One school principal examined instructional minutes, evaluated
teaching emphasis and paid more attention to students who need
extra help.
Morgan Hill – One school principal examined instructional minutes, evaluated teaching emphasis and paid more attention to students who need extra help.
The other principals are doing similar things as they try to help three Morgan Hill Unified School District elementary schools implement aggressive plans for improvement to bring their campuses out of “program improvement” status under the federal law, “No Child Left Behind,” (NCLB). The law ranks schools based on whether they meet federal academic targets, which must be met for two consecutive years to abandon the classification.
Burnett Elementary, Jackson Elementary and P.A. Walsh elementary schools have been classified as program improvement because they did not meet their state Average Yearly Progress in state test scores in its overall student body and each of the subgroups of students – economically disadvantaged students, students with limited English proficiency, students from each of the major ethnic groups, and students with disabilities – for two years in row.
The federal government, under NCLB, requires schools receiving Title I funds to reach certain goals each year. Title I funds are extra dollars the state gives to schools that have a certain percentage of low-income students or with more than 35 percent of students receiving free or reduced lunch.
The federal requirements ask for a certain percentage of students at each school to test at the “proficient” level and the percentage will increase until, by the 2013-14 school year, 100 percent of students should test “proficient.”
MHUSD Director of Curriculum and Assessment Pat Blanar said for elementary and middle schools, 24.4 percent of students had to be proficient in English/language arts and 26.5 percent in math; the numbers will stay the same for next year, but for the 2007-08 school year, there’s a “huge jump,” she said, to 35.2 percent for English/language arts and to 37 percent for math.
MHUSD Superintendent Alan Nishino said the schools just had a few students that either didn’t test or didn’t score at the “basic” level on the test.
Burnett Elementary School missed the threshold in English\language arts for Hispanic students by five students and for socio-economically disadvantaged students by four students. Jackson Elementary School was short by two students in English/language arts for socio-economically disadvantaged students and for English learners by one student. Jackson Elementary also missed the threshold in mathematics for socio-economically disadvantaged students by four students and for English learners by one student. P. A. Walsh was short three students for English learners.
As a result of the Program Improvement status, the schools do not get additional money, just the Title I money they were already receiving. The district does not receive additional funds to help the schools, either, but officials say they have come up with strategies to assist the PI schools.
“There are two areas we are addressing,” said MHUSD Assistant Superintendent Michael Johnson. “Making sure that the principals of these schools are given the support that they need. We have assigned district administrators to work with those principals, to contact them at least once a week, to reflect as to what’s going on on their campuses … The other piece is external, looking at the other resources, staff development, tightening the relationship with the county office, tighten that relationship so that resources of the county are more available to those schools.”
Many of the School Board trustees expressed hope that the PI status of the schools would be temporary, but also would be a learning situation for the entire district.
“One of the things I hope we can learn from our schools going through this is things we can tell other schools so they can do things better, so they can avoid going into PI,” said Trustee Bart Fisher.
Jackson Principal Karen Tavares said she and her staff have examined instructional minutes and looked at their teaching emphasis and on how students with needing additional help are assisted.
“This is just a slice of what we think will help,” she said. “It is so easy to become PI. I think this is really a heads-up for other schools in our district. We also say, look, it didn’t happen to you so what are you doing that we’re not.”
Tavares said she has been very pleased, though not surprised, with the support of the school community.
“We held parent meetings in the beginning, to explain, to talk about what PI means,” she said. “They’ve come to say what can I do, what do you need.” What Jackson needed was more adults to help us with some after school programs, Tavares said. Parents also suggested recruiting Live Oak High students to help with the homework club, and now they have helpers.
To get out of the PI status, the schools have to meet or exceed state expectations for their scores this year and next. The schools realize it is a challenge, particularly as the state expectations take a sharp upward curve during that time, the principals are confident about the work their staff, students and parents are doing.
“We need to make huge gains coming up, this year not so much, but the year after that, huge,” Tavares said. “It’s going to take every single child.”
Trustees praised the efforts of the schools to improve scores. Trustee Shelle Thomas said she doesn’t appreciate that the entire school is labeled.
“One of the things that bothers me here … is the stigma, we’re dealing with the stigma, ‘you’re PI’ … it’s so wrong to say that’s how we evaluate how well we’re doing in the classroom,” said Thomas.
Trustee Kathy Sullivan agreed.
“Parents and community members need to realize that though a school is in PI, this can be an opportunity,” said Sullivan. “We have some parents who leave those schools, that is one of the more punishing aspects of No Child Left Behind. What I think we need to be better about communicating is how this can be an opportunity.”
