Data: Grad Rates Drop at 5 Area High Schools

By Dan Whisenhunt, The Anniston Star, Anniston, Ala.

Aug. 5–Information released Monday by the state Education Department as part of required federal No Child Left Behind reporting shows an overall increase in the number of Calhoun County high schools hitting their target graduation rates last year.

But five of the county’s 11 high schools did miss the mark. Four saw their graduation rates go down after making Adequate Yearly Progress the previous year, the annual accountability data shows. One local elementary school, Kitty Stone, did not make AYP because of the performance of its special education students.

AYP is the way states measure progress toward a goal of 100 percent achievement of the state’s reading and math standards. Graduation rates also count toward AYP.

The number of Alabama schools meeting annual performance benchmarks has climbed slightly in the last school year, with 83 percent reaching all 100 goals required by the No Child Left Behind Act.

State education officials announcing the state’s AYP report Monday also said fewer high-risk schools have been identified for improvement this year.

Gloria Turner, director of assessment and accountability for the state Education Department, said graduation rates are a trouble spot for Alabama’s high schools. Continued failure to meet the goal of a 90 percent graduation rate will send a school into improvement status, she said.

All five high schools that did not make AYP for graduation rates are in the Calhoun County School system, including the four that hit their graduation targets the previous year.

Anniston High did not make AYP because it did not meet three goals in reading. It did make AYP for its graduation rate, which rose to 65 percent this year, compared with last year’s 58 percent.

Calhoun County Schools Superintendent Judy Stiefel said her system will focus on turning out successful seventh- and eighth-graders. That, she said, will translate into fewer high school dropouts.

Stiefel also said it isn’t fair that the state counts against a school’s graduation rate special education students who don’t receive diplomas.

Wellborn High School’s graduation rate has dropped for the last three years. It is in its third year on school improvement status.

Stiefel called Wellborn’s current 61 percent graduation rate “not at all satisfactory,” but said she can’t point to a specific reason why the rate keeps declining. The county school system is implementing a technology program for middle school students at Wellborn that Stiefel hopes will bring the rate up.

Kitty Stone Elementary School in Jacksonville did not make AYP because special education students’ test scores dipped compared with the previous year. Many schools do not count special education students toward AYP because they have fewer than 40 enrolled.

Jacksonville City Schools Superintendent Eric Mackey said the data did not surprise him, because scores for special education students were down. The school made AYP in that category last year, because the scores had improved over those for the prior year.

“What’s funny is, the kids are doing a little better overall,” Mackey said. “Overall, our grades were up, but our special ed kids’ scores were significantly lower.”

Anniston City Schools Superintendent Joan Frazier said meeting goals for special ed students is challenging.

“For so long, we segregated those children out of the regular classroom and taught them separately on a curriculum that may or may not have been at the same pace as the regular curriculum,” she said.

Mackey said the school system is taking a two-pronged approach to tackling the issue. The school will be choosy about which students it identifies as being “special education” students. The school also is making sure intervention methods are in place for special education students.

“This year we’ve bought a completely new reading series that for the first time has an intervention piece,” Mackey said. “The intervention piece is built into the reading series.”

Frazier said Anniston High did not meet goals in reading because students are starting the ninth grade unprepared.

“High school curriculum has to fill in the gaps, and high school curriculum is not designed to do that,” she said. “My second area as a general concern is our students not getting enough reading practice. Reading is like any other skill. To get good at it, you need practice.”

Anniston High and Anniston Middle remain on school improvement status, but the middle school can see the light at the end of the improvement tunnel, Frazier said.

She said Anniston Middle School’s attendance increased by a fraction of a percent, allowing the school to make AYP. If the middle school makes AYP for 2008-2009, it will be out of school improvement status, Frazier said.

“We’re not at the top of the mountain, but we’re past base camp one,” she said.

People interested in viewing the state’s AYP reports can find them at http://www.alsde.edu.

Anniston High rates clarified State school report card data on graduation rates at Anniston High School released in March showed the rates went down in 2006-07, instead of increasing slightly as initially reported.

The graduation rates have improved for the academic year that will be reflected on the state report card for Anniston High to be released early in 2009, according to the state Education Department.

The report card data released last March actually shows graduation rates decreased at Anniston High School from 2005-06 to 2006-07 — dropping from 65 percent to 58 percent.

The 2007-08 report card will show the rate returned to 65 percent. That increase is reflected in the AYP data released Monday, the state Education Department said.

“The 2006-07 report card reflects a graduation rate from the previous school year,” said Education Department spokesman Mitch Edwards. “The 2007-08 report card will include a graduation rate from the 2006-07 school year. It appears there was some confusion because when the last report card was released, local superintendents were also reviewing graduation rates that (were reported Monday) as part of (AYP).”

Frazier said she did not know why the rates dipped for that year, noting she was not superintendent when the data was collected.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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