9486 in the collection
When Annual Yearly Progress Is Blind, Deaf, And Dumb
Ohanian Comment: Around the country, there have been several stories of communities not wanting to welcome Somali immigrants--for fear of what it will do to their test scores.
Seen any good schools lately? Teachers at St. Paul's Highwood Hills Elementary know they have. But then they saw a review from a critic with clout.
This summer, when the state Education Department came out with its new five-star rating system for Minnesota public schools, the school was one of the sites to earn just one star, the lowest rating possible.
Highwood Hills saw it as a slap it didn't deserve. The school made big gains on many of the benchmarks tied to Minnesota's star system, but scores among limited-English students fell short by a few tenths of a percent — about three missed test questions — and that generated the one star. The Education Department rejected an appeal. Two months into the school year, teachers struggle with the label and its potential consequences.
State and federal officials say these kinds of ratings will galvanize schools to improve. Critics say they will dry up dollars and students at those schools and the "one-star" label, deserved or not, will be hard to overcome. Schools like Highwood Hills are at the center of these experiments.
While Highwood teachers are busy making sure students are engaged in their schoolwork, they're also bristling under the new label. They say it doesn't come close to giving an adequate sense of what's going on at the school.
"We are not a movie. You can't rate us," said Sharon Hendrix, who has taught at Highwood Hills for 15 years and now has two of her own children at the school. "We are not 'American Bandstand.' We don't have a beat you can dance to."
The one-star rating from the state is tied to Highwood Hills students' results on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment tests. The tests are used to determine if schools are living up to the requirements of the federal No Child Left Behind law.
The five-star rating is the single most prominent part of the "report cards" the state is now issuing for each school. When they were released this summer, Education Commissioner Cheri Pierson Yecke pointed out that they give parents "information about their entire school, not just the results of one test."
The report cards also contain information on student attendance, demographics and a report to taxpayers.
The scores for Highwood's English Language Learner students on the fifth-grade math test were key. That subgroup missed the math benchmark score by the equivalent of about three test questions, teachers say. That meant that the school wasn't making adequate yearly progress, as defined by the federal law, and it was put on a list of underperforming schools.
The state's accountability laws require that students who have been in ELL programs for one year or more take the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment tests and meet the benchmark passing score. That's where the staff's patience with the testing requirements ends.
The school's student population has changed dramatically in the past five to 10 years. Highwood serves a specific neighborhood — it's not a magnet school — and the Battle Creek area has seen a wave of new immigrants in recent years. ELL students now make up almost half the student body and almost 80 percent qualify for free or reduced-price meals.
"Kids come in with a lot of gaps in their learning," said Patricia Rosenbaum, the school's principal. "We feel we're making strides with the children who are here. But then they leave."
Six years ago the school had one teacher for its ELL program. Now it has six. For students, the transition to taking tests in English isn't always smooth. Lisa Hoover, an ELL teacher at Highwood, recalls a math question on the comprehensive assessment test that dealt with tulip bulbs. Many of her students had no idea what a tulip bulb was and spent time worrying about whether that was an important part of the question.
The school has seen a substantial influx of Somali students in that same time, and in the past year an apartment complex near the school has started to crack down on Somalis living two or three families to an apartment.
The result? The families get evicted and the students switch schools. That's one circumstance that contributes to Highwood's 42 percent mobility rate — the percentage of kids who move in or out of Highwood during the school year.
Teachers say that when you consider the comprehensive assessment test results, the school's blend of students, the rate of student turnover and all their efforts, that mix should not result in something as simplistic as a one-star rating.
The school prides itself on classrooms that make sure children get to know each other, with each classroom having a morning meeting. In Hendrix's room, it starts with students seated in a circle, greeting each other as they throw a ball around. Next, a few students share from recent days, dribbling out bits of information and forcing other students to listen and ask questions.
The school also has a wireless computer system that allows teachers to see what kids are tapping in on their computer keypads. Every student in grades one through six has a keypad.
As Hendrix's sixth-graders typed short bits about their lives, she could look at her computer monitor and see each student's work as it was typed in. At the end of the class period, as she froze their screens, a groan went up from several students who wanted to keep writing.
Highwood's enrollment this fall is down about 65 students. That mirrors an overall decrease in enrollment across the St. Paul district, and Rosenbaum doesn't think parents left because of the one-star rating. Whatever the reason for the drop, though, it means the school has about $290,000 less in revenue coming from the state this year.
The school appealed its status as not making adequate yearly progress based on the huge shift in population in a short period of time and children needing more time to learn the language, Rosenbaum said. The state turned down the appeal.
Roslyn R. Davis, a parent of two kids attending Highwood, says the one-star rating doesn't match up with her experience at the school. A teacher worked with Davis' son and he's now in gifted classes. "I attribute that to the quality of the staff," said Davis, who also serves on the school's site council. "I would recommend the school highly to anyone."
— John Welbes
School's hard knocks
Pioneer Press
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http://www.twincities.com/mld/pioneerpress/living/education/7174861.htm
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