Duluth School District Misses Mark on “Adequate Yearly Progress”
By Jana Hollingsworth, Duluth News-Tribune, Minn.
Aug. 6–Despite not making adequate yearly progress for the third year in a row, the Duluth School District says progress has been made.
Results from the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessment II test given to students last spring have been released, and Duluth, along with 58 percent of school districts in the state, did not make AYP, a provision of the federal No Child Left Behind law, according to the Minnesota Department of Education.
The “adequate yearly progress” report describes how well schools meet individual proficiency targets in math, reading, participation, attendance and graduation. Targets to meet increase year by year until the 2013-14 school year, when all students are expected to be proficient.
Schools not meeting AYP this year include Central, East and Denfeld high schools, Lincoln Park elementary and middle schools, Morgan Park, Ordean and Woodland middle schools, Grant Magnet and Nettleton Magnet elementary schools and the Area Learning Center — five more schools than last year. There are 19 schools in the district.
Lincoln Park, which has failed to meet AYP three years in a row — is the only school in the district to receive sanctions for missing the mark. The consequences, which include offering students the chance to transfer to another school, started last year but will escalate this fall in response to the school’s most recent testing stumble.
“The scaling effects are starting to catch up with school districts across the nation and we’re certainly seeing that here,” said Joe Hill, assistant superintendent for Duluth. “But we’re seeing many celebrations. Many schools have achieved in the upper 10 percent statewide.”
Math is the largest area of concern across the district. As last year, math performances of students receiving free and reduced-price lunch fell below the targeted proficiency area at several schools. The district as a whole failed to make AYP because of math and reading scores of American Indian students, and math scores of black and special education students and those who receive free and reduced-price lunch.
Many of those groups improved markedly from last year’s scores, and some even outperformed the state, said Tawnyea Lake, assessment coordinator for the district.
The math curriculum is under a second year of review, and the district hopes to implement a new one next year to help combat the problem, along with using assessments at the middle school level to judge where students’ abilities lie.
Because so much progress was made with groups identified last year as not making AYP, the district has taken a look at what was done to raise scores, and is applying those techniques to other areas of the district.
At Lincoln Park, time was spent working with students whose scores fell below targets, and significant improvements to this year’s scores were made. Math and reading scores for all students saw gains. Math and reading scores for black stu-dents had gains of 15 percent and 12 percent, respectively, and math and reading scores for American Indian students gained by 10 percent and 15 percent.
“We knew their names, backgrounds, we knew what their learning styles were,” Hill said. “We just went to work very specifically and we’ve seen tremendous gain because of that.”
Lincoln Park, because it receives Title 1 money, was sanctioned last year for not making AYP two years in a row. That re-sulted in parents having the option to choose another school to send their children to, with transportation provided by the district. That option is available again this year, but school choices have not yet been named. Supplemental educational services must also be provided at Lincoln Park, and more Title I money must be funneled toward the school.
Duluth East failed to meet AYP this year because of reading scores for special education students, and Morgan Park be-cause of math scores for all students.
Schools that met AYP include Congdon Park Elementary School, where fourth graders were ranked fourth in the state for reading and fifth graders were ranked 10th in the state for math; and Lakewood Elementary School, where third graders were ranked 18th in the state in reading and 12th in the state for math. Duluth East juniors were in the top 15 percent state-wide for math scores. Attendance and graduation rates for the district were above state standards.
“Every year the bar gets raised,” said Katie Kaufman, public relations director for the district. “That’s one of the challenges.”
Other schools in Duluth
Lake Superior High School, Washburn Edison Junior Academy and Raleigh Edison Charter School failed to make AYP this year.
At Washburn, black students fell below target with reading scores, and at Raleigh, special education students also fell be-low target with reading scores.
Both schools made AYP everywhere but one subgroup each, said Bonnie Jorgenson, head of Edison schools.
“They are between 21 and 24 students and in the case of many of those children they also have other socioeconomic fac-tors influencing their lives,” she said. “We know those students are growing in their skills and we will keep working at moving them toward grade level proficiency as best we can.”
Washburn improved below-target math scores from last year to meet this year’s standards.
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