The New York State Education Report Cards were released today. While there is plenty of good news in the report cards — most schools are doing reasonably well — the recurring problems with Special Education are certain to attract a good deal of attention from school officials, board members, parents of special needs children and the public.
Albert Leonard Middle School and Isaac E. Young Middle School both failed to make Adequate Yearly Progress (“AYP”) for Students with Disabilities in English Language Arts (“ELA”). Davis Elementary School failed to make AYP in Math and ELA for Students with Disabilities. New Rochelle High School also failed to make AYP for Students with Disabilities in Math.
Isaac E. Young Middle School failed to make AYP for English Language Learner (“ELL”) students in Math and ELA.
Isaac recorded the lowest ELA scores in the district. A score of 3 or 4 on the ELA and Math exams is considered “passing”. At Isaac, 43% of the 6th graders passed and 37% of 8th grade. The most astonishing score is 7th Grade where just 28% of Isaac students passed the ELA exam. Put another way, more than 70% of the students in 7th grade could not pass the New York State ELA exam.
Neither Albert Leonard Middle School or Davis Elementary School has enough ELL students to qualify for consideration of AYP which raises an entirely different question of how, in a district that is roughly one-third hispanic, there are so many ELL students at one school and so few ELL students at another. Last year, Dr. Velma Whiteside, principal at Albert Leonard, indicated that the school would not have made AYP for ELL students had they had enough students to be qualify for evaluation.
Albert Leonard Middle School also failed to make AYP for students with Disabilities in ELA last year and is now in Year 1 of being a School in Need of Improvement.
Whether you have children in the public school systems or ever plan to buy or sell a home in New Rochelle you are going to want to read the report cards for your sub-district within New Rochelle. The full set of the report cards for the district and each school are linked below:
New Rochelle City School District
Accountability And Overview Report
Comprehensive Information Report
Fiscal Supplement
Albert Leonard Middle School
Accountability And Overview Report
Comprehensive Information Report
Columbus Elementary School
Accountability And Overview Report
Comprehensive Information Report
Daniel Webster Elementary School
Accountability And Overview Report
Comprehensive Information Report
George M Davis Elementary School
Accountability And Overview Report
Comprehensive Information Report
Henry Barnard School
Accountability And Overview Report
Comprehensive Information Report
Isaac E Young Middle School
Accountability And Overview Report
Comprehensive Information Report
Jefferson Elementary School
Accountability And Overview Report
Comprehensive Information Report
New Rochelle High School
Accountability And Overview Report
Comprehensive Information Report
Trinity Elementary School
Accountability And Overview Report
Comprehensive Information Report
William B Ward Elementary School
Accountability And Overview Report
Comprehensive Information Report
Analyzing scores
Here is what I learned through a little too much hubris in the past. In looking at the test scores from year to year you have to realize that each year the difficulty of the test in each area (ELA, Math, and Science) varies. I try to judge how hard the test is each year by looking at the percent scoring level 4 assuming (hoping) there are about the same percentage of students likely to score there each year with variation being due to test difficulty. It suggests that at least with ELA, the test was harder this year compared to last. Columbus has a higher percentage of first and second generation American families so the hill to climb in ELA is a higher one. Despite that, they manage to do well compared to the rest of the district, extremely well compared to the state and extraordinarily well compared to similar schools in the state. When comparing the Math and Science scores (which is perhaps a more fair competitive indicator given the aforementioned hill), they pretty much blow the competition out of the water. In short, analyzing these tests is much more complicated than I originally thought. I think Columbus is definitely headed in the right direction through a lot of hard work from all who are there.
City School District of New Rochelle ELA & Math Scores 2006-2011
Some initial observations of this work in progress:
• Between 2010-11 and 2009-10 the Columbus Elementary scores remained unchanged.
• Between 2010-11 and 2009-10 Jefferson Scores appear to have increase at least in Math in two out of the three grades.
• In 2008-09 Jefferson scored extremely high in ELA and Math.
• In 2008-09 most of the scores went through the roof.
• What year was Kaleidoscope moved to Webster?
Go to spreadsheet:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0Ajc2MicZM1h3dGc4WG9BNU1GUW5iUW9Fd28yVlpKMFE&output=html
Columbus Elementary scores
I have been following the scores at Columbus with interest for several years. At first I was critical (probably unfairly in retrospect) about these scores. The progress of the students, especially relative to their peers in the school district, and relative to similar schools in other districts has been notable. The truth is that Dr. Joseph and his staff of administrators and teachers have done an outstanding job. I know some of the parents are anxious about his impending retirement. His replacement has big shoes to fill.