A-F Report Card “Talking Points”
For the first time in several years, the Alabama State Department of Education has released an “A-F Report Card” for every school and every school system. The determination of how to fairly and accurately report data that is important for our families, communities, and state has been one of the most highly debated processes in recent history. Educating children is highly complicated and involves so much more than the use of an annual test to indicate success or failure. Still, annual tests are important checkpoints for progress and serve as one source of information for students, parents, and the community-at-large. Research across the country clearly shows that other critical factors in a child’s life, such as personal determination, support from home, and community life all play a major role in student success.
The ACT Aspire was introduced in Alabama schools beginning in the spring of 2014 as a more rigorous assessment in the areas of mathematics, reading, and science. It is given in grades 3-8 and for the first time in 2016, grade 10. The test measures how well students are progressing toward meeting college and career-ready benchmarks as they all will eventually take the ACT Plus Writing college entrance exam in grade 11. Whether or not a student intends to go to college, the rigor and academic progress measured is important for whichever path a student chooses after high school.
The “A-F Report Card” for this year will not report letter grades. It will indicate a proficiency level in the areas as listed below.
[Schools with Grades 3-8 Only]
Learning Gains: This measure is important in that it shows the progress that individual students are making over the course of time. Using baseline data of 2014, this measure looks at the developing trend showing whether or not students are improving in math and reading over the three years the ACT Aspire has been administered. High schools will not have this measure as 10th graders took the ACT Aspire for the first time in 2016 and the data is not available to determine learning gains. That measure for high schools will be reported starting with the 2017 report.
Student Achievement: This measure is a reflection of how well students performed on the test for the spring 2016 administration in the areas of reading and mathematics.
Local Indicators: This is a measure of how well a school or school system performed in meeting a locally-selected area of need (example: improvement in discipline; character education program; attendance goals; etc.) based on beginning of the year baseline data compared to reports at year-end.
[High Schools]
High schools will have the “student achievement” and “local indicators” measure along with a measure for “graduation rate”.
Graduation Rate: This measure will reflect a school’s percentage of high school students who graduated within 4 or 5 years from the time they entered ninth grade.
Progress Being Made in Tuscaloosa County Schools
While there is much improvement to be made, results over the past three years show clear evidence that students are improving and the instructional strategies that are being implemented are making a difference. The “Student Achievement” levels are not ones in which we are proud, however, the strong scores in “Learning Gains” show that we are moving in the right direction. “Learning Gains” are also important because it reflects results from all students, at all levels of academic performance (low middle, or high), and shows that gains are being made.
What We Are Doing to Address Areas in Need of Improvement
Our instructional focus at Buhl Elementary is to help students achieve their full potential. Initiatives and strategies we have in place and are working to enhance are listed below.
· Two new teachers have been assigned a veteran and highly successful teacher as a mentor to work with them throughout the school year.
· We’ve purchased Mastery Connect as an online assessment tool to help teachers create formative assessments, quick checks, and benchmark assessments to monitor students’ growth.
· With Title One funding, we’ve hired a retired teacher to provide additional intervention assistance for our 3-5 students in the areas of reading and math.
· Our students in 3-5th use the computer program Typing Agent on a weekly basis to enhance their typing skills. We hope this will serve as a great tool as we prepare students for the ACT Aspire assessment.
· The Instructional Coach meets regularly with teachers to review formative assessment data so that instruction may be adjusted on a weekly basis as needs dictate. Formative assessments are quick checks that are given on a weekly or even daily basis that provide feedback to teachers and students.
· Research shows that coaching is one of the most effective strategies to improve instruction. Our instructional coach follows the coaching model by providing resources, modeling supports, offering instructional support to our teachers.
· As a result of an identified need to increase the rigor for our reading instruction, the Wonders reading program has been implemented at the beginning of the 2016-2017 school year. Our benchmark assessments indicate growth from the Fall assessment to the Winter assessment.
· Additional support for teacher professional development in the area of mathematics has been provided through the Alabama Math, Science, and Technology Initiative (AMSTI). Our teachers use these resources to teach math and science. In addition, two AMSTI specialists work with our teachers on a weekly basis to improve core instruction. In addition to using AMSTI resources, some of our teachers are using the StemScopes materials as well.
· One fourth grade teacher and our special education teacher are participates in the MSP grant through The University of Alabama. This grants emphasizes math instruction using the coteaching model.
· Professional learning communities take place on a weekly basis, where teachers communicate and work collaboratively to plan for instruction, develop formative assessments, and analyze assessment results. The instructional coach and/or principal join teachers during PLCS to offer support and guidance with instruction. Our resource personnel, including the librarian, counselor, special ed, and para professionals, join these PLC meetings to collaborate and share ideas.
· Much work is being performed in professional learning communities to clearly identify the learning targets associated with each standard within a content area. Emphasis is being placed on how the instruction and formative assessment is closely aligned with those learning targets.
· Our school has structured a daily schoolwide reading intervention time from 8:15-8:45. Efforts are being made to develop strategic intervention plans where students who struggle in a particular area may receive additional time in instruction, and for those who are more academically proficient will receive enhanced instructional opportunities.
· In an effort to increase volume of reading in our school, we have introduced a new reading incentive called the Mystery Field Trip. Students are working towards a reading goal using the Accelerated Reader program in order to take part in this special trip.
· The Instructional Coach hosts grade-level planning days every 9-weeks. Together the teachers and Coach discuss data, rigorous instruction, and new ideas for improving student engagement.
How Do We Compare Across the State?
Although not shown in the “A-F Report Card”, the Tuscaloosa County School System is meeting or exceeding the state proficiency levels in most grade levels in reading and mathematics as shown by the charts below.
Final Comments
The Tuscaloosa County School System is committed to continue our work in meeting the needs for every student so that our achievement levels continue to rise. Most importantly, the work that is done every day by our teachers, counselors, staff, and administration to meet the whole needs (social, behavioral, academic) of the student will continue to be a prioirty.