Academic benchmark doesn’t paint whole picture
Posted on Sunday, August 17, 2008
DECATUR — Low test scores have called the Decatur School District’s academic performance into question, but do test scores alone give a clear picture of the quality of education a school provides ?
Although the Arkansas State Board of Education voted on July 31 to allow the Decatur district to stay open under state control, the fact that Decatur students scored well below region and state averages on the Benchmark exams was a matter of grave concern.
Looking at the Benchmark exam scores for the 2006-2007 school year in grades three through seven, the Gravette, Bentonville and Gentry school districts had a higher percentage of students scoring proficient or advanced and a lower percentage of students scoring below basic than Decatur.
But Decatur was given a bronze medal and was recognized as one of the top 1, 086 high schools in the country by U. S. News and World Report in November 2007.
The results were determined by measuring each school’s performance on state tests and adjusting for student circumstances. The results then evaluated how well disadvantaged students did and looked at whether the school was successful in providing college-level course work.
The recent attention to Decatur’s low tests scores has created the perception that it is an academically low-performing school, but taking a closer look at the data paints another picture, according to Nancy Cotter, who has served Decatur High School as a testing coordinator and counselor for the past 17 years.
“ The number of students that are proficient or advanced on the Benchmark does not tell you the quality of education a school or teacher is providing, ” she said.
Socioeconomic factors must also be taken into consideration, Cotter said.
“ High test scores from a school with a low percentage of free and reducedprice lunches will reflect the involvement of educated parents and a stable learning environment at home. Test scores of a school with a high free and reduced-price lunch count will reflect the disadvantages of growing up poor, ” Cotter said.
“ The real test of a school’s performance should be whether they can start with a group of kids at their skill level and improve their performance from one year to the next, ” she said.
Cotter tracked Decatur students longitudinally, following their performance over a period of four years, and found the number of students who are proficient or advanced consistently increased.
• In math, students showed a 26 percent gain from 48 percent scoring proficient or advanced in the third grade to 74 percent scoring proficient or advanced in the seventh grade.
• In literacy, students showed a 19 percent gain from 38 percent scoring proficient or advanced in the third grade to 57 percent scoring proficient or advanced in the sixth grade.
• Most impressively, of students who were in the fourth grade in 2005, only 17 percent scored proficient or advanced on math tests, but improved by 57 percent to score 74 percent proficient and advanced by the time they were in the seventh grade in 2008.
In a small school, test scores can be skewed by just a few students. In a class of 30 students, three students account for 10 percent of the class. A few bad scores can drastically bring down the class average, Cotter pointed out.
Another challenge faced by Decatur schools is the high percentage of students who speak English as a second language.
It takes five to seven years to really learn a new language, elementary-school principal Leslie Sharp said. This year, her school has 90 students who will be learning English.
“ Judging our education based on one test doesn’t seem fair. There are a lot of other things that determine the quality of education, ” she said. “ We really need to be concerned about growth. Are their scores improving ?”
“ If kids start school behind, it’s hard and takes a long time to help them catch up and perform at grade level, ” Cotter said.
That’s one reason Decatur’s pre-kindergarten program is so vital. It gives disadvantaged students a chance to catch up, Sharp said.
Newly appointed district superintendent Leroy Ortman said last week that there are two predictors of a child’s academic success. The first is the household average income, and the second is the education level of the primary caregiver.
“ We have to make sure we’re comparing apples to apples and oranges to oranges, ” Ortman said of the difference between Decatur’s test scores and its neighboring districts.
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