BY DARRELL HALEN
Pelham Memorial School has been designated as a school in need of improvement after it did not achieve adequate yearly progress in student proficiency in reading for the second year in a row.
Now, educators are developing strategies to help those students and creating an improvement plan that must be submitted to the New Hampshire Department of Education. Memorial School did not make adequate yearly progress in both reading and math this year.
Schools that do not make AYP for two consecutive years in the same subject are designated a school in need of improvement and are required to develop an improvement plan.
The news comes as state education officials recently released the results of 2007 Adequate Yearly Progress reports for schools.
A subgroup made up of 83 students with special needs did not meet their required target. In math, they achieved an index score of 48.9 but needed to reach 76.
They also did not make it with two other calculations that are used.
In reading, they scored 67.5 but needed to reach 82.
“We have a lot of kids who are educationally disadvantaged and achieving proficiency is tough for them to meet,” said Assistant Superintendent Roxanne Wilson said. “Now we have to look at our data and come up with a strategy to help these kids.”
But there’s not much time, as students are scheduled to take the next round of assessment tests in October – only about six weeks after the results were released.
Educators are saying more schools will be designated in need of improvement, because by 2014, all students must be proficient in English and mathematics. The targets go up every two years.
Windham Middle School did not make AYP in math. That’s because a subgroup of special needs students achieved an index score of 61.1 but needed 76.
They also did not make it with the two other calculations used. Windham may appeal the decision because students met the safe harbor rule using the definition that was used until August.
The school would have made adequate progress had one of the ways to calculate AYP not been changed.
The school is appealing because the state Department of Education included students who should not have been counted, Wilson said.
State stats
Of 377 elementary and middle school adequate yearly progress reports, 186 schools made AYP in all areas and 191 did not make AYP in at least one area. By subject area, 146 did not make AYP in reading and 145 did not make AYP in math.
The 2007 AYP reports for middle and elementary schools are based on the October 2006 New England Common Assessment Program results for grades 3 through 8 and the 2005-06 New Hampshire alternative assessment results for grades 2 through 7 that were released in January.
The 2007 AYP reports for districts are based on aggregated October 2006 NECAP results for grades 3 through 8 and the 2005-06 state alternative results for grades 2 through 7 for districts with elementary and middle school grades, and the May 2006 New Hampshire Improvement Assessment Program results and the 2005-06 alternative results (grade 10) for districts with high schools.
The targets are to be met because of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
To make AYP, a school must meet performances established for math and reading and meet state targets in other areas, including the student participation rate, attendance rate and high school graduation rate.
Of 162 AYP district reports issued, 111 made AYP and 49 did not.
For 2007-08, 53 elementary and middle schools are identified as in need of improvement, increasing the total number to 139.