Schools outline AYP plans

Even though five of nine Orange County Public Schools met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) testing standards, according to the Virginia Department of Education, there remains room for improvement. Last week, all nine school principals appeared before the school board to share their plans for improving each school's performance.
This year, Orange, Gordon-Barbour, Lighfoot, Locust Grove and Unionville elementary schools all met AYP. Locust Grove and Prospect Heights middle schools, as well as Orange County High School, did not. Locust Grove Primary School, the division's new ninth school, was not included in the AYP results, but will likely share its status with Locust Grove Elementary School next year. Last year, seven out of the county's then eight schools met the standards.
"Just four years ago, only one of the five elementary schools made AYP," director of elementary instruction Bill Berry said. "This year, all five of our elementary schools made AYP. Also, the term 'school in improvement' is no longer assigned to any of our elementary schools. That's a wonderful thing."
AYP is part of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) with the goal that all students are on grade level in reading and math by 2014. Students are split into seven subgroups, all students, black students, Hispanic students, limited English-proficient students, students identified as disadvantaged, students with disabilities and white students, with schools and school divisions held accountable for each subgroup's participation and performance in reading and math, plus in one other academic factor. For a school or school division to achieve or surpass AYP benchmarks, it must meet or exceed all 29 objectives as determined by the NCLB. To pass the objectives this year, a minimum of 95 percent of students overall and in each subgroup had to participate in the tests with each subgroup having to score an 86 percent pass rate in English and an 85 percent pass rate in math.
Overall, Orange County Public Schools increased their pass rates this year with the division-wide English pass rate improving from 87 percent last year to 89 percent this year. The math pass rate improved from 84 percent to 88 percent. However, the division still failed to met AYP.
"As a division, we've never achieved AYP," director of accountability, data and school improvement Jim Yurasits said. "We are talking a few passed tests making the difference between meeting it and not. It becomes more difficult as the [needed pass rates] increase."
To continue to improve, principals celebrated their students' successes and presented goals for the future.
At Locust Grove Elementary School, which has met AYP standards for eight consecutive years, principal Jesse Magruder and newly formed Locust Grove Primary School principal Sherri McGhee said they are happy to celebrate their successes. Magruder said third and fourth grade students had pass rates in the 90 percent range-91.9 in reading, 95.14 in math, 95.90 in science and 93.08 in history.
"That's a testament to staff development and our boys and girls working very hard," he said.
As for concerns, McGhee said the students with disabilities subgroup did not meet benchmarks in reading and math and the black students subgroup did not meet the benchmark in reading. She said that subgroup's pass rate decline from 87 percent to 79 percent.
"That's an area we want to continue to work on," she said.
To improve, Magruder and McGhee said staff members will spend time analyzing test data for all subjects with an emphasis on all subgroups and the pass and fail rates. Also, central office staff, curriculum specialists and a response to intervention process will be used to meet the needs of all students. The attendance policy will also be fully implemented to maximize learning.
"In that end of the county, we tend to miss a few days," Magruder said. "Right now, we are in the top 90 percent, but I'm a go-getter."
  At Lightfoot and Unionville elementary schools, which share AYP status, Lightfoot principal Jewel Williams and Unionville's new principal Peggy Kinser reported the schools have maintained a 91 percent pass rate in reading and a 96 percent pass rate in math. Also, the students with disabilities subgroup has increased from 79 to 93 percent; the overall performance for the black students subgroup in math has increase from 90 to 94 percent and from 91 to 93 percent in the Hispanic subgroup.
As for concerns, they said they continue to be concerned by the pass rate of the economically disadvantaged students subgroup, which in reading has maintained a pass rate of 87 percent for two years and in math, has decreased from 96 to 93 percent.
To improve, Williams and Kinser said staff members will spend time analyzing test data for all subjects by grade level while using student assessment data to monitor progress and provide remediation. There will also be ongoing staff development based on assessment data and classroom observations.
