In school report cards released by the Oregon Department of Education Thursday, the Sweet Home Charter School, Sweet Home Junior High School and Foster Elementary School were ranked highest in 2012-13 in School District 55 under a new ranking system.
Both schools were ranked at level four. At level three were Holley Elementary School, Oak Heights Elementary School and Sweet Home High School.
Hawthorne Elementary School was ranked at level two.
“It is one tool that the state is using to collect data,” said Supt. Don Schrader. “It’s based on one assessment.”
The report cards, which Oregon first released in 2000, have had minor changes over the years, but they have been completely redesigned for the 2012-13 school year.
The redesign is the product of a broad-based effort that gathered feedback from parents, community members, educators and stakeholders from around the state on the key elements, layout and focus of the report cards.
“These report cards are designed to provide parents and community members with important information about their schools and districts, and it was essential that the audience for these reports had a strong voice in their redesign,” said Deputy Superintendent Rob Saxton. “Our education system is changing, our schools are changing, and we needed these report cards to change as well to better tell our schools’ stories and to provide parents and community members with critical information on student and school performance. I want to thank everyone who engaged in this redesign process, and I hope to continue to hear from our broader community as we further refine and improve these report cards in the years to come.”
Last fall, a 17-member Report Card Steering Committee was convened to make recommendations on the design, content, and rating methodology of the new report cards. Goals for the redesign included aligning the report cards with district achievement compacts, more accurately reflecting student learning and growth, and incorporating important measures of college and career readiness necessary to move the state toward its 40/40/20 goal.
The Report Card Steering Committee gathered feedback on the redesign from more than 130 parents, teachers and administrators around the state using focus groups. In addition, online surveys gathered more than 2,000 responses from around the state.
Oregon developed a new accountability system with a much greater focus on student learning and growth. This new system uses multiple measures to rate schools.
For high schools these measures include academic achievement, academic growth, subgroup growth, graduation rates, and subgroup graduation. For elementary and middle schools the first three measures are used. Schools receive an overall rating of level one through five, based on how well they are doing in each of these areas.
Level one schools represent the bottom 5 percent of schools. Level two schools represent the next lowest 10 percent. Level three includes the next 30 30 of schools, while level four represents the largest share of schools, about the next 45 percent of schools. Level five represents the top 10 percent.
For the report cards, schools also receive a rating that compares them to “like” schools – other schools with similar student demographics including percent poverty, mobility, students of color, and English learners. Schools are rated as below average, about average, or above average as compared to similar schools. This provides parents and community members with another perspective on achievement at the school.
SHHS Principal Keith Winslow told the School Board Monday night that the demographics rating compares widely different schools, noting that Sweet Home is about 145 among 190 high schools in terms of poverty. Sweet Home is being compared to a school at 23rd on the list with a 28 percent poverty rating.
Comparison schools for SHHS include Corvallis, Wilsonville and a high school in Beaverton, said Curriculum Director Tim Porter.
In addition to the main report cards which are distributed to parents by local school districts, further information is available online. The Oregon Department of Education (ODE) creates a detail report that provides more information on the various rating components and the Chalkboard Project is hosting an interactive online version of the report cards, which will be available on the Open Books Project websitestarting in November.
Foster
Foster was ranked at level four, near level five compared to schools statewide and above average among similar schools.
“Although students show strong growth, achievement in math, reading and writing is not where we want it to be,” said Pinricpal Jan Sharp in a letter from the principal, part of the report card. “We will focus on these areas.”
Foster seems to have the highest rankings in the district, said Board Member Leena Ellis, and she asked Sharp why.
“I wasn’t there,” Sharp said. “One of the things that really boosed our score was the growth targets, which means they’re on track to meet the benchmakrs in the nexxt three years.”
Foster hit its growth targets and was ranked at level five in academic growth.
The school looks at one student at a time, Sharp said, to figure out “what can we do to get that student up to where we need to be.”
Hawthorne
Hawthorne was rated at level two in 2012-13 compared with schools across the state and below average among schools with similar demographics.
“Although we showed growth, achievement in reading, math is not where we want it to be,” said Principal Terry Augustadt. “Teachers will continue to transition to new national Common Core curriculum. We will continue to provide students with a school that supports their unique interests and needs.”
Holley
Holley was rated at level three, just shy of a level four ranking, among all schools and below average among schools with similar demographics.
“Although our students showed strong achievement and growth in all areas of reading, we were lagging somewhat in math,” said Principal Elena Barton. “We will be focusing on improving math instruction during the coming school year.”
New math curriculum helped improve instruction last year and bumped math scores up a bit, she said. This year, Holley also is using an on-line supplemental math program called IXL and will use math intervention time for students who need extra help.
Oak Heights
Oak Heights was ranked at level three, just shy of level four among all schools and about average among schools with similar demographics.
