Friday, May 9, 2008
Union Leader
School progress reports released yesterday by the state Department of Education keep city schools on a short list requiring “corrective action.”
The reports are based on statewide assessment tests in reading and mathematics given to students in grades 3 through 8 and grade 11 in October.
Manchester and Rochester districts failed to make “adequate yearly progress” for the fifth straight year.
If the same results play out next spring, both districts will be labeled in need of “restructuring,” a federal designation under the No Child Left Behind law that would be uncharted water in New Hampshire.
Yesterday’s report said almost 300 New Hampshire schools have received failing grades on their annual progress reports.
One-hundred-seventy-five schools achieved passing progress in all areas. Two-hundred-eighty-two schools failed one or more targets and 17 are waiting to have their progress calculated.
State law prevents the DOE from taking over day-to-day operations of a local school or district, but state officials would have to step up their involvement, said Deborah Wiswell, administrator for accountability at the education department.
Corrective action is a two-year process, she said. The first — this school year, for Manchester — involves planning. The second is implementing that plan.
In making AYP announcements last year, Education Commissioner Lyonel Tracy said the state would have a presence in Manchester schools.
Tracy hired a team of educational consultants from Brown University to help shape the district improvement plan. That group’s work continues.
“Just this past week they met with a focus group of teachers,” said Wiswell. “They don’t tell them what to do, but they quantify and help organize information.”
The city’s corrective action plan has taken more time to finalize than originally hoped, said Wiswell, in part because of mid-year turnover in the superintendent’s office.
“We’ve already met with Tom Brennan to talk about what we can do,” she said, referring to Manchester’s recently hired superintendent, who starts work July 1.
Individual schools are also measured for AYP.
Six schools in New Hampshire are now considered in need of restructuring, including Northwest Elementary in Manchester.
But the school’s acting principal, Shelly Larochelle, said Northwest is not a “failing” school. Test results continue to show progress, she said.
State assessment tests classify students in subgroups based on ethnicity, socioeconomic status, educational disability and English proficiency.
“There are 14 subgroups,” said Larochelle, “and from 2006 we’ve made progress in all subgroups but one.”
She said teachers and administrators pour over test results each year and formulate a plan of attack to bring grades up.
“It’s a work in progress from year to year,” she said, focusing attention on individual students, certain classrooms and specific grade levels.
Last year, just one subgroup tripped Northwest up and kept it on the state’s watch list. The rising minimum standards, however, make it difficult to keep up.
“We made it as a whole school last year,” said Larochelle. “If (standards) had stayed the same, we would have made it again this year.”
Henry Aliberti, Manchester’s acting superintendent of schools, said he hadn’t had a chance to review the AYP reports.
Wiswell agreed the news coming out of the city’s schools isn’t all grim.
“In every group,” she said, “Manchester is moving kids out of level one (the lowest scores). It’s going to be a while before they make AYP, but they are improving. The bar goes up every year.”
Failing to make AYP two consecutive years in the same area of testing puts individual schools and districts under the “in need of improvement” label under NCLB.
To make AYP, a school or district must meet performance targets established for students in reading and mathematics, as well as meet state targets for student participation, attendance, and high school graduation.
NCLB requires that all students nationwide demonstrate proficiency by 2014.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this story.