By TRICIA NEAL, HEATHER PYLES and SUSAN WHEELDON, CJ Staff Writers
Commonwealth Journal
August 08, 2008 07:02 am
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The Kentucky Department of Education released the results of the 2008 No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Adequate Yearly Progress report Tuesday.
The findings show that the Pulaski County School district as a whole — and three schools within it individually — did not meet their goal, while one of the high schools — Southwestern High School — met its goal NCLB goal for the first time.
The area’s other school districts — Science Hill Independent and Somerset Independent — succeeded in meeting all their goals as districts, although Somerset High School fell short of meeting its mathematics goal for its free and reduced lunch students.
The law mandates that schools and districts be held accountable for the progress and participation of student subgroups in reading and math testing in grades 3-8 and at least once in each subject in grades 10-12.
PULASKI COUNTY
Pulaski County School officials are pleased with the release of the 2008 federal No Child Left Behind report.
The Pulaski County School District met 11 of its 13 AYP goals, reaching all set targets except in reading and math for children with disabilities. Collectively, schools met 93 percent of their federally assigned goals.
Adequate yearly progress (AYP) is the term used in NCLB to refer to the minimum improvement required of each school and district over the course of one year.
All Pulaski district elementary schools met their goal and Southwestern High School met its goal.
Both Northern and Southern middle schools and Pulaski County High School did not meet AYP expectations.
Pulaski County schools superintendent Tim Eaton said the district continues to improve.
“Although our NCLB scores continue to rise at all levels, there is no acknowledgment of improvement. However, until all children in all groups get to the proficiency level, we do need to continue to improve,” Eaton said.
“We are extremely proud that our district elementary schools continue their outstanding assessment outcomes by meeting all targets for all children,” said Eaton.
Both Northern and Southern middle schools met all their goals except in reading and math for students with disabilities, while Pulaski County High School met their goals except in the areas of math and reading for students with disabilities.
“We are very proud of Southwestern High School for meeting all their goals,” said Eaton.
“Pulaski County High School has also made some recent changes and improvements related to math. I am confident we will continue to see progress at all our upper levels and good outcomes resulting from our continuous improvement efforts,” added Eaton.
All district schools except Pulaski County High School met all math goals for the free and reduced population, which is the district’s largest subpopulation.
“Getting our at-risk population, with all their barriers and differing experiences, up to the proficiency point district-wide further supports that we are going the extra mile in making sure everything possible is being done for our children and their families, in and out of the classroom,” said Eaton.
Eaton noted that districts are assigned goals based on the number of students served in various subpopulations.
Since Pulaski County has been identified as a Tier III, second year improvement, the county is required to notify parents and implement corrective action.
Eaton explained the plan will focus on improving student achievement throughout the district and identifying strategies, including revising improvement plans and proving supplemental services, that will have the greatest likelihood of meeting federal goals.
SCIENCE HILL
Science Hill Independent met all assigned NCLB goals for the 2007-2008 school year, and Superintendent Rick Walker credited dilligence on the part of the school’s teachers and students alike for the results .
“I’m just really proud of all the hard work our teachers put into teaching and our kids put into learning,” Walker said.
The district met all 10 target goals and made 100 percent of its annual yearly progress in the latest release of the test scores for the 2007-2008 school year.
The school has met AYP expectations since NCLB began in 2002.
Michelle Harville, the school’s institutional supervisor over curriculum and assessment, said teachers, staff and students will continue to work hard to ensure the district meets its assigned goals each year.
“We’re very pleased and excited,” Harville said.
According to the preliminary scores, 84.56 percent of the K-8 school’s students scored proficient or distinguished in reading, exceeding the state’s goal of 59.89 by 24.67 percent.
Students also topped the AYP mathematics goal of 39.60 percent by 34.53 percentage points. 74.13 percent of the school’s students scored proficient or distinguished in that area for the 2007-2008 year.
SOMERSET
The Somerset Independent district as a whole met 10 out of 10 target goals, although Somerset High School fell short in its adequate yearly progress for the first time ever by not meeting its goal in mathematics for the subpopulation of students on the free and reduced lunch plan.
“That translates into 38 kids,” explained Somerset Independent instructional supervisor Sharon Flowers.
“When your numbers are so small, they can make a huge difference in your results.”
While very few students actually prompted Somerset High School’s inability to meet its goal, Flowers said that group won’t be overlooked.
“We’re still going to address the issue by paying attention to the subgroup,” she said, adding that all three schools in the district — Hopkins Elementary, Meece Middle School and Somerset High School — will utilize “screening to catch students who are struggling early in both reading and math.”
Hopkins Elementary and Meece Middle each met all 10 of their goals. Meece has consistently met its goals during each of the four years of reporting NCLB results. Hopkins missed its goal in math for students with disabilities in the first year of the program, but the school has met its goal each year since.
“Our reading scores are very good,” Flowers noted.
Both Hopkins Elementary and Somerset High School are nearly 20 percentage points higher than the state’s goal in the area of reading, while Meece Middle’s reading scores are 10 percentage points higher than the state goal.
Schools that receive Title I funds and which miss their goal two years in a row are required to mail letters to parents of students. However, Somerset High School does not receive Title I funding, and this is the first year the school has missed its goal, so no letters will be mailed.
STATEWIDE
Statewide, 70.9 percent of the public schools made AYP in the 2007-2008 school year.
According to the data, 820 Kentucky public schools met 100 percent of their NCLB goals for AYP, while 337 schools did not. Of the 337 schools that did not make AYP, 212 made 80 percent or more of their goals.
Statewide, 20 of the 25 goals were met.
School districts also are held to the requirements of AYP under NCLB. Of Kentucky’s 175 school districts in 2007-2008, 103 — 58.9 percent — met 100 percent of their target goals. Of the 72 districts that did not meet all of their goals, 65 met 80 percent or more of their goals.
AYP results are based on the Kentucky Core Content Test (KCCT) items in reading and mathematics. Schools are required to have specific percentages of students reaching proficiency or above in reading and mathematics each year and to meet other criteria in order to make AYP.
Goals for each individual school are based on the diversity of student populations.
The goals are largely based on reading and math scores of all students, as well as the sub-populations of minority students, low-income students, students with disabilities, and students with limited-English proficiency
Sub-population data is reportable only if it meets a minimum group size of 10 students per grade where NCLB-required assessments are administered and 60 students in those grades combined or the sub-population makes up at least 15 percent of the total student enrollment in accountable grades.
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