PHS, T-Falls fail AYP tests

Most Sanders County schools received a passing grade from the No Child Left Behind school results which were released last Friday. According to the Montana Office of Public Instruction Web site, out of 17 schools tested, only four failed to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) scores for the 2007-2008 school year.

For the first time, Plains High School did not make AYP and they have been put on a watch list because of this. While Plains High School students were 80 percent proficient in reading and had an 83 percent graduation rate, their math score kept them from making AYP. Students were 40 percent proficient in math — a 17 percent decrease from the previous year. Failure in one area brands schools with a failing grade. White students were 79 percent proficient in reading and

42 percent proficient in math, and all other subgroups were too small to be measured.

Larry McDonald, the principal of Plains High School, said that he believed there were several reasons why the high school failed to make AYP for this year.

“One thing is that the whole state was below the target, a lot of schools didn’t make it,” he said. “Also, the test is given to the wrong grade.”

McDonald said that originally when schools were asked what grade they wanted this test at, they decided it should be given to sophomores because teachers, principals and superintendents felt that juniors already were over-tested.

“Juniors, at the time, had the Iowa test, testing to go into the military and ACT and SAT testing if they wanted to pursue college,” he said. “Teachers decided, without really knowing what would be on the test, that sophomores should take it, since they had fewer tests to worry about.”

He said the test has geometry, algebra two and even some trigonometry on it, most of which are subjects unfamiliar to most sophomores.

“If they moved this up to the junior year, we would see test scores improve, guaranteed,” he added.

McDonald said this group of students didn’t perform as well on the math portion as he had hoped they would, but said that all groups test differently and the assessment test does not take that into account.

“I reject the notion that [teachers] are not doing a good job,” he said. “Students are prepared with what they need at the next level.”

He said that the school doesn’t want to offer up any excuses and that they will do better this coming year.

“We’re going to look at new strategies for teaching,” McDonald said. “We’re going to do whatever we have to do to fix this.”

Thompson Falls also suffered. This was the first year that all of their schools failed to meet AYP. Thompson Falls Elementary made AYP in reading and attendance, but failed to make in math. Students were 85 percent proficient in reading, 66 percent proficient in math and had a 97 attendance rate. White students were 85 percent proficient in reading and 65 percent proficient in math and then economically disadvantaged students were 81 percent proficient in reading and 62 percent in math. The Thompson Falls seventh and eighth grade students were 82 percent proficient in reading, 63 percent in math and had a 98 percent attendance rate. The seventh and eighth grade students like the elementary students just missed making AYP based on their math scores. Thompson Falls High School failed to make AYP based on their math scores and their graduation rate. The high school was 90 percent proficient in reading, 69 percent proficient in math and had a 76 percent graduation rate. White students were 90 percent proficient in reading and 67 percent proficient in math.

Thompson Falls Superintendent Jerry Pauli said that it is obvious looking at the results that math is what the Thompson Falls schools are struggling with, and while he does admit that they could do better teaching math, he said that there are a lot of problems with the test itself.

“It is a very poor assessment,” he said. “It is not a realistic indicator of what the kids should know at different grade levels.”

He said that the math test doesn’t measure some of that things that should be measured and that it causes teachers to feel torn when it comes to what they teach. He said while they feel it is important for students to learn decimals and percentages for the real world, things like that aren’t on the test, and it puts them in a position where they have to decided whether or not to teach things they feel would be really beneficial or teach solely for the test. He also said that the math test in high school is given during the spring of the student’s sophomore year, before many students have had upper-level math classes that could assist them with questions on the test.

“When you look at other achievement tests, they’re performing in the 80th and 90th percentile, they do well on the ACT and SAT and then all of a sudden they’re not proficient in this state assessment,” he said. “There is something wrong with that, when we have the same teachers where our kids score above 95 percent on reading and then do 45 percent on math, that just doesn’t make sense.”

