Onslow School Proficiency is a Mixed Bag

By Joe Miller, The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.C.

Aug. 18–All of Onslow County’s seven public high schools, and seven other schools as well, are progressing adequately.

Fourteen of 32 schools in Onslow County, or nearly 44 percent, met Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standards for 2006-07, according to preliminary numbers released by the district Friday morning. That’s a drop from 53 percent, or 17 schools, in 2005-06.

School officials are creeping ever closer to the magic year of 2013-14 when the federal No Child Left Behind Act dictates that students will have to be 100 percent proficient in reading and math.

For both 2005-06 and 2006-07, the state proficiency goals for students in grades three through eight were 76.7 percent in reading and 65.8 percent in math. For high schools students, the goals were 35.4 percent in reading/language arts and 70.8 percent in math.

Schools are required to test at least 95 percent of students in each student group, and they each must meet the targeted proficiency goal in both reading and math to meet AYP.

Each school has different numbers of goals ranging from 12 to 29. Scores for one student can count up to 10 times — five for math and five for reading — depending on how many groups they are classified under.

Groups include school as a whole, ethnicity, economically disadvantaged, limited English proficiency and students with disabilities. If a school doesn’t meet one of its goals, it doesn’t make AYP.

High school AYP results are determined by how students do in grade 10 on several different math, English and writing tests. AYP is measured on end-of-grade and other tests taken by students in grades three through eight.

Sand Ridge Elementary Principal Harold Jurewicz credits the teachers for the school making AYP for each of the five years since it started.

“The teachers here take their responsibility to educate the individual child seriously,” he said. “They work together very well, and in doing so, they meet the needs of each of their children.”

The school with the lowest score was Clyde Erwin Elementary School, which met only eight out of its 13 goals, or 61.5 percent.

Dixon Middle School was the second lowest performing school making 70.6 percent, or 12 of its 17 goals. But school officials stress that these numbers don’t mean that Clyde Erwin or Dixon are bad schools.

“AYP does not represent the whole picture — it is a snapshot of time — a couple of days at the end of the school year,” Student Accountability and Testing Officer Lisa Thompson said. “One assessment, one student, one goal makes a difference with regard to AYP. It is an all-or-nothing model.”

Thompson said all the schools are reviewing detailed records of their data to see what areas need improvement.

“The schools that didn’t make AYP, they are looking at adding processes and measures to their school’s strategic plan,” she said.

At Clyde Erwin, Dixon, Blue Creek and Richlands elementaries and Richlands Primary, parents could request their students be transferred because the first four didn’t make all AYP goals at least two straight years and they receive Title 1 federal funding. Richlands Primary is affected because it is a feeder to Richlands Elementary.

School officials said 31 students had requested transfers but didn’t know if those requests were because of the test results. Parents were expected to be notified Friday.

The state will release the final numbers for the AYP and the larger ABCs of Public Education report on Sept. 6.

Carteret County school officials said they will wait until the State Board of Education approves final results before making any comment.

“We prefer to wait until we have more statewide data and more complete information,” Assistant Superintendent Ralph Lewis said.

According to the results posted on the Department of Public Instruction Web site, 12 of Carteret County’s 17 schools met AYP standards for the 2006-07 school year. That’s one less school than the previous year, but the percentage of schools to meet all their target goals remains just above 70 percent.

Morehead City Elementary School at Camp Glenn missed by one target goal while Beaufort Middle School, Newport Elementary School and Newport Middle School missed two of 17 target goals.

West Carteret High School, the only high school not to make AYP, met 13 of 16 target goals.

To view results statewide, go to www.ncpublicschools.org. For Onslow County’s report, go to www.onslow.k12.nc.us.

Contact staff writer Joe Miller at jmiller@freedomenc.com or at 353-1171, ext. 8463. To comment on this story, go to www.jdnews.com.

—–

To see more of The Daily News, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.jacksonvilledailynews.com.

Copyright (c) 2007, The Daily News, Jacksonville, N.C.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

For reprints, email tmsreprints@permissionsgroup.com, call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA.