State's new school ranking appeals to some, not others

Administrators find things to love, hate about Gains Report

By Amy Widner

LITTLE ROCK — The Arkansas Department of Education has given schools a score, from one to five, this year as part of a report that is mailed to parents across the state.

And just like with any scoring method, some administrators are taking issue with the way the score, called the Gains Rating, is calculated.

"Well, yeah, if you didn't do well, you're not going to like it," said Judy Warren, director of Imboden Area Charter School, which received the highest score possible on the report.

Ten schools in the Three Rivers area received the best possible score, and 16 received the worst possible score. While some administrators contacted for this article pointed out problems with the Gains Rating, all agreed with the idea behind it: holding schools accountable for student achievement.

Like it or not, the Gains Report does stick out. It comes as part of the Arkansas Department of Education's annual School Performance Report, which contains statistics from everything from attendance to a grade-by-grade breakdown of students' scores on the Benchmark exam, the standardized test used to monitor schools' performance as part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The reports were mailed at the end of March.

"It was mandated in Act 35 by the Arkansas Legislature," said Julie Johnson Thompson, Department of Education spokeswoman. "It's intended to help provide ... a lot of information boiled down into one rating scale, so parents can get a quick idea of if their school is promoting academic growth."

No Child Left Behind requires all childrento score at least "proficient" on the Benchmark exam by 2014 or their schools face penalties. Benchmark exams are given in the third through eighth grade. Attempts to find a way to statistically represent a school's progress at bringing its students up to the proficient level have varied, and the most common approach has been to compare the scores of one year's class to the next: For example, the 2008 fifth-grade class to the 2007 fifthgrade class.

But the Gains Report uses records of individual students' scores on the Benchmark exams to track how much each student improves their score over time. A press release from the Department of Education summarizes the process as follows:

◊scores are taken from a twoyear period;

◊students are given 0.5 points for each "performance level" they move up from one year to the next: For example, if a student scored "advanced two" lastyear and only "advanced one" this year, a reduction in performance, the points assigned to that change would be -0.5;

◊such scores are assigned to all individual student test changes, on both the mathematics and literacy Benchmark exams;

◊the scores are added together and divided by the number of students to obtain the average Gains Index Score for the school.

Act 35 assigned the scores as follows:

◊Level 1: Schools in need of immediate improvement;

◊Level 2: Schools on alert:

◊Level 3: Schools meeting improvement standards;

◊Level 4: Schools exceeding improvement standards;

◊Level 5: Schools of excellence for improvement.

Thompson said it's becoming a national trend to track improvement in individual students rather than the class-byclass method.

"Arkansas is ahead somewhat in the sense that we are able to track student growth from year to year, something nationally all states are getting geared up to do," Thompson said. "It gives a glimpse of how the schools are doing, if they're working, and that's the kind of progress you want to be able to look at."

Warren is ecstatic about the new scoring method. Imboden Area Charter School was never listed in the class-by-class rankings, and Warren said she has asked the Department of Education for years for a ranking system that the school could participate in and one that would track individual student growth, something that is a main focus at the charter school.

She said she knew the school, a K-8 charter school that serves students from around the Imboden area, was doing well at improving individual students' performance over time, despite having a high percentage (85 percent) of students who come from families with low incomes so they qualify for free and reduced lunches.

Now she has something to point at that reflects that success, which she attributed to the school's hardworking teachers and their approach.

"Many of our kids don't come to us with adequate preparation," Warren said. "A lot of times they come from other schools, and they come with so many gaps (in what they've learned) that it takes time to bring them up, but we're able to do it.

"Our focus has always been individual education. We take each child, we test them to find out where they are and where they need help, and we move on from there."

Most schools in the Cabot School District, which has a reputation for good schools, scored fours on the Gains Report, and a few scored twos and threes. Westside Elementary School scored a five, and the Academic Center for Excellence scored aone.

While happy with Westside's outstanding success and the success of the rest of the district, Superintendent Tony Thurman said the Gains Index Score can be "misleading in many ways."

"For our other schools that scored lower, the question becomes, 'How are we going to achieve the gains we need to?'" Thurman said. "[We have schools where the 'proficiency' level is already really high] and sometimes [bringing those students up even higher] can be as difficult as students that are struggling. The challenge is going to be a for a school to attend to all kinds of students.

