Luce targeted for improvement after falling short of AYP

For the second consecutive year, the Dean S. Luce Elementary School has failed to meet state performance and improvement targets on the English Language Arts portion of the MCAS test – albeit by the slimmest of margins – and must now join the list of Massachusetts schools that have been “identified for improvement” under federal No Child Left Behind guidelines.

Superintendent Jeff Granatino, speaking at Thursday night’s School Committee meeting, said it was too soon to draw any real conclusions since the district was still awaiting important data from the state; however, he said the preliminary data he has received thus far indicates that the Luce fell just short of reaching certain annual benchmarks despite boasting overall MCAS scores that are well above the state averages.

As part of the 2001 NCLB Act, all school districts and all individual schools are required to make “adequate yearly progress” (AYP) toward the federal government’s goal of achieving grade-level proficiency for all students in ELA and math by 2014. Schools or districts that reach AYP targets are given what is called “no status,” while those that do not make the targets for two consecutive years are placed in a particular “accountability status” and are required to follow a specific course of action to improve performance.

Granatino said the Luce school will be placed in the “improvement” status for ELA beginning this year and must meet AYP in both 2011 and 2012 in order to regain the “no status” designation. He said all parents have since been notified of the school’s accountability status, and all have been given the option of moving their child to another school within the district, although they are required to provide their own transportation.

Canton’s two other elementary schools, the John F. Kennedy and Peter M. Hansen schools, as well as Canton High School, all met their AYP targets in 2010 and remain at “no status.”

The Galvin Middle School, however, has struggled for years to meet AYP with respect to certain “subgroups” of the school population, particularly in math. While the school’s aggregate scores have met or exceeded state targets in each of the past 10 years, the scores of special education, low income, and African American students have not. As a result, the middle school will begin the year in the “improvement” status for ELA and the “restructuring” status for math.

While it was hardly the news they had hoped for, the overwhelming reaction from School Committee members was one of support for the schools facing these challenges and frustration over the intricacies of the NCLB legislation.

“Our [MCAS scores] are high to begin with, so continuing to build and grow is the real challenge,” noted School Committee Chairman Reuki Schutt.

Committee member John Bonnanzio added that improvement on standardized testing tends to occur “early and often” before eventually leveling off. He said the Luce school, for instance, is “hardly a school in crisis” despite its new accountability status.

At the same time, committee member Cindy Thomas stressed the importance of having an improvement plan in place, and both Luce principal Robie Peter and Galvin principal Tom LaLiberte took turns at the podium sharing specific steps they have taken to improve student performance.

Both schools, for instance, will be unveiling new curriculum programs this year – the elementary schools will introduce a unified K-5 ELA curriculum called Journeys, while the middle school will introduce a problem-centered math curriculum called Connected Math. In both cases, there will be extensive professional development training for teachers, including one-on-one coaching from a literacy specialist for the elementary ELA teachers.

Peter said the Luce has also introduced daily “intervention blocks,” a 30-minute period in which no new content is taught in order to provide students with opportunities for individualized instruction, remediation, and enrichment. She added that the school, through a Title I grant, will be offering MCAS tutoring both before and after school this year.

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Posted by Jay Turner on Sep 2 2010. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.