ALSO:
UPDATE:
When Greenwich Roundup Types The Greenwich Time Listens
Posted: 09/02/2009 07:27:25 AM EDT
A quarter of Greenwich public schools are failing to reach federal achievement targets on the state's two proficiency exams, according to a state report expected to be released Wednesday. In addition, the district, as a whole, was identified as "in need of improvement" for the first time since the federal No Child Left Behind Act was enacted in 2001. Local schools failed to reach targets in math for students with disabilities on the two exams. Greenwich High and Central Middle schools have been deemed by the state as "in need of improvement" for the 2008-09 school year, after they failed to meet federal achievement targets for two consecutive years, based on the scores of some student groups. Those schools' citations were downgraded from their 2007-08 level as schools not making "adequate yearly progress," under the federal law. On top of that, Western Middle and Hamilton Avenue schools were identified as not making adequate yearly progress in the 2008-09 school year, according to the state Department of Education. To make adequate yearly progress, standards must be met both by the whole school and each subgroup of 40 students or more, including white, black, Hispanic, American Indian and Asian students, students with disabilities, English-language learners and economically disadvantaged students. The results are based on performance in math and reading of public elementary and middle school students on the Connecticut Mastery Test and of 10th-grade students on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test. If a school or subgroup does not achieve progress in the same area for two consecutive years, the school is identified as "in need of improvement" and must develop a two-year improvement plan to tackle the academic problem areas. School officials tried to put a positive spin on aspects of the achievement results, pointing out that many of the cited schools had made progress closing the achievement gap among economically disadvantaged students last school year. "The good news is, we are closing the achievement gap," said Superintendent of Schools Sidney Freund. "We've got to cross that finish line." Still, he acknowledged that other groups, like disabled students, have continued to lag academically, leading to many of the recent citations. "We've got issues, and we've got some problems, and we certainly do have some work to do," he said. The federal achievement standards were increased last year to require that about eight in 10 students score at or above the "proficient" level on the math and reading sections of the CMT and CAPT. This year's standards were the same as last year's. The standards will rise in 2010 to require that about nine in 10 students meet the proficiency standard in math and reading. The federal law requires that 100 percent of students achieve proficiency in these areas by the 2013-14 year. The district has already begun developing its federally mandated improvement plans for GHS, Central and the district ahead of the 2010 deadline, said former assistant Superintendent of Schools John Curtin, who's currently working for the district as a special projects manager. "We are implementing those plans as we speak, so we are ahead of the curve," Curtin said. "We've launched this thing and we're going full bore into it." Other schools could face sanctions if their performance continues to falter in future school years. For instance, Title I schools that receive federal grants because many of their students receive free or reduced lunches, must give parents the option to transfer if the school is cited as in need of improvement. As a Title I school, Hamilton Avenue would face that "opt-out" sanction in 2010, if its scores do not improve enough on the CMT. Longer-term sanctions for Title I schools in need of improvement include corrective measures such as having to re-tool the curriculum after three years on the underperforming list, as well as undergoing a full-blown school restructuring after five years on the list. For Central, the latest citation is its third in four years: The middle school was added to the underperforming list in 2006, but it was taken off the list in 2007, only to return to it in 2008. Similarly, Western was cited as not making adequate yearly progress in 2007, but made enough progress to be removed from the list last year, only to return this year. According to this year's statewide achievement report: GHS did not reach federal targets in math for students with disabilities. Central did not reach targets in reading and math for students with disabilities, and in reading for economically disadvantaged students. Western did not reach targets in reading and math for students with disabilities. Hamilton Avenue did not reach targets in both reading and math for Hispanic and economically disadvantaged students, as well as on a school-wide basis. And the district, as a whole, has not reached the target in math for students with disabilities two years in a row. Despite the recent lags in achievement, school officials said there were other bright spots. They noted, for instance, that two of the district's three Title I schools -- New Lebanon and Julian Curtiss -- made adequate yearly progress this year. In addition, Greenwich High and Western Middle schools made adequate progress in math and reading for economically disadvantaged students, and the high school made adequate progress in reading for students with disabilities, they said. Four-hundred and six schools across Connecticut, or about 40 percent of the public schools, failed to reach the federal standard this year, state education Commissioner Mark McQuillan said. That tally is "virtually unchanged from last year's of 408 schools," he added. Staff Writer Colin Gustafson can be reached at colin.gustafson@scni.com or 203-625-4428.
COMMENT:
Greenwich Time Cub Reporter Colin "BOE BROWN NOSE" Gustafson Cut And Pasted This Story So Fast He Forgot To Break The Story Into Paragraphs
Colin Why Are You So Rushed ?????
What's Up With The One A News Story Made With One Gigantic Paragraph????
Did you notice that Greenwich Time Cub Reporter Colin "BOE BROWN NOSE" Gustafson did not interview one parent or single family homeowner for this story.
Greenwich Time Cub Reporter Colin "BOE BROWN NOSE" Gustafson only talks to Greenwich Public School Officials.
That's Why Colin Often Gets The Story Wrong.
UPDATE #2
The Topix Message Boards Are Full Of Parent Comments About This Greenwich Time Story.
Carol says:
So much for the former superintendent who professed that "if you can't do it in Greenwich, you can't do it anywhere". Her leadership was a farce and she got over $200K for being less than successful.
Greenwich Schools are a mess.
06831 GW CT says:
Oh, Betty did it in Greenwich - what other Town would have have paid such a huge salary in addition to the perks she recv'd for commuting and housing.
Parent says:
The district needs to overhaul special education from the ground up. Children with disabilities are not getting educated properly and the district treats their parents horribly. None of the elementary schools have enough special education students to report out those scores separately for NCLB but I bet if they ran the stats, they are failing to educate them as well. The problem begins in kindergarten and spirals out of control from there. The middle and high schools can't expect to take a failing child with disabilities and suddenly get their test scores to proficiency level.
The BOE needs to start examining special ed from the bottom up and the top down, from kindergarten to the administrator at Havemeyer.
Town-born says:
This is the worst article to appear in the GT in a while, and that's saying something.
The entire article is a single paragraph, and it is so garbled you can't really indentify the issue. Looking at the second and third sentences, you can't tell if the first-since-2001 citation is only for underperformance by people with disabilities, or if it is for some of the other issues indentified later in the article. There is a huge difference there in terms of how generalized people's concerns should be.
I guess we'll have to wait for the actual report to be released Wednesday, but, as usual, the initial media spin will have already overshadowed the facts that eventually emerge.
Curious says:
How is it that every article until today in Greenwich Time touted the wonderful progress Greenwich students had made on this battery of exams, the "dramatic improvements" the school system has made. Now, however, we're told by the same reporter that the school system's performance is terrible and that it's failed to meet NCLB guidelines. Why didn't he tell us that before? Why didn't he ask that question when the results came out? Which is it: is the school system recording dramatic improvement, or failing to improve? Can't be both. And this newspaper should have asked the questions long before today.
Dr. Freund says that the good news is that we've gone some way to "close the achievement gap." That is small consolation when the entire student body is falling far behind its peers in this state and the country.
Isn't it time for some straight talk from our board of education and the superintendent?
