Sean C. Morgan
Really, really poor performance might not normally be a good indicator of success, but in the case of Sweet Home High School a rock-bottom score on its school report card for 2013-14 has left district officials sky high.
Throughout the district, five of Sweet Home’s seven schools reached Level 4 in school report cards for the 2013-14 school year.
The Oregon Department of Education released the annual report cards last Thursday, Oct. 9.
Two things stand out in the scores. First is the rating decreased from Level 3 to Level 1 for Sweet Home High School because the school is actually doing well academically. The poor rating, the lowest a school can have, underscores the reason why: Seniors are going on to college, but they aren’t getting their diplomas because the district is paying their first-year college tuition through the Access College Today program. As long as the seniors don’t receive the diploma in the fourth year, they do not count in the four-year graduation rate, which drastically reduces the paper score given by the state.
The second notable fact is that Hawthorne Elementary School increased from Level 2 to Level 4 for improvement in academics during last school year.
Around the district, Foster School, Sweet Home Charter School and Sweet Home Junior High all remained at Level 4, while Holley increased from Level 3 to Level 4.
Oak Heights Elementary remained at Level 3.
Level 4 reflects above-average performance while Level 3 is average. Level 5, which designates a “model school,” is the highest rating a school can achieve.
“We’re really encouraged and pretty excited about how this turned out and are moving forward,” said District 55 Supt. Don Schrader.
The high school rating is based on the school’s aggressive promotion of college in recent years as a result of GEAR UP and the ACT programs.
The ACT program specifically causes the decrease in the rating. The high school’s academic performance, by the numbers, places the school at a Level 2.
Some 50 percent of the rating is based on graduation rates, 35 percent for general graduation and 15 percent for subgroup graduation rates, Winslow said. Academic achievement and academic growth account for just 20 percent each in that rating, while subgroup academic growth is 10 percent.
It is weighted toward graduation rates, and Sweet Home’s four-year graduation rate last year was just 49.2 percent, but its five-year completion rate was 79.1 percent. Some 72 or 73 students were enrolled in the ACT program last year.
“Our five-year completion is at the state average,” Winslow said. “But on the four-year graduation rate, we’re at Level 1. It looks like half of our kids aren’t graduating, which isn’t true at all.”
For academics, the school is around the state averages and is rated at Level 3, Winslow said. In reading, the number of students meeting the state standards increased from 80 percent to 84.4 percent. The state average is 85.6 percent.
In math, the number of students meeting the standard increased from 63.8 percent to 71.7 percent. The state average is 70.9 percent.
In writing, the number of students meeting the standard increased from 46.6 percent to 59.1 percent. The state average is 60.7 percent.
Those gains and performance levels account for just 40 percent of the academic rating.
The overall rating was one level lower than it might have been because participation levels were lower than the state’s target, 94.5 percent participation in state testing.
Some students took Smarter Balance tests last year instead of the OAKS test, Schrader said. They were supposed to have a chance at the OAKS test but not enough were able to take them.
That’s not the biggest reason though, Winslow said. The testing issue “is our issue. That’ll be taken care of this year. That’s on me. We just didn’t get enough of our juniors that weren’t here.”
Even if a student drops out, does not enroll or is not in school, the student still belongs to the high school, Winslow said. He pointed out that Sweet Home’s dropout rate is 3.1 percent, which, although still too high, compares to a statewide average dropout rate of 4 percent.
The high school met the test participation targets in reading but missed participation targets in math, with 94.1 percent of all students participating, 93.5 percent of economically disadvantaged students participating and 93.6 of all white students participating.
That mark can be affected by just two or three students who don’t take the test, Winslow said.
And it netted a reduction of one level in the rating.
The high school will continue to take advantage of the ACT program for as long as the state allows i regardless of the impact to the report card, Winslow said. It’s making a difference.
“We have many kids that wouldn’t experience college if this wasn’t going on,” Winslow said.
GEAR UP Coordinator Kristin Adams said that just 10 percent of students took SATs the first year of GEAR UP, and less than 20 percent had confirmed plans to attend college.
Last year, 43 percent of the graduating class attended community college, Adams said. Some 18.2 percent went directly to four-year colleges.
“Academically, which is still why we’re here, our students compare to any other students in the state,” Winslow said. “That state report card reflects our performance? Bullc**p.”
While Sweet Home High School needs to perform better than average, he said, the school is really around the average; and it’s sending students to college.
“We’re proud of that,” Winslow said.
At Hawthorne, “I’m super stoked about (the improvement),” said Principal Terry Augustadt. “We had a lot of changes this last year.”
Staff members had a lot of conversations about owning the children’s educations from start to finish, he said. The school added supplemental programming like IXL, an online program used to assist in math instruction, and an accelerated reading program.
They have focused on academics bell-to-bell and an academic growth model that provides intervention the moment a student slips too low in the school’s inverted pyramid reporting scheme.
Students falling from green to the yellow and red on that scale are quickly identified, Augustadt said. Parents are informed, and the school is taking extra steps to help those students.
“We’re hammering it,” he said. “I’m excited about the focus the staff has had over the last year.”
Success is making them greedy and hungry, he said, and he’s looking for a level five rating and “model school” designation.
Schrader said overall, the district continues to have problems meeting the standards with its students-with-disabilities population.
“That’s an area we need to look at more.”
It also had some trouble with economically disadvantaged students, he said. Foster School and the junior high met those marks though.
As far as testing everywhere else, “we did really well,” Schrader said. “I feel pretty good. It’s very encouraging. We know what we’ve been doing, getting the best people in front of kids.”
Those people are intervening where they need to, he said, and they’re making a difference.
Schrader noted that Oak Heights has the district’s opportunity room, an alternative classroom for students with behavioral issues, and that with test performance for economically disadvantaged students helped keep the school at a Level 3.
“Still, they’re doing OK,” Schrader said. “They’re doing some great things there too.”