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WJCC, York Miss Federal Achievement BenchmarksBy Amber Lester Kennedy Friday, August 12, 2011 Both Williamsburg-James City County and York County schools failed to meet federal achievement guidelines during the 2010-2011 school year. The Virginia Department of Education released Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) reports Thursday that show the two divisions were among the 97 percent of Virginia schools that didn't meet the requirements. Within the divisions, nine of 15 WJCC schools achieved AYP and 13 out of 19 York schools met the requirements. As of Thursday afternoon, WJCC was working with the VDOE to determine whether D.J. Montague Elementary met AYP; the division believes DOE made an error in one student's subgroup categorization and if DOE confirms this on Friday, the school will have made AYP. Adequate Yearly Progress ratings were put in place a decade ago, when the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) act was passed. The NCLB program was intended to hold schools accountable for the progress of all students. The AYP benchmarks have risen four percentage points almost every year since 2001, with the goal that by 2014, 100 percent of students will be competent in reading and math. See Complete Results
Find more details about the state's performance, including school-by-school results here. Four Virginia school divisions – Highland County, Lexington, Norton and West Point – met or exceeded the benchmarks, compared to 12 in the previous cycle. For the second consecutive year, Virginia failed to meet AYP for black students, economically disadvantaged students, Hispanic students, limited-English proficient students and students with disabilities. To meet AYP, school divisions must also exceed other objectives, such as attendance in the elementary and middle schools and graduation from high school. The state’s students did meet the graduation benchmark, with 80 percent of students who entered ninth grade in 2006 graduating within four years. The objectives went up five points in reading and six points in math from the previous year. Because of the change, 342 schools in the state did not make AYP that would have passed under the previous benchmarks. The results prompted Superintendent of Public Instruction Patricia Wright to say No Child Left Behind has “outlived its usefulness and should be overhauled.” WJCC Superintendent Steven Constantino agreed, saying, “The way it is designed, AYP is a target that public schools ultimately cannot reach. Instead of continuing to try to attain something that will eventually become unattainable, WJCC must instead answer the question: Are our students learning? In the long run, a federal label is secondary to the continued success of students in this community.” WJCC Schools Nine of WJCC’s 15 schools made AYP; if WJCC is correct that the DOE made an error in D.J. Montague's results, that number will rise to 10. All three of the division’s middle schools, J. Blaine Blayton Elementary and Warhill High School did not make AYP this year. As a division, WJCC did not meet AYP for four subgroups in English: black students, economically disadvantaged students, students with limited English proficiency and students with disabilities. In Math, the division missed the benchmarks for three subgroups: black students, students with limited English proficiency and students with disabilities. The division also failed to meet the standard for graduation rates. Hornsby Middle School missed six of the 29 benchmarks; Berkeley and Toano each missed five. Superintendent Steven Constantino suggested middle schools might have missed because new, more rigorous math testing requirements were implemented this year. “This is a reason, not an excuse,” he said. “Our goal will continue to center on total school improvement with a clear focus on individual student learning.” At Hornsby, black students, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities did not meet the benchmarks in reading or math. Berkeley missed benchmarks by a few percentage points for black students, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities for reading and math. The same was true at Toano, except 89 percent of black students successfully passed the reading tests. Blayton Elementary missed five of the 29 benchmarks, also in the subgroups of black students, economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities. Its students scored lower in reading than math, with 57 percent of black students passing their reading SOLs compared to 77 percent passing their math. This was the first time Warhill High School missed AYP since it opened in 2008. It missed for three indicators – reading scores for black students and economically disadvantaged students, and math scores for students with disabilities. On Thursday morning, the division’s presented D.J. Montague Elementary as its success story, but a VDOE Excel spreadsheet listed the school as having not met AYP standards. At 5 p.m. Thursday, the division said it awaited word from VDOE to determine whether an error had been made. The school, which failed to meet AYP in 2008 and 2010, could be removed from School Improvement status if it met AYP this year and meets AYP in 2012. For both the previous and upcoming school years, the state required the division to offer parents the option to transfer their students out of D.J. Montague. The division also made leadership changes, placing former James River Elementary Principal Lynn Turner at the top. As part of its school improvement status, the school offered increased tutoring sessions and professional training to help teachers evaluate students and assess their needs. Read more about its efforts here. “This is indeed a proud moment for everyone at D.J.,” Constantino said Thursday. He added it was especially notable that the number of black students passing the reading requirement increased by 12 percent. That