Testing Done, Where do Schools Go From Here? (MD)
July 26, 2010
In August, parents will find out how their children performed on the Maryland School Assessment reading and math tests that public school students took in March.
But what does it mean to them? To their children? To teachers, principals or administrators at the central office of Washington County Public Schools?
County education officials, including school principals, have started diving into the piles of data for each school, whether or not each met proficiency standards, so strategies can be formed for each school to help students improve and meet this school year’s proficiency standards, said Michael Markoe, assistant superintendent for student and staff support.
That work includes, for schools that did not meet proficiency goals, looking at why certain student groups didn’t fare well on the tests and what efforts need to be intensified, said Markoe, who in the past school year was assistant superintendent for elementary instruction.
The state released 2010 Maryland School Assessment (MSA) results last Tuesday for students who were in grades 3 through 8 last school year. Results from the High School Assessments are expected to be released in August or September, said Bill Reinhard, spokesman for the Maryland State Department of Education.
Washington Count y data showed six of 32 elementary and middle schools failed to meet minimum proficiency standards last school year.
The minimum proficiency standards or state goals are set each year to comply with the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Beginning with the 2002-03 school year, benchmarks for proficiency were set for reading and math.
Each school has up to 37 indicators it has to meet each year to meet these proficiency levels, which also are known as Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP. These cover reading and math for several subgroups, including racial and ethnic groups as well as subgroups for special education, students with limited English proficiency, and students who receive free or reduced-price meals. The indicators include performance as well as participation in the tests and school attendance.
The goal is for each school and subgroup to reach 100 percent for the 2013-14 school year. That means every student who takes the tests would have to score at or above the proficiency level and have been in the school for a certain period of time.
What it means to students, parents
Meeting 100 percent proficiency by 2014 doesn’t mean every student has to score a perfect grade on the Maryland School Assessment tests.
Scoring “proficient” means a student demonstrated fundamental grade-level math skills and concepts, can generally solve entry-level math problems, read grade-appropriate text, and comprehend literature and informational passages, according to MSA information.
Students who score below proficiency are at a “basic” level in which they have demonstrated only partial mastery of math skills and concepts and are unable to adequately read and comprehend grade-appropriate lite rature and informational passages.
Students who score above proficiency are at an “advanced” level and can regularly solve complex math problems, read above grade-level text, and comprehend complex literature and informational passages.
School system officials anticipate that by Aug. 9, parents can find out how their child in elementary or middle school performed on the assessment tests through the school system’s website at www.wcps.k12.md.us, said Jeremy Jakoby, supervisor of testing and accountability. Parents can register for free to gain access to their children’s results through an online portal known as Performance Matters. There already are more than 10,000 parent accounts, he said.
School officials also will send a paper copy of the math and reading tests’ results home with students during the first week of school, which begins Aug. 18, Jakoby said.
The hope is that parents will use those reports to talk to their children’s teachers and principals about specific areas in which their children need to improve and what parents can do to help spur that improvement, Schools Superintendent Elizabeth Morgan said.
“I think the more information a parent has, the more they can help their kid,” Morgan said.
Parents also can use test results to talk to their children about their strengths and weaknesses, she said.
Parents should keep in mind that the test results are not a “permanent condition,” Morgan said.
Every student can improve with effort, Morgan said. Parents can help that along by partnering with educators, she said. There are many students who scored “basic” on their assessment tests and improved to the advanced level, she said.
Depending on what strategies school system officials devise to help each school meet this year’s AYP goals, students might notice changes in lesson plans.
Several factors go into whether a specific student needs greater challenges or is struggling and needs extra help, Markoe said. Those include assessment test results as well as attendance, grades, school assignments, and class quizzes and tests, he said.
What it means to teachers, principals
Teachers also will have access to individual students’ assessment scores, Morgan said. This means fifth-grade teachers can see how their students did last year on their fourth-grade tests to determine where they need help.
“Any good teacher has always used assessments to inform their instruction,” Morgan said. Teachers are expected to do so, she said.
