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Schools so good that they're stuck
Douglas County School District finds itself bumping up against a glass ceiling with the scores from the state's school accountability reports, said Elliott Asp, assistant superintendent of research and assessment for the district.
"With schools' scores at 'high' and 'excellent' it's much harder to get beyond a 'stable' score on school improvement," Asp said. "A school can jump from a high score to an excellent and still be listed as stable."
By By:Susan Dage-Ruby
Douglas County School District finds itself bumping up against a glass ceiling with the scores from the state's school accountability reports, said Elliott Asp, assistant superintendent of research and assessment for the district.
"With schools' scores at 'high' and 'excellent' it's much harder to get beyond a 'stable' score on school improvement," Asp said. "A school can jump from a high score to an excellent and still be listed as stable."
School Accountability Reports are based on an average of each school's Colorado Student Assessment scores and the 11th-grade American Collegiate Test.
The rate of improvement is factored in points. The greater the point difference between last year's and this year's score determines whether improvement was significant, stable or declining, Asp said.
For the 2003 spring and fall semesters, 63 percent, or 26 of the 41 elementary schools, earned a high score; 17 percent, or seven out of the 41 schools, scored average; and 19 percent, or eight out of 41 schools, scored excellent.
Of the district's 11 middle schools, 72 percent, eight schools, scored high; and 21 percent, two schools, scored excellent.
The district's nine high schools also scored well, with 33 percent, three high schools, scoring high and another 33 percent scoring excellent. One high school, Eagle Academy, was not rated because it didn't qualify based on standards set by the state. D.C. Oakes-Parker scored low and D.C. Oakes-Castle Rock, scored average.
Douglas County schools' content standards exceed the state's standards, which are some of the toughest in the country, said Jim Christensen, superintendent of schools.
"We will continue to work hard to improve our performance across the board in ways that make a difference to our students, Christensen said. "We have a very supportive community, excellent teachers and support staff - there are no excuses for us to do anything but excel on standardized measures."
For individual school scores, visit www.cde.state.co.us/.
In mid-December parents will also be informed on how each of the schools scored in the federal annual yearly progress report, Asp said.
"The state rating is an overall average of test scores," he said. "The federal report measures many different targets in reading and math."
Schools must meet up to 54 separate targets to earn a passing score. The school district must meet 150 measures.
"Don't be surprised to see schools that ranked as 'high' or 'excellent' on the state accountability report failing the federal report," Asp said. "I know we have schools in Douglas County that are rated excellent by the state that did not make adequate yearly progress."
The reasons for the failures was because the federal scores are based on an all-or-nothing target system, Asp said,
With targets for gender and ethnicity and special needs, if a school doesn't reach its target goal in one area, it fails overall, Asp said.
In Douglas County, ethnic differences encompass fewer numbers than in other school districts, Asp said.
"It's the nature of the [statistics] beast," Asp said.
The smaller the numbers, the more profound their effect on the scores.
If a school had 30 Hispanic students and for any reason two of them didn't take the CSAP test, the school wouldn't make the Annual Yearly Progress report score because the target was 95 percent participation and the school had 93 percent of its Hispanic students take the CSAP test, Asp said.
Besides ethnic differences, the federal report also looks at participation of students with special needs, Asp said.
The district is attempting to align the state and federal scores so parents will be able to understand the information, Asp said.
But Asp said the district is concerned that with conflicting scores the validity of the information could be called into question by parents.
"A lot of organizations are looking at the federal report process to see how it can be improved," Asp said.
By By:Susan Dage-Ruby
Douglas County School District finds itself bumping up against a glass ceiling with the scores from the state's school accountability reports, said Elliott Asp, assistant superintendent of research and assessment for the district.
"With schools' scores at 'high' and 'excellent' it's much harder to get beyond a 'stable' score on school improvement," Asp said. "A school can jump from a high score to an excellent and still be listed as stable."
School Accountability Reports are based on an average of each school's Colorado Student Assessment scores and the 11th-grade American Collegiate Test.
The rate of improvement is factored in points. The greater the point difference between last year's and this year's score determines whether improvement was significant, stable or declining, Asp said.
For the 2003 spring and fall semesters, 63 percent, or 26 of the 41 elementary schools, earned a high score; 17 percent, or seven out of the 41 schools, scored average; and 19 percent, or eight out of 41 schools, scored excellent.
Of the district's 11 middle schools, 72 percent, eight schools, scored high; and 21 percent, two schools, scored excellent.
The district's nine high schools also scored well, with 33 percent, three high schools, scoring high and another 33 percent scoring excellent. One high school, Eagle Academy, was not rated because it didn't qualify based on standards set by the state. D.C. Oakes-Parker scored low and D.C. Oakes-Castle Rock, scored average.
Douglas County schools' content standards exceed the state's standards, which are some of the toughest in the country, said Jim Christensen, superintendent of schools.
"We will continue to work hard to improve our performance across the board in ways that make a difference to our students, Christensen said. "We have a very supportive community, excellent teachers and support staff - there are no excuses for us to do anything but excel on standardized measures."
For individual school scores, visit www.cde.state.co.us/.
In mid-December parents will also be informed on how each of the schools scored in the federal annual yearly progress report, Asp said.
"The state rating is an overall average of test scores," he said. "The federal report measures many different targets in reading and math."
Schools must meet up to 54 separate targets to earn a passing score. The school district must meet 150 measures.
"Don't be surprised to see schools that ranked as 'high' or 'excellent' on the state accountability report failing the federal report," Asp said. "I know we have schools in Douglas County that are rated excellent by the state that did not make adequate yearly progress."
The reasons for the failures was because the federal scores are based on an all-or-nothing target system, Asp said,
With targets for gender and ethnicity and special needs, if a school doesn't reach its target goal in one area, it fails overall, Asp said.
In Douglas County, ethnic differences encompass fewer numbers than in other school districts, Asp said.
"It's the nature of the [statistics] beast," Asp said.
The smaller the numbers, the more profound their effect on the scores.
If a school had 30 Hispanic students and for any reason two of them didn't take the CSAP test, the school wouldn't make the Annual Yearly Progress report score because the target was 95 percent participation and the school had 93 percent of its Hispanic students take the CSAP test, Asp said.
Besides ethnic differences, the federal report also looks at participation of students with special needs, Asp said.
The district is attempting to align the state and federal scores so parents will be able to understand the information, Asp said.
But Asp said the district is concerned that with conflicting scores the validity of the information could be called into question by parents.
"A lot of organizations are looking at the federal report process to see how it can be improved," Asp said.
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