“This means our students are performing about as well on standards-based tests as other Oregon elementary schools and are generally performing similar to like-schools with similar demographics,” said Principal Courtney Murphy. “In the same time frame, we have seen relatively little growth in our math scores and among special education and Title I learners.
“We’ve chosen to address this issue by focusing our resources on implementing wide academic support, providing enrichment and math application practice to reinforce math growth. Additionally, our students will have uninterrupted math and literacy instruction daily.”
Sweet Home Charter School
Sweet Home Charter School was ranked at level four, just above level three statewide but below average among similar schools.
“There is always room for improvement, and we look forward to continuing to help each of our students reach their full potential this coming school year,” said Principal Scott Richards.
Sweet Home Junior High
Sweet Home Junior High finished at level four, just a little shy of level five among schools statewide and above average for schools with similar demographics.
“This means our students are performing as well on standards-based tests as students at other Oregon middle schools,” said Principal Colleen Henry. “However, we have seen relatively slow growth in our reading scores among students with disabilities. We’ve chosen to address this issue by focusing on implementing the new Common Core state standards, which reinforce literacy across content areas and creating additional opportunities for reading support and enrichment with Tiger Tracks.”
Sweet Home High School
Sweet Home High School was ranked at level three among schools statewide and below average among schools with similar demographics.
“We also received an academic achievement rating of four and a graduation rating of three,” said Principal Keith Winslow. “We are very proud of these ratings.
“At the same time, we have seen slow growth in math with our economically disadvantaged students. We have also seen minimal growth in our graduation rate with our students with disabilities. We will focus on the new Common Core state standards, which will reinforce math skills over all content areas. We will also provide additional support in the core subject areas for our students with disabilities so they will be on track to graduate.”
SHHS had a graduation rate of 57.4 percent in 2012-13, down from 69.7 percent in 2011-12. Statewide, the number was 68.4 percent, and like schools had a graduation rate of 77.1 percent.
“We know we took a hit on our graduation rate because of the ACT program,” said Board Chairman Jason Redick.
The program allows graduating seniors to defer graduation. Instead they attend Linn-Benton Community College, and School District 55 pays the tuition.
That’s a portion of the ranking for high schools, Porter said. If the high school did not have the ACT program, it would have had a graduation rate of 72 percent, exceeding the previous year’s graduation rate and the statewide graduation rate.
Completion rates, which also includes GED within five years, adult high school diplomas, modified diplomas and extended diplomas, were 81.1 percent for SHHS, down from 87.2 percent; 82.4 percent for like schools; and 80.5 percent for the state.
The dropout rate was 3.1 percent, up from 1.4 percent. Like schools had a dropout rate of 1.2 percent, and the state was at 3.4 percent.
Some 53.6 percent of students were involved in continuing education, down from 55.7 percent in 2011-12 and compared to 61.1 percent statewide and 67.6 percent among similar schools.
“Student achievement, we got a four,” Winslow said. “That’s not there.”
It doesn’t show on the report card and is only available in details underlying the card.
“We’re doing something right the whole way through,” Winslow said. In the past four years, the high school has gone from 20 percent of students having a post-graduation plan to 70 percent.
How well a school does in its comparison groups really depends on which 20 schools are included in the group, Porter said.
Scores
The cut scores, the test scores that represent the standard in state testing, have been the same for the past two years, said Chanz Keeney, board member. “Same cut scores. We did worse last year than we did the year before.”
He asked whether the four-day school week could be the cause.
Porter told him it was dangerous to look at just one year. Last year SHHS scores went down, but the trend has been upward for the past four or five years.
“If the four-day school week caused scores to go lower, you would expect to see the scores go down across the district,” Porter said. It didn’t. In some places, the scores went up.
The report cards show places for celebration, Schrader said. The Junior High, for example, nearly scored fives across all categories.
“One year of scores going down, look at the state,” Schrader said. “It was a trend across the state.”
This is just one blip, he said. All principles are keenly aware of how the test scores look.
“One year where we go backward, I don’t consider that’s what we’re here to do,” Keeney said. “I’d like to research why it worked in some schools and why it didn’t.”
“I don’t think there is a single educator in this district who isn’t looking for continuous improvement,” Porter said.
There will be fluctuation year to year, Redick said. Different groups of students learn differently.
“Don’t take this and say, ‘Look how we’re failing, how do we fix it?’” Redick said.
In other business, the board adopted goals for 2013-14, among them a goal to increase the number of students meeting the standard to at least 75 percent of the student population.
Present at the meeting were Leena Ellis, Chanz Keeney, Dale Keene, Chairman Jason Redick, Mike Reynolds, David VanDerlip, Jenny Daniels and Kevin Burger. Mike E. Adams was absent.