was the subgroup that missed the benchmark the previous year. York County Schools In York County, 13 of its 19 schools met AYP requirements for the second year in a row. As a division, York met 25 of 29 AYP categories, missing the requirements for students with limited English proficiency in English, students with disabilities in English and math, and graduation. Consistent with the statewide trend, York County’s middle schools all failed to meet AYP for the third year in a row. In addition, Bruton, Grafton and York high schools, along with Yorktown Elementary, also failed to reach the benchmarks. On the whole, the middle school student bodies met AYP benchmarks, but missed AYP based on the performance of students in subgroups. The groups that fell short in both reading and math in the middle schools were black students, limited English proficiency students, disadvantaged students and students with disabilities. At Grafton, black students successfully passed reading and at Tabb, disabled students missed the reading benchmark by three percentage points. Both Bruton High and Grafton High fell short of AYP in reading for two subgroups, but York High missed in four subgroups: black students, limited English proficiency, disadvantaged students and disabled students. In math, Bruton failed to meet AYP for black students, disadvantaged students and disabled students; disabled students missed AYP requirements for math at Grafton and York High. At the elementary level, Yorktown only missed AYP for reading, in the subgroups for black students, Hispanic students, limited English proficiency students, disadvantaged students and disabled students. The division was particularly proud of some of its improvements, including gains in the performance of students with disabilities in English at 11 schools. For English performance, Grafton, Tabb and Queens Lake middle schools showed gains in five of the six subgroups; Yorktown Middle experienced gains in four of the six subgroups. Math performance also improved for about half the subgroups at the middle school level. Graduation rates also increased, but still missed the benchmark for two subgroups: black students and economically disadvantaged students. Because some of the schools have missed AYP several years in a row, they receive sanctions requiring improvements. Grafton Middle, Queens Lake Middle and Yorktown Elementary will have to develop improvement plans for English, while Yorktown Middle School will have to take additional corrective actions for both English and math. York spokeswoman Betsy Overkamp-Smith said that because those schools do not receive federal Title I funding, the division can create its own improvement plans without state intervention. To view the state’s report cards for individual schools, click here. |
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Comments
All but one of our elementary schools in WJCC achieved AYP (the one being DJM which is under appeal.) Did West Point only have one school achieve AYP, as you indicate? Hmmmm.
One thing I do agree with is that it takes parent and community involvement, along with that of the schools, to provide for the success of students.
Let's see it's the minorities, it's the way it's reported, West Point is all whitey's, it's the standards, it's teaching to a test, it's arbitrary, it's unrealistic, the goals are too high...blah,blah,blah,blah,blah.
IT IS ALSO THE LAW!
This is what is wrong with America. We used to set high goals and standards for ourselves and then set about to do our best to achieve success without making excuses or giving everyone a pat on the back for participating. Sometimes you just have to try a little harder, work a little longer, care a little more, and refuse to give up.
C'mon people you can do this. Quit being so cotton pickin apathetic and weak and put your back into it and give it the good ole american try!
Quoting Blaming minorties?:
appropriate measures of successful students or successful schools.
Teaching To A Test is not about learning. It's about stimulus/respon se conditioning of the lowest order.
Under the leadership of Dr. Constantino, WJCC schools will move toward environments in which teachers, parents, students and the community are partners for success!
Let's tell AYP and NCLB to go straight to hell and get on with building continuous learning environments within all of our schools.
If you compare the numbers for all the kids in all the WJCC elementary schools, the % passing the math SOL is higher in WJCC than in West Point Elementary, and the scores are the same for English. (At least back in 2009-2010.)
The issue is that some schools have to report minority scores and some don't. The schools that don't report minority scores in WJCC pass with flying colors. West Point doesn't have to report minority scores, so they do well too. The schools that have to report minority scores are the ones that can end up having serious challenges.
These are just the facts. They certainly don't make logical sense.
Quoting WP PARENT:
Here is the reason why. Our little town,parents,sc hool board,teachers, administration, and business community have wholeheartedly committed to giving our kids the best education that we can and doing whatever it takes to exceed the benchmarks that have been established.
If WJCC and York want to do the same, you will need to stop making excuses and giving reasons, picking apart the minutia and looking for someone to blame.
Changing the criteria or inventing an easier system to get a passing grade does not help the kids.
The reason that teacher's and administrator's don't like NCLB is because it shines a light on their performance and holds them accountable.
So parents need to call their school board reps and demand a specific plan of action to meet the AYP and along with that people will need to be held accountable if they are unsuccessful, and rewarded if they achieve the result desired.
Or you can do nothing and continue to fail.