Vast Improvements Hailed At SHS

August 19, 2004

By BEN GARRETT
Independent Herald Editor

HUNTSVILLE - As Scott High School faculty and administrators prepared to begin a new school year last week, they received some good news from the Tennessee Department of Education.

During in-service training at the school on Thursday, Scott County Director of Schools Mike Davis and Assistant Director Curtis Bruce hand-delivered the state's No Child Left Behind report to Principal Sharon Wilson and her staff.

The result? Scott High has been removed from the state's list of "targeted schools."

"We are ecstatic," Wilson said Monday, as students returned to school for the new year. "Our whole staff and our kids are all excited. Right now, we're trying to figure out how we're going to celebrate."

The list of targeted schools specifies schools that have failed to meet any one of several federal benchmarks as determined by the much-criticized No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, which was passed by Congress and signed by President George W. Bush two years ago.

In general, schools are required to be sufficient in three general areas: Algebra, Language Arts and graduation rate.

Scott High School was far from the only school on the targeted list. Of 1,677 public schools in Tennessee, 121 remain on the targeted list and 199 on the more-dangerous high priority list. Under NCLB, schools who do not meet federal standards are placed on the target schools list. Those schools are given a warning and offered technical assistance by the state. If the school does not meet the benchmark for a second consecutive year, parents of students in that school are offered school choice. After four years of not meeting federal benchmarks, the school is placed on probation, and the state can take significant measures, such as terminating school staff members, increasing the length of the school day or year, or decreasing the authority of local school management. After six years of not meeting the federal guidelines, the state essentially takes over operations of the school.

Davis said Monday that he was "very pleased" with Scott High's effort.

"It's taken a lot of effort on behalf of the principal, the staff and faculty, and of course the students who worked hard on the test and the parents who encouraged them," he said. "We're ecstatic about the fact that we don't have any school on the list. Not a lot of school districts can say that.

"The challenge now," he added, "is to sustain what we've accomplished and build on that for our future students."

Scott High School learned in September 2003 that the school had been placed on the targeted list as a result of test results and data compiled from the 2002-2003 school year. Wilson, who at the time had just begun her first year as principal at SHS, said a school-wide effort was begun to correct the problems specified by NCLB.

"We had 10 x's (a failing mark; out of 15 categories) when we were first put on the target list," she said. "As a result, a lot of things happened. Our school came together and decided that our main goal would be to get off that list."

And get off the list, they did. In 2002-2003, the percentage of students testing proficient in Algebra I on the Gateway tests (the measure used by NCLB) was far below the mandated level: NCLB mandates that 86 percent of students test proficient; SHS had only 63.5 percent test proficient. This year, the number of students testing proficient jumped all the way to 94.4 percent.

Language Arts test scores also improved. While SHS had previously met the mandated level of 65.4 percent proficiency, test scores improved in Language Arts from 85 percent proficiency to 93.7 percent proficiency.

While those are the two areas that receive the highest concentration on the NCLB reports, Wilson pointed out that the actual process is much more complicated.

"It's not quite that simple," she said. "Schools are broken into subgroups based on ethnic background, socioeconomic background and disabilities. If you have more than 45 students who qualify for any one of those categories, you have to list their scores separately, and those scores also have to meet the federal guidelines."

In addition, to avoid being listed as deficient by NCLB, 95 percent of a school's eligible students must be tested. Also, a school has to achieve a graduation rate of 60 percent, based on ninth grade enrollment numbers for the graduating class, and federal guidelines must be met on an 11th grade writing assessment.

In total, it adds up to 15 categories in which each school is judged. And in less than one school year, Scott High went from failing grades in 10 of the categories to passing grades in all 15 categories.

"Nobody thought we'd get off the list this quick," Wilson said. "But everybody got to work, we bought all kinds of supplemental materials; the teachers wanted for nothing."

In another measure, Algebra I was changed from a semester-long course to a year-long course, because "the data indicated that the students couldn't absorb the amount of material they needed to absorb in the block setup," Wilson said.

The school also undertook the task of improving the 11th grade "T-CAP" writing assessment.

"Students are expected to score in the four-to-six range, with six being a perfect score," Wilson said. "Most of our students (about 60 percent) were falling into the one-to-three range.

Wilson said that writing was implemented "across the curriculum." Additionally, two simulated practice tests were given - one in the fall and one in the winter - and incentives were given to students who scored well. By the time the actual assessment rolled around, 108 of the 150 students tested (72 percent) tested in the four-to-six range.

"The English Department took the lead but this whole school pitched in," Wilson said. "By the time testing came, the kids were ready and they pulled it off, and we are so, so proud of them."

In the meantime, Wilson said that the work is not completed. Under NCLB's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) plan, the guidelines that schools must meet are ever-increasing. For the 2004-2005 school year, the Algebra guideline increases from 85 percent to 89.5 percent, the Language Arts guideline from 65 percent to 74 percent and the graduation rate from 60 percent to 70 percent.

And while Scott High School met the mandated graduation rate this year, Wilson acknowledged that continuing to improve the school's graduation rate is their toughest task.

"It's overcoming a mentality," she said. "That's our biggest challenge. Too many students enter high school with a goal of obtaining a GED instead of a high school diploma."

Wilson said that new courses that offer interesting opportunities - such as the stringed instruments course added last year - will continue to be added to the ever-expanding curriculum and other measures will be taken to try and encourage students to remain in school.

Under NCLB, schools will eventually be required to graduate 100 percent of their students.

In the meantime, while work has already begun to ensure that Scott High's scores continue to improve for 2004-2005, Wilson said that a celebration for this year's accomplishments is definitely in order.

"For this year, we're celebrating," she said. "It's our fervent hope that we can continue to improve." news@ihoneida.com

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