"And for example, if you've got a school where 'proficiency' is at 60 percent, as opposed to 80 or 90 percent, they're going to have a lot more room to grow, and if they make those improvements, they'll look better on the Gains Report than those schools that were doing well to begin with," Thurman said.

Warren, the Imboden Area Charter School director, dismissed the idea that the Gains Report is a bad method. While scoring "proficient" on the Benchmark exam is a federally legislated goal, that doesn't mean it is the goal to end all goals, she said. Arguing that high-performing students can't perform even better assumes that there is some limit to learning, she said, like an imaginary line where progress stops.

"We receive gifted students," Warren said. "With those kinds of kids, it's harder to show growth, because they are so high to begin with, but every child, even those that are at the top, they can still grow and do better.

"'Proficient' is not enough. That status is not enough. Our goal is to improve every child to their highest potential."

Thompson, with the Department of Education, said it is more difficult to show growth among high-achieving students, but said something similar to Warren's comments.

"You want to see growth continuing, even at those top levels," Thompson said. "There's not a school out there that couldn't experience some growth."

And Thurman said he understands the goal. He's more concerned with the information's delivery.

"I understand from the state prospective why they want to track individual growth, and that's fine, but I don't want the patrons of this school district to think they have a bad school," Thurman said. "They need to be looking behind the Gains score to our 'proficiency' score to get the full picture of how their schools are doing."

And that's a weakness of the Gains score that Thompson said the Department of Education has been trying to emphasize for concerned parents.

"As we've been telling parents when they call up here about the report, that score shouldbe judged in context with other information about how the school is doing," Thompson said. "Look at the whole report card, especially how many students are scoring 'proficient' and 'advanced,' and that should give another indication of how the school is doing."

Thurman attributed Westside Elementary's success to some districtwide goals.

"In all of the schools in our district we've changed our focus," Thurman said. "We're going to focus firstly on quality instruction in every classroom, then once that is in place - you may still have students that aren't going to do well - and they're going to get what extra help they need, whether that's summer help, after-school help, however we can reach them.

"Westside has been a prime example of that extra work. ... The school staff has worked so hard to provide those programs, and they've been a real success," Thurman said, pointing out that Westside has the highest percentage within the district of students who qualify for free and reduced lunches.

Thurman said Academic Center for Excellence, which received the lowest score possible on the Gains Report, is a special case. The school targets struggling seventh- through 12-graders who might otherwise drop out of school. Thurman said they include students who are homeless, have jobs or already have children of their own.

Thurman addressed ACE further in an e-mail, which he had originally sent to a reporterfrom another news outlet. He said in the e-mail that while ACE still has a long way to come, the district is still convinced it's on the right track.

"The Gain Index Score certainly wasn't what we wanted, but again, we need to look at the programming being provided and the population of students being served in this setting and adapt."

The following schools in the Three Rivers area received Gains scores of five, the best possible score: Beebe School District's Badger Academy, Cabot School District's Westside Elementary School, Cave City School District's Evening Shade Elementary School, Hoxie School District's Hoxie Elementary School, Imboden Area Charter School, Izard County ConsolidatedSchool District's Izard County Consolidated Elementary School, Jackson County School District's Tuckerman Elementary School, McCrory School District's McCrory Elementary School, Southside School District's Southside Elementary School and Midland School District's Midland Elementary School.

The following schools in the Three Rivers area received Gains scores of one, the lowest possible score: Bradford School District's Bradford High School, Cabot School District's Academic Center for Excellence, Calico Rock School District's Calico Rock High School, Cedar Ridge School District's Cedar Ridge High School, Concord School District's Wilburn Elementary School, Cushman School District's Cushman High School, Highland School District's Highland high School, Izard County Consolidated School District's Izard County Consolidated Middle School, Melbourne SchoolDistrict's Mount Pleasant High School, Mountain View School District's Rural Special High School, Mountain View School District's Timbo High School, Newport School District's Newport Junior High School, Rose Bud School District's Rose Bud High School, Searcy School District's Sidney Deener Elementary School, White County Central School District's White County Central High School and Lawrence County School District's Walnut Ridge High School.

Messages were left with many, but not all, of the schools listed that received ones and fives.

Complete School Progress Reports and more information about how the Gains Index Scores are calculated are available online through the Department of Education Web site: www.arkansased.org.

- awidner@ arkansasonline.com

Three Rivers, Pages 53, 55 on 04/16/2009