Bigfork schools miss AYP

For the second year in a row, Bigfork High School failed to make adequate yearly progress, a measurement of the school's headway in meeting goals from the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

Again, as was true in 2009, only 59 percent of students were proficient or advanced in math. The standard for 2010 required 68 percent to be proficient. These percentages are based on students' performance on a criterion reference test, or CRT, that they take their sophomore year.

The school also failed to make the target in 2008, but made AYP with Safe Harbor, which meant the school had been successful in years past and saw a decrease of less than 10 percent from the prior year.

In other categories, the high school exceeded standards this year. Eighty-nine percent of students were proficient or advanced in reading and 99 percent of students participated in the test. The graduation rate at the high school was 93 percent, a full eight percentage points higher than the required 85 percent.

"We've worked hard to lower the drop-out rate," BHS Principal Matt Jensen said.

However, if a school fails to reach a given year's target in even one category, the whole school fails AYP.

All of this means that the high school is designated as "identified for improvement" and has a number of requirements it will have to fulfill, Superintendent Cynthia Clary said.

To start, the school will be required to review and revise its five-year comprehensive plan goals and action plans to address the areas that need improvement within three months with the assistance of the district, parents, staff and, as appropriate, outside consultants, and submit them to the Montana Office of Public Instruction.

A teacher mentoring program must be implemented and at least 10 percent of Title I funds for professional development have to go to support the revised goals and action plans.

Parents have to be notified of the school's status and the reasons for its identification. They also will be supplied with a summary of plans for improvement as well as what assistance is being provided and how they can help.

Since BHS is the only high school in the district, the school will have to provide the option of supplemental education services to low-income students and notify parents, she said. A list of those services will be supplied by OPI. Those letters will go out within the first two weeks of school.

Clary said she and Jensen plan to go through test results with staff during in-service days next week to identify patterns in the skills students struggled with.

"We're all going to work together and get it taken care of," Clary said.

Jensen said that though only sophomores are tested to measure the school's progress, BHS has been working to improve the math skills of all of its students.

"There are a lot of things that we've been doing over the last year and years to make progress with every student," he said. "Those things don't necessarily happen overnight. We're going to see the fruits of that in the future"

The school did institute an accelerated program to help students that weren't at grade level for math. In their sophomore year, students working at grade level should be taking geometry, which means they should come in as freshmen in algebra.

That wasn't happening for a number of students in prior years.

"A lot were coming in in pre-algebra," Jensen said, noting that because of how the courses were structured, it then took two years to complete algebra and get on to geometry, putting students behind.

Now the use of a computer-based diagnostic system called ALEKS is used with students coming in at the pre-algebra level to help identify the skills they are missing and help them master them and move to the next skill. ALEKS, through testing, creates a self-paced, targeted curriculum for each student. This year, some students came in with low percentages of proficiency and improved to complete mastery.

"We're already seeing results," Jensen said.

One student went from 4 percent to 57 percent. Though that student has not yet reached 100 percent, that's significant improvement that teachers can show to parents. Since the purpose of AYP is accountability to make sure schools measure that students are actually learning, this use of diagnostics is one way to do that, even if that isn't shown in results on the criterion reference test right away.

"We can show that they made a ton of progress," Jensen said.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOL

Also this year, for the first time, Bigfork Elementary School, grades three through six, failed to make adequate yearly progress. This was due to a low percentage, 39 percent, of special education students proficient or advanced in math. These students are held to the same standards as their peers. Last year, the elementary school didn't qualify to be judged in that sub-population based on the number of students in it and it was only in fourth grade that it was measured this year.

In all students as well as the white and economically disadvantaged sub-populations, the school had 82 percent or more students proficient.

Board chair Maureen Averill said this is a hard pill to swallow as it's easy to understand both sides and difficult to figure out where the balance should be.

"I understand parents, teachers and students wanting to see that progress with those children, but it skews the general population too," Averill said.

For the elementary school, this means it will be on the Office of Public Instruction's "watch list" for the 2010-11 school year. The school is also required to review and revise as necessary its five-year comprehensive plan, but is not required to submit it, Clary said.

In all other areas, the elementary school also surpassed standards.

Bigfork Middle School, grades seven and eight, made AYP in all areas. Math scores were at 86 percent proficient or advanced for all students as well as the white and economically disadvantaged sub-populations.