet the goals.
By way of comparison, Wrangell High School has 17 students in this year’s senior class.
If more than one student fails to graduate, the entire district counts as having failed the annual measurable objective.
Another example of how percentages in individual categories don’t tell the full story of achievement for small school systems can be found in the reading scores. Students recorded a rating of 42.5 percent proficient, .2 percent below the state average of 42.7, primarily because 112 of the 228 students tested scored in the advanced category, beating the state average by 13.5 percent.
The assessment news comes as Alaska prepares to transition to a new set of standards and a different assessment methodology, mentioned at school board meetings throughout the year. Traditional pen-and-paper testing will give way by spring 2016 to computer adaptive testing and more rigorous state standards.
Computer adaptive testing provides students with more challenging questions based on their success with the previous question. In a classroom of 18 students taking an identical test, students could effectively take 18 different examinations, tailored to their abilities as measured by their answers to the previous test question, according to Erik McCormick, Director of Assessment, Accountability and Information Management with the Department of Education and Early Development.
The assessment results would include both a raw score and a scale score, based on the level of difficulty of questions the computer provides, McCormick said.
“A very high-achieving student may not be challenged at all” by a conventional test, he said. “The adaptive test allows you to get a real measure of their proficiency.”
This method of testing also allows the computer to dip into lower grade level questions to test students who have trouble with the standard questions.
The district has maneuvered their technological infrastructure to begin computer testing as it becomes available, Rhodes said. However, what officials don’t know is how the rigor of the new system will differ from previous systems, Rhodes said.
He cautioned that the adoption of these standards may adversely affect scores in the future.
Under the new standards, systems could see testing results drop by as much as 30 percent, though Rhodes says the school system has taken steps to prevent a precipitous drop by teaching to the new standards beginning this year.
“It’s a much more rigorous system,” he said. “Our expectation is that we have to meet that higher level of rigor.”
Teachers and school officials are pleased with the results, Rhodes said.
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