Sean C. Morgan
Oak Heights and Holley elementary schools improved their rating to exceptional on state school report cards released on Dec. 7.
Holley was rated satisfactory for 2002-03. Oak Heights was rated strong after two years at exceptional.
Sweet Home High School’s rating decreased from strong to satisfactory. The remaining schools, Sweet Home Junior High, Foster and Hawthorne, all remained at satisfactory. Crawfordsville, with a small sample size, was not rated in 2002-03 but was rated strong for 2003-04.
All schools except the high school made adequate yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act. The high school did not meet adequate yearly progress with disabled students.
Oak Heights Principal Keith Winslow objected last year to his school’s decrease from exceptional. The school had shown improvement the previous year. The primary concern was that if a school cannot improve it cannot reach an exceptional score.
Oregon Department of Education said that the weight improvement gave school ratings had changed and that improvement would likely be reflected in this year’s report card.
The ratings compare two-year averages, and Oak Heights had a trough in the number of students meeting or exceeding benchmarks three years ago. That trough now counts as part of the previous two-year period, and scores in the mid-90s are reflected for the 2003-04 report card.
Not shown in the individual school report card, the ratings weight students meeting or exceeding benchmarks individually, giving higher marks for students exceeding the benchmarks for student performance.
Student performance has five different levels from very low to exceeds. A maximum score in this section gets a school 3.2 points in the overall ranking. Oak Heights fell just short of the maximum score in this area. To score maximum points, it would need to move 22 of 90 students up one rank in student performance. At this level, Oak Heights received 2.4 points.
If a school has at least 96 percent attendance, it can score .8 points in the overall rating. Oak Heights was at 95.2 percent up from 95.1 percent, earning a .6 in the overall rating for attendance.
In performance and attendance, Oak Heights earned three points. It earned a full point for improvement based on two-year periods to reach the four points necessary to be called an exceptional school.
The lowest performance year will remain in the equation next year, and if Oak Heights maintains performance, it could expect to retain improvement in its rating.
Without improving, the school would have to improve 22 students’ performance in math (under this year’s number of students taking the test) and improve attendance to 96 percent to retain its exceptional rating.
More important to Winslow than reaching a rating of excellent was the school’s performance under No Child Left Behind annual yearly progress. The school met the standards, and students of all demographics performed at a similar level.
He took that opportunity to thank his school’s staff.
“You see kids as kids,” Winslow said. “And you teach them.”
He also is proud of how well schools are performing since report cards started in 1999. At his school all scores are up significantly since then, reaching into the 90s.
“In this district, we know what needs to happen,” Winslow said. “We know our history. We know what we’re doing. It’s nice to receive an exceptional. It allows me to pat the staff on the back for all the hard work they do….
“It’s one picture. It’s one window out of time. It’s a very narrow gauge of how a school is doing. There’s so many things going on in every building that are wonderful.”
Winslow also congratulated the kids for their hard work.
“You kids are the ones that take this seriously,” Winslow said. “You’re learning.”
Hawthorne pulled scores of 98 percent in math and 99 percent in reading meeting or exceeding benchmarks. Only Crawfordsville did better, with 100 percent in math, and its scores are up from the 70s.
“Our teachers are learning every year how to prepare the kids that much better,” Principal Mike Aman said. In reading, students work in small groups at their own level. In the past, sometimes a test item might not be covered by the textbooks an aid uses. Staff members have gotten together and put together lists of these areas and now make sure that those test areas get covered in small groups.
Efforts like those have helped boost Hawthorne scores, but next year is a different set of students, Aman said. “Are we teaching to the test? Well, let’s face it. These things are on the test. We’re just doing everything we can to the best of our ability to make sure kids are getting the knowledge and skills that they need to be successful, and their performance on the test shows that.”
“We’re proud of the students’ achievement,” Holley Principal Jan Sharp said. The school focused on reading and tracking every student’s progress in reading. If they weren’t making progress in reading, the school would try something else.
The school improved a percentage point in reading and a little more in math. It also had strong attendance.
Sharp wanted to “make sure teachers get credit for all their hard work,” she said.