Gordon-Barbour Elementary School Principal Dr. Jen Curtis has many causes for celebration. She said in the students with disabilities subgroup, English scores improved from 18 to 70 percent, math improved from 54 to 90 percent and science improved from 33 to 100 percent. In the black student subgroup, history scores improved from 71 to 91 percent and 79 to 85 percent in math.
She said concerns include pass rates in writing and pass rates for the disadvantaged subgroup in English. To improve, Curtis said staff will continue the school-wide implementation of a new writing program and will participate in a mentor program for all at-risk students with attention to self-esteem and reading objectives.
"The pass rate is good, but it's not great," she said.
At Orange County Elementary School, new principal Judy Anderson said the overall math pass rate is 93 percent, with all subgroups having pass rates exceeding 90 percent. Also, several subgroup pass rates significantly increased, with economically disadvantaged students increasing 9 percent, black students 11 percent and students with disabilities 12 percent. The overall English pass rate was 91 percent.
She said the English performance of the limited English proficient subgroup was concerning, which had a 78 percent pass rate overall. Also, the English performance of the black student subgroup was 83.3 percent overall. The school met AYP using an R10 designation or "safe harbor," which allows a school to meet AYP if it reduced its failure by 10 percent or more.
To improve, Anderson said staff development will be based on instruction, formative assessment and corrective feedback. Also, individual intervention plans will be developed through the response to intervention process.
Despite not making AYP for the second year in a row, new Locust Grove Middle School Principal Kim Crandall said overall pass rates for all students improved from 85 to 90 percent in English and 74 to 85 percent in math.
"Most of our students are soaring," she said, "but a small group is crash landing."
Crandall said the students with disabilities subgroup continues to show a significant need for improvement with a pass rate of 69 percent in English and 68 percent in math. To improve, she said the number of students with disabilities in collaborative class sessions will be reduced. Students will be assigned purposefully for remediation and re-teaching with careful monitoring of success, failure and attendance. There will be a revitalized approach to team teaching in regard to general education teachers and special education teachers assigned to the same class with emphasis on student learning. Also, a school based intervention team will be implemented to carefully monitor student progress.
At Prospect Heights Middle School, Renee Bourke said sixth-grade math pass rates increased by 6 percent for the black student subgroup, 9 percent in the economically disadvantaged subgroup and 16 percent in the white subgroup. Seventh-grade math pass rates increased for black students by 9 percent and 21 percent in reading. Reading pass rates also increased for the white, economically disadvantaged, Hispanic and limited English proficient subgroups. Hispanic students also made significant gains in writing increasing by 57 percent and limited English proficient students did the same by 67 percent.
As for concerns, Bourke said reading and math subgroup pass rates still need to increase. She said the goal is for all subgroups to make measurable progress in math and reading while striving to meet next year's requirement of 90 percent in math and 91 percent in English.
She said grade level teachers will meet weekly to closely monitor students showing lack of progress. These teachers will then collaborate and provide sound instructional interventions to increase student learning. Also, grade level teachers will use interactive achievement data for students to make curriculum and instructional decisions.
At Orange County High School, new principal Doug Duncan also reported increased math and English pass rates with a dramatic increase in the English pass rate of students with special needs-from 65 to 73 percent.
As for concerns, Duncan said subgroup performance in math still illustrates several areas of weakness. He said teachers and administrators will analyze data to identify areas of concern and modify instruction to address those concerns. Also, regular meetings of core area curriculum teams will analyze student performance data to identify students in need of remediation, develop intervention plans and monitor the progress of those students.
Yurasits said he was encouraged by the prinicipals' plans.
"Our schools are in great shape," he said. "We are improving everywhere and have a laser-like focus on areas where we need help."
For more information on adequate yearly progress and how each school performed, visit the Virginia Department of Education's website at http://www.doe.virginia.gov/statistics_reports/school_report_card/index.shtml. Accreditation results, which are based on the same tests as the AYP results plus history assessments, will be released sometime this month.