Pauli said that in order for accurate annual yearly progress to be measured a valid math assessment needs to be created. He said that while they’re going to try to spend more time on math this year, that means something else will have to be dropped to take its place. Another challenge will be the fact that the percentage of proficiency is going to increase this year, so more students will have to school at or above proficiency.

Besides Thompson Falls and Plains, all other schools in the county made AYP. Some schools were helped along by the Small Schools Accountability Process (SSAP). Both the Dixon school and the Dixon seventh and eighth grade made AYP under the exceptions for small schools.

According to the Office of Public Instruction Web site in cases where there are less than the required 30 students in the “all students” test group, then that school or district is determined to not have enough data points to evaluate using statistical methods alone and is evaluated using the Small Schools Accountability Process (SSAP). Scoring is based on several different factors including the Criterion-Referenced Test (CRT) scores, the Norm-Referenced Test (NRT) scores, the Effectiveness Report of the Five-Year Comprehensive Education Plan, CRT improvement, NRT improvement, and attendance or graduation rate.

There are also exceptions allowed with AYP for larger schools. This means that a school might not score high enough in either reading or math, but would still make AYP. One such provision is the Safe Harbor Provision. This provision allows for subgroups that don’t reach the reading or math proficiency to still make AYP if there was a 10 percent decrease in the percentage of students below proficient from the prior year.

Another provision is the Feeder School Process. Schools that do not serve any of the tested grades receive the AYP status of the school their students feed into. There is also additional flexibility for the students with disabilities subgroup, this means that if a school does not make AYP solely on their students with disabilities, a proxy would be calculated. The last exception allowed is the 99 percent Confidence Interval Filter Flexibility. This exception states that schools and districts that did not make AYP using the calculated method, but made their reading and math proficiency score targets using at 99 percent confidence interval, are allowed to be evaluated through the SSAP, if the school/district made AYP through the SSAP then it would be determined that the school/district made AYP.

Hot Springs High School and the seventh and eighth grade students made AYP due to the SSAP. The Hot Springs Elementary School, also made AYP and did not use the SSAP. Hot Springs Elementary students scored 95 percent in reading and 67 percent in math. White students scored 95 percent in reading and 72 percent in math and economically disadvantaged students scored 92 percent in reading and 64 percent in math. All other student groups were too small for significant statistics.

Both the Noxon High School and the Noxon seventh and eighth grade students made AYP due to the SSAP. The Noxon Elementary School made AYP. All students in the elementary school scored 83 percent on reading and 58 percent on math.

The Paradise School also made AYP due to the SSAP.

Plains Elementary School made AYP for the 2007-08 school year. Students were 91 percent proficient in reading, 76 percent proficient in math and had a 96 percent attendance rate. White students were 90 percent proficient in reading and 74 percent proficient in math. Economically disadvantaged students were 90 percent proficient in reading and 73 percent proficient in math. All other subgroups were too small to calculate scores for. The Plains seventh and eighth grade students also made AYP. Students were 90 percent proficient in reading, 75 percent proficient in math and had a 98 percent attendance rate. White seventh and eighth grade students were 89 percent proficient in reading and 74 percent proficient in math, and economically disadvantaged students were 86 percent proficient in reading and 72 percent proficient in math. All other subgroups were to small to get scores from.

The Trout Creek School made AYP due to the SSAP as did the Trout Creek seventh and eighth grade students. The attendance rate for the Trout Creek School was 89 percent, with all other student groups not having enough students to use. The attendance rate for the seventh and eighth grade students was 93 percent, and the rest of the group of students were below the 30 students needed to have any results for them.

Overall, Schools in Montana did relatively well although there was a dip from last year. The report shows that 72 percent of Montana’s 824 public schools currently meet the requirements of the federal law and 68 percent of Montana’s 421 school districts met the federal AYP requirements. There were 28 percent of Montana schools that were identified as not making AYP by federal law and 32 percent of Montana’s districts did not meet the federal requirements.