Schools miss progress benchmark

Whitefish schools did not meet federal standards for school performance known as Adequate Yearly Progress for 2013.

Muldown Elementary, the middle and high schools did not make AYP under the No Child Left Behind act. Schools are required to hit certain benchmarks to meet AYP, which is calculated based primarily on testing.

The schools percentage of students considered proficient in reading and math decreased in 2013. However, the schools have shown an overall trend of increasing proficiency since testing for NCLB began in 2004.

District curriculum director Jill Rocksund notes that students have shown improvement and cautions that the testing is limited in focus.

“While it’s important to us that they do well on the testing, you can’t always measure education by a test score,” she said. “It’s important, at some level, that we look at the whole education — activities, arts and citizenship.”

Rocksund said that NCLB puts a heavy emphasis on reading and math, while academic achievement really means looking at the whole child.

This year state requirements increased from 89.6 percent to 94.8 percent of students needing to be proficient or advanced in reading, and from 80 percent to 90 percent in math, in order for schools to be considered as making AYP.

“We’ve hit the point where the targets are unattainable,” Rocksund said. “There was a large number of schools in the state that didn’t make it this year.”

At Muldown, 83 percent of students were proficient in math and 92 percent in reading.

At the middle school, 84 percent scored proficient in math and 94 percent proficient in reading.

Muldown and the middle school are looked at individually, and together as making up the elementary district. In both instances, separately and at the district level, AYP was not made.

At the high school, 76 percent of students scored proficient in math and 92 percent in reading. The high school did increase its graduation rate to meet the 85 percent required. However, the school did not make AYP.

“The scores are still pretty good,” Rocksund said, noting that in a few areas the proficient scores were only 1 percent, or less than 1 percent, away from making AYP.

Students in grades three through eight and 10 are given the Criterion-referenced Test each year. Based upon the test results that determine the percentage of students who are considered proficient or advanced, then schools are designated as making AYP or not.

The elementary district stayed almost even for both math and reading proficiency for the last two years. The percentage of students considered proficient in both subjects dropped one percent.

At the high school, the reading proficiency dropped 2 percent, and math proficiency dropped by 4 percent.

“Scores have risen every year, but this year,” Rocksund said. “We’ve been on an upward trend since 2004 in all grades.”

She points out that following the same class of students as they progress through school would offer a more accurate measurement of student achievement.

“Since there are different kids in those grades every year you are comparing a different group in the tests,” she said. “A more accurate reflection of progress is to follow them over time.”

Not making AYP means that the school district is required to let parents know that outside tutoring is available to students. The district also must redirect some of its federal funding toward professional development.

While students scored above state averages, Whitefish schools do appear to be part of a statewide trend. In 2013, only 46.6 percent of Montana schools made AYP. This is down from the 74.1 percent that made AYP the year before.

Student achievement results showed a decrease in both reading and math statewide for the first time. The percentage of students proficient in reading was 84 percent compared to 86 percent in 2012. In Math, 66 percent of students were proficient compared with 68 percent the year before.

Rocksund points to the Montana Office of Public Instruction’s observation that the decrease in the percentage of proficiency combined with the increase in proficiency benchmarks have resulted in a large number of schools not making AYP this year.

Montana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Denise Juneau has asked the federal government for a waiver to discontinue giving the CRT in 2014. Instead, she would like to test students based on the new Common Core state education standards.

In a July letter, Juneau notes that students will fail to reach the next year’s NCLB goal of all students being 100 percent proficient in both reading and math. In addition, she said classroom time would be better spent on instruction rather than doubling the testing of students.

Last week, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it would give states the chance to suspend some of their tests, as long as students were still being tested under the Common Core standards.