Triangle's Public School Divisions Fail to Meet Federal Achievement Benchmarks

By Amber Lester Thursday, August 12, 2010

Both the Williamsburg-James City County and York County school divisions failed to meet federal achievement guidelines during the 2009-2010 school year.

The Virginia Department of Education released Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) reports Thursday morning that show WJCC and York school divisions were among the 91 percent of Virginia school divisions that did not meet federal benchmarks. In both divisions, however, the majority of schools met the goals; 12 out of 14 WJCC schools met AYP standards and 13 out of 19 York schools met the requirements.

For a school or school division to have made AYP, more than 81 percent of students overall and students in subgroups must have demonstrated proficiency in reading and more than 79 percent must have demonstrated proficiency in math. The subgroups measure performance of students based on racial background, socioeconomic status and disabilities.

Many schools and school divisions missed the mark for students with disabilities, due to a decision by the U.S. Department of Education to limit flexibility for states to supplement the students’ pass rates. Previously, the state was allowed to add percentage points to pass rates because of the limited testing options for some students with disabilities. Because of the change, 87 schools and 15 school divisions did not make AYP this year.

Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, schools and school divisions must also exceed several other requirements and objectives, such as attendance in the elementary and middle schools and graduation at the high school level. A division can fail to meet AYP if just one group misses the percentage point requirements for subjects, attendance or graduation rates.

AYP evaluation of schools and divisions began in 2001. AYP requirements increase by four percentage points each year, raising the bar for the benchmarks annually. Virginia was granted permission to keep the same benchmarks for an additional year, however, so the required proficiency rates for reading and math did not change from last year. The ultimate goal is to have 100 percent of students be proficient in math and reading by 2014.

York County Schools
The York County school division missed the benchmarks, and more York schools failed to meet AYP standards than last year.

All four of York County’s middle schools missed AYP, as did Magruder and Yorktown elementary schools. The division’s four middle schools – Grafton Middle, Tabb Middle, Queens Lake Middle and Yorktown Middle – missed AYP last year, as well.

While the middle schools met national accreditation standards, they missed AYP based on the performance of students in subgroups on SOL exams. The subgroups that missed AYP for English SOLs were: black students and disadvantaged students at Queens Lake; students with disabilities at Tabb Middle; and disadvantaged students and students with disabilities at Yorktown Middle. At Grafton Middle, disadvantaged students missed AYP requirements based on their performance on the math SOL exams.

At the elementary level, Magruder and Yorktown missed AYP based on disadvantaged students’ English performance. Yorktown Elementary also did not make AYP in English for black students.

York County Chief Academic Officer Stephanie Guy said the administration has already started talking about what can be done to address students’ difficulties. For English, she said the division will continue with initiatives that have shown gains, while reevaluating the practices in place.

 

“We will examine our reading model to identify specific needs, and we’ll take a look at how we’re using reading specialists at middle schools,” she said. “Also, we’ll be implementing additional reading interventions that allow teachers to target specific areas of reading difficulties. And as always, we’ll do professional development.”

If a school misses achievement goals several years in a row, it receives sanctions indicating changes are needed. That’s the case at Yorktown Middle School, which has missed AYP for the past three years. The Department of Education is recommending the division develop an improvement plan for the school. Guy said all of the schools have improvement plans that are drafted annually, so that was already in the works.

“Ultimately, we’re going to make those changes because we want to see improvement for those students,” she said.

York administrators were happy to see improvement in math performance, however. At three of the four middle schools, the overall pass rate for math was at or above 91 percent, and all of the high schools showed student math proficiency rates of 90 to 95 percent. One of the changes was implementing block scheduling at the middle school level, which gives students 90-minute blocks of math instruction every day. “We put a lot of effort and a lot of initiatives into math and we did see some significant growth,” Guy said.

Williamsburg-James City County Schools
Out of Williamsburg-James City County school division’s 14 schools, two failed to meet AYP: D.J. Montague Elementary School and Lafayette High School. Each school missed AYP by one of the 29 standards used to determine whether a school is making progress.

D.J. Montague Elementary failed to make AYP in 2008, but rebounded to meet the requirements in 2009. This year, the school made AYP in mathematics and attendance, but in one subgroup – black students – failed to meet the English proficiency requirement. Among black students, 76 percent showed proficiency in English, four percentage points shy of the requirement.

Because the school has missed AYP for English for two years, the Department of Education has issued a sanction requiring the school offer supplemental education services. WJCC Executive Director for Academic Services Regina Yitbarek said the school offered tutoring after school this past year and will continue next year. She also said the school’s teachers will receive more professional development from an instructional coach, learn assessment strategies and collaborate more on lesson planning.

Lafayette High School also missed AYP by one indicator – the federal graduation rate requirement. In June, the state Board of Education voted to require that, on average, at least 80 percent of students must graduate with an advanced or standard diploma within four years for a school, division or the state to make AYP. Lafayette didn’t meet the new benchmark; 70 percent of students graduated.

The division had some victories, however. James Blair Middle School, which closed its doors as a school in June, made AYP for the first time in three years. Berkeley Middle School made AYP this year, as well, after missing the benchmark last year. Also, the division performed better as a whole over last year, when 11 schools met AYP.

“In the final analysis, we understand that everything revolves around the relationship between teacher and student,” Acting Superintendent Scott Burckbuchler said in a release. “In most cases, we see that these relationships produced positive results. We will continue to emphasize and support the efforts of our faculty and staff.”