Although none of Morgan Hill School District
’s 14 schools are in no danger of being labeled a “program
improvement” school by federal standards in the No Child Left
Behind Act, there are three that did not meet all the components
for AYP, or annual yearly progress.
Although none of Morgan Hill School District’s 14 schools are in no danger of being labeled a “program improvement” school by federal standards in the No Child Left Behind Act, there are three that did not meet all the components for AYP, or annual yearly progress.
Britton Middle, Live Oak High and Central Continuation High missed two, one and one components, respectively.
The AYP requires that a minimum percentage of students at each school, each district and each student subgroup perform at or above the proficiency level in English-language arts and mathematics on state tests. The AYP also requires that all schools, schools districts and student subgroups have at least 95 percent of their students take certain state tests.
In addition, schools and their school districts must have an API, or academic performance index, of at least 560 or API growth of at least one point from the 2003 Base API.
“The Morgan Hill School District scored an overall growth of nine points on the state 2004 API. In addition, 10 of our 13 schools met all components of the federal Annual Yearly Progress criteria,” Superintendent Carolyn McKennan said announcing results of the annual Accountability Progress Report. “Through the outstanding efforts of our staff, students and families, the majority of our schools increased their individual scores, with six schools reporting higher scores than last year, five schools reporting slight decreases from last year and two schools reporting no scores.”
Jackson Elementary does not have a comparison score from last year due to a testing irregularity and Central High School progress is measured according to a state formula developed to assess small schools. The California Department of Education released scores from last year’s spring testing in August. This was the first year the scores were released before October.
The scores will be released again in October with corrections and additions.
“In October, we could see some things change,” Director of Curriculum and Assessment Pat Blanar said. “The difficulty is we don’t know how things really look until October.”
The reason for the early release is that the No Child Behind Act gives parents the right to move their child to another school if the child’s home school is labeled a program improvement school. The state put the early scores out so parents could move their children if they choose.
If a school is designated a “program improvement” school by the new federal standards, several things happen. In the first year, the district must offer school choice and pay for transporting students who chose not to attend the school. The school must also revise their school plan to address the situation and use 10 percent of its Title 1 funds for staff development.
No Morgan Hill schools were placed in the program improvement category.
The conditions continue up to year five if the school has not improved by then, with each year adding another stipulation.
“What is a concern to me, for other districts, is that a parent may move a child unnecessarily,” Blanar said. “In other words, according to these scores, the child’s school may be in it’s second year (not meeting all components), maybe missing the margin slightly, but when the corrected scores come out in October, the school may meet all components.”
Britton Middle School, for example, missed a component because some students failed to “bubble in” the type of math test they were taking, so the tests weren’t counted, Blanar said. The corrected information is being sent to the state.
These types of small errors are common, said McKennan, which is why it is important to have time for corrections.
“While the new Accountability Progress Report responds to our need to receive this important information in a timely manner, the information is not complete and in some instances is not accurate,” she said.
“During August and now in September we are in the process of working with the California Department of Education reviewing and correcting demographic information for the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE), Standardized Testing and Reporting (STAR), and California Alternate Performance Assessment (CAPA), all of which are used in compiling API and AYP reports.
“Once all of this information has been updated, revised scores will be released in October 2004. In addition the October release will include specific information on the performance of student subgroups, which is critical for appropriate analysis and curriculum and program alignment.”
Blanar said the revised scores for Britton will likely be better. In Live Oak’s case, the missing component was the participation rate. To meet this component, 95 percent of the students eligible for testing must be tested.
“It was their high school exit exam,” she said. “There were 116 students that could have taken it, and 106 took it. That’s only 10 kids, but with such a small number, that means it was only 91 percent participation. Two or three kids that didn’t show up there for test means 91 percent instead of 95 percent … In other tests, we can give them a makeup test, but with the exit exam, you can only do that when the state offers it.”