Teachers can see not only how well a student performed on the math and reading tests, but how well they performed in specific areas, Jakoby said. They will not be able to see how well students did on a specific problem.
Teachers can see elementary and middle school students’ math results broken down into five areas — algebra patterns and functions; geometry and measurement; statistics and probability; processes of math; and numbers and relationships, Jakoby said.
Reading results are broken into three areas — general reading processes, informational reading processes and literary reading processes, he said.
Parents can ask teachers how well their children did in specific areas to see where they need help, Morgan said.
After analyzing the data, a dministrators will determine what training teachers need to help students improve on the assessment tests, Markoe said. If a school did not score well in reading, administrators might concentrate teacher training on reading strategies, he said.
So far, teachers’ evaluations haven’t been tied to student performance in general, but that will change, Morgan said.
Maryland legislators passed a law this year that requires school systems to develop a way to tie teacher evaluation to student performance, Morgan said. If the teachers’ union and the school system cannot come to an agreement, the local school system will have to adopt a state model that makes that link, she said.
Maureen Moran, spokeswoman for the state education department, said if the local union and the school system haven’t come up with their own way of making that link in time for the 2012-13 school year, a state model would be adopted.
The Education Reform Act of 2010 — an emergency measure the Maryland General Assembly passed this year — says data on student progress shall be “a significant component” and “one of multiple measures” used to evaluate certified teachers and principals.
Student performance has been a factor in evaluating principals for about six years, Morgan said.
If Maryland and the local school system receive funding from Race to the Top, President Obama’s education initiative, those reforms also call for tying student performance to teacher and principal evaluations.
What it means to the school system
“The implications are pretty much the same as we’ve seen every single year,” Morgan said. “Where students are not meeting state or federal standards, we have to be very innovative. We have to leave no stone unturned to provide intervention for students so they meet the standards.”
As it gets closer to 2014 and AYP goals get higher and higher each year, there will be a greater sense of urgency to meet those proficiency goals, Morgan said.
If No Child Left Behind’s accountability system remains the same in 2014 and a school fails to meet proficiency standards, the school system still would abide by accountability measures to improve that school’s performance, Morgan said.
Schools that continually fail to meet proficiency are subject to a review that includes phases referred to as “school improvement,” “corrective action” and “restructuring,” according to a Maryland State Department of Education website at www.mdk12.org.
School improvement means a two-year school improvement plan must be created to improve each subgroup’s achievement. If the school is a Title I school, the school system must offer parents a “public school choice,” according to the website.
Washington County hasn’t had to do that yet, Jakoby said.
School choice means parents would have a choice about which school their children would attend, Moran said.
That option also would be available the next year if the school doesn’t make AYP. Also that second year, Title 1 schools must offer supplemental services such as tutoring to economically disadvantaged students.
Corrective action occurs for schools that did not meet AYP for two years after entering school improvement. Such action can include replacing staff, adopting a new curriculum, decreasing school-level management authority, and extending the school day or year . Title 1 schools must continue to offer school choice and supplemental services.
Schools that don’t make AYP after a year of corrective action will be restructured.
Schools that undergo restructuring must do at least one of the following: Replace all or most school staff relevant to the failure to make AYP; contract with a management company to operate the school; reopen the school as a public charter school; or other actions that involve significant changes to staffing and governance of the school, according to the state website.
As a proactive measure, county education officials restructured Western Heights Middle School for the 2006-07 school year. That included lengthening the school day and requiring teachers to reapply to keep their jobs at that school.
After meeting AYP goals in 2009, the school failed to meet AYP in some areas in 2010, putting the school into the “school improvement” phase.
Morgan said she believes Western Heights’ 2010 results were an anomaly for a variety of reasons and said she expects better results in the coming school year.
So while school system officials must develop a school improvement plan for the state education department that explains what will be done to help the schools’ students, that plan won’t call for another restructuring, Morgan said.
That restructuring was only three years ago, she said.
“We’re just going to be patient with Western Heights Middle School,” she said. “I have a lot of confidence in the leadership and teaching staff.”