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Schools pass state test

Posted on August 14, 2008 by Staff

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

All of the Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools met expected or high growth levels, according to the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s ABCs growth results released last week.

ABCs growth measures how much students improve from one year to the next by looking at individual students’ test results.

The growth results are an improvement over last year, when 12 schools achieved high growth. This year, 13 schools reached high growth, including Chapel Hill High School, Carrboro High School, Scroggs Elementary, Estes Hills Elementary, Culbreth Middle School, Carrboro Elementary, McDougle Middle School, Smith Middle School, Glenwood Elementary, Phillips Middle, Ephesus Elementary, Seawell Elementary and Rashkis Elementary.

McDougle Elementary, Frank Porter Graham Elementary, East Chapel Hill High School and the Hospital School made expected growth.

Teacher bonuses are based on ABCs results, and in the past teachers have received $1,500 if their school made high growth and $750 if their school made expected growth.

However, the state superintendent announced in July that the General Assembly had not adequately funded the bonus-line item in their budget and that bonuses would be prorated to reflect a 10-to-20 percent decrease as a result.

ABCs growth results are different from Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) results, which are measured under the federal No Child Left Behind program and were partially released in July.

AYP standards increased 11.4 percentage points from last year. Overall, 77.2 percent of students within each subgroup had to meet the proficiency standard in order for a school to make AYP, compared with 65.8 percent of students last year. Students are divided into subgroups including race, economic disadvantage, limited English proficiency and students with disabilities.

This year, 10 of 17 schools in Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools met AYP standards in math, compared with eight last year. Full AYP results in reading will not be available until November.

Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools led the state in the percentage of schools meeting AYP standards in math, with about 58.8 percent.

However, because Carrboro and Frank Porter Graham elementary schools did not meet AYP standards in math last year, families of students at those schools were notified that they would be allowed to transfer to Morris Grove or Ephesus elementary schools.

Thirty-nine Chapel Hill-Carrboro City Schools elementary school students have applied to transfer to different elementary schools under AYP school-choice sanctions.

Elementary schools that do not meet AYP standards in math or reading for two years in a row and received federal Title I funding are required to allow students to transfer to different schools. AYP is tested in both math and reading for students in grades 3-10 as part of the federal No Child Left Behind program.

Last year, 21 students applied to transfer to different schools, but only nine ended up transferring. Two schools – Frank Porter Graham and Carrboro Elementary – had to allow transfers last year.

This year, 23 Frank Porter Graham students, six Carrboro Elementary students and nine McDougle Elementary students applied to transfer to different schools. All but two of the students requested to transfer to Morris Grove.

The system is intended to help students who aren’t meeting proficiency by allowing them to go to a school that might better meet their individual needs. However, Superintendent Neil Pedersen said he was under the impression that students who transfer are usually students already meeting proficiency standards.

In addition, school officials say results can be slightly misleading, because a school can fail to meet AYP by missing one subgroup.

“It can be misleading to put labels on individual schools, especially when they’re done on an all-or-nothing basis,” Pedersen said. “We would be more supportive of a system that was not based so much on an all-or-nothing label.”

Diane Villwock, director of testing and evaluation for the district, agreed.

“If you miss one standard in one group, then you have the same label as someone who misses every standard in every group by a mile,” she said.

Pedersen added that the system also makes it difficult for schools to gauge improvement.

“It’s difficult on our educators because it looks like schools are staying the same or not improving when in fact they are improving,” Pedersen said.

Villwock said she preferred the ABCs method, which measures the growth of all students, including students performing at the top of their class.

However, Villwock said the subgroup system has improved the way teachers develop their teaching methods.

“The expectation is that for all subgroups, we’re going to have more subgroups meeting the standard,” she said. “Having that expectation forces deep conversation about how we’re going to deal with this uneven achievement among different groups of kids.”

1 thought on “Schools pass state test”

  1. the Voice says:
    September 30, 2008 at 4:10 pm

    meanwhile, down south, the public schools are failing: 4-in-5 public schools didn’t meet AYP!
    http://thevoiceforschoolchoice.wordpress.com/2008/09/30/feds-80-of-south-carolina-public-schools-failing/

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