The 2011 Maryland School Assessment (MSA) results released June 29th show that Wicomico students are making outstanding progress toward meeting the proficiency levels mandated by No Child Left Behind, though challenges still remain to having all students proficient by 2014.
“Wicomico County has done a fabulous job,” said Dr. Margo Handy, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction and Student Services. “The challenge for us as educators is that we must continue and even double our efforts to help lift every student to a higher level of expectations and a higher level of performance. Our teaching staff demonstrates this commitment every day in the classroom by crafting creative lessons and projects, extending learning with guest speakers and field trips, and expanding their own knowledge and skills through professional development that supports student success.”
The MSA was given in March to all Maryland students in grades 3 through 8. The 2011 MSA results are available online at www.mdreportcard.org. Home reports showing each student’s performance on the MSA will be mailed to parents/guardians on Thursday, June 30.
MSA Successes and Challenges
Schools must achieve progress on MSA results in 21 different categories, including overall performance on the Math and Reading MSAs, subgroup performance, participation and attendance. Wicomico achieved good results in many of these areas, including:
• Wicomico students made gains overall in the percent proficient/advanced on the Reading MSA for grades 3 through 8, with significant increases for grades 7 and 8. They also made gains overall in the percent proficient/advanced on the Math MSA for grades 3 through 8, with significant increases for grades 3, 6 and 7.
• The African American subgroup made significant gains on the Reading MSA for grades 3, 4, 5, 7 and 8, and Math MSA gains for grades 3 through 7, with significant Math increases for grades 3, 6 and 7.
• The subgroup of students receiving special education services made gains on the Reading MSA for grades 3 through 8, with significant increases in grades 3, 5 and 7. On the Math MSA, this subgroup had gains for grades 3 through 7, with significant increases for grades 3, 5, 6 and 7. The percentage of students receiving Special Education services who scored proficient/advanced on the Reading MSA grew by 20.6 percent in grade 7, and by 18.2 percent on the grade 3 Math MSA.
• The FARMs (Free and Reduced Meal) subgroup made gains on the Reading MSA for grades 3 through 8, with significant increases in grades 4, 5, 7 and 8. On the Math MSA, the subgroup made gains for grades 3 through 8, with significant increases in grades 3, 6 and 7.
Challenges remain, however, to meeting the NCLB goal of having 100 percent of students proficient or advanced by the end of the 2013-14 school year, and of reaching the state’s yearly target – Annual Measurable Objective (AMO) – for achieving that goal.
“The target goes up every year, so even though we are making these great gains, the target keeps going up and we have to keep increasing student performance to meet it,” Dr. Handy said.
Among these challenges are:
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9 comments:
I read and re-read this. Is never states that PES did not AYP. Now we know it didn't but there was no mention of it.
Now the article mentioned also that kids at Prince St will be giving a choice? What does that mean? They can chose to go to any school in the county?
How does that work? I am curious, or nosey if you will. My 3 go to PES, and generally it's a good school, but the whole not meeting the AYP has me a bit on edge. Is it just a label, or does it mean something more?
Hopefully they will address any changes (if any) in the letter sent home today.
This is why they're busting up the magnet program, to up the school scores when they force magnet kids back to their home schools.
When are measurements not measurements?
See above.
As I understand it (I am a retired teacher), a student who attends a poor-performing school on the MSA has the opportunity to go to another school. The peculiar demographics of Prince Street contribute to its ill-performing status, including a high percentage of single-parent families, a high number of foreign students, neighborhoods with significant poverty, and the like. However, Prince Street has many fine teachers who present the same material as any other school, so your children should have no problem. While overall the test scores at PSES are not what they ought to be, as deemed by the federal and state government, your children can thrive there. I gather from your post that you are quite involved with your children and concerned that they receive a good education; unfortunately, many other kids do not have that sort of parental involvement and, as a result, do not perform on tests to their optimum. I was a student at PSES not long after it opened in the late '40's; the homes and children that it serves are far different than they were 60 years ago. PSES, unfortunately, gets a bad rap because of its test scores. The physical plant and the teachers are wonderful.
The myth that returning magnet children to their home schools will cause those schools to meet AYP continues. The sub-groups that are failing are those who don't speak English as a native language, those who are in special education and African-Americans (especially boys). So few magnet students fall into those categories that it would make very little difference if they were in their home school classes. You'd just have even more kids waiting around while the teacher addresses the needs of those who aren't achieving.
5:52, you're exactly right. It's usually the performance of the eight sub-groups that determine a school's standing. As you observe, magnet students are typically not in most if any of those groups.
With all the involuntary transferring of teachers going on, I wouldn't be surprised if its just another way to disperse of the magnet program. "Oh, we will have teachers that can teach on a magnet level in a regular classroom to bring the scores up!" Just a possibility that it may be a WCBOE thought.
5:52
If they actually had one ELL/ESOL teacher in each school then the kids might actually spend enough time with the teacher to learn some necessary skills. And the teacher would be available to assist the teacher in lesson planning or events instead of being shared between 3 different schools so that a teacher can only see the student for a half hour every other week.
For special education, they need to hire a few experts who specialize in certain subgroups and create an individual track for each one to make sure each student gets their needs met in order to learn.
There are students in this county who each have their own assistant. Yes, one adult paid to work with one child. How much more attention can a school system give?
Just because an adult is paid to be with one child does NOT mean they have the training to address the needs of the child.
It would be better for all to hire teachers who have an expertise in specific areas to teach to small groups of students so they can excel.
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