LIHU‘E — The good news is that math and reading scores for public-school students in grades three through 10 are up across the board. The bad news is that 10 of 16 public schools on the island did not make
LIHU‘E — The good news is that math and reading scores for public-school students in grades three through 10 are up across the board.
The bad news is that 10 of 16 public schools on the island did not make adequate yearly progress as defined under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Of those 10, four — Kapa‘a Elementary, Kapa‘a Middle, Kaua‘i High and Waimea Canyon Middle — are at the bottom of the NCLB status totem pole, restructuring, and as such subject to the most severe interventions under NCLB, according to data released Thursday by the state Department of Education.
Kaua‘i schools that met AYP for the 2009-10 school year include (with NCLB status in parenthesis) Hanalei (in good standing, unconditional), Kilauea (school improvement year one), Koloa (in good standing, unconditional), ‘Ele‘ele (in good standing, unconditional), Ni‘ihau (in good standing, unconditional, and one of just seven combination schools that include high-school grades in the state to make AYP), and Waimea Canyon Middle (restructuring).
The six other schools that did not meet AYP for the 2009-10 school year follow (also with NCLB status in parenthesis): Kapa‘a High (school improvement year one), Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle (planning for restructuring), King Kaumuali‘i (school improvement year one), Kalaheo (school improvement year two), Kekaha (school improvement year one) and Waimea High (school improvement year one).
Schools restructuring have not met AYP for four or more years (which may or may not have been consecutive) beyond the two consecutive years required to enter sanctions, according to the DOE data.
Bill Arakaki, state DOT Kaua‘i superintendent, said Thursday restructuring schools aren’t necessarily failing schools, it just means they have not met AYP for several years.
“They demonstrate that students are learning. I’m really proud of them,” he said of principals and teachers at all schools, including those restructuring and not making AYP in the 2009-10 school year.
He said there are initiatives ongoing at each of the restructuring schools to address specific student-learning needs, whether they be for economically-disadvantaged students, limited-English-language learners, or others, including specific strategies like remediation and intervention “to meet specific learner needs.”
Consultants provide support in the areas of curriculum, assessment, instruction and other areas at each school that did not meet AYP, focusing on the smaller groups that did not meet AYP, “because every child learns differently.”
“There are celebrations at all the schools,” for the principals who lead the charge to address specific learner needs to the teachers delivering messages to individual students.
For example, Waimea Canyon Middle School has been restructuring for the past six years, and behind the leadership of Principal Glenda Miyazaki met AYP in the 2009-10 school year, Arakaki said.
Koloa School met AYP for the fourth year, led by Principal Debbie Lindsey. “That is a great accomplishment for that school,” said Arakaki, who calls all the principals when the annual Hawai‘i State Assessment and preliminary AYP results come out.
The statewide results were presented to the state Board of Education Thursday afternoon.
Arakaki said he is also buoyed with the fact that HSA math and reading scores have been increasing nearly each school year since 2007-08, and are beyond the 2010 targets in both categories.
He thanked the teachers for their efforts. “They are making progress with HSA despite challenges we had” including furlough Fridays that shortened the 2009-10 school year by nearly three weeks of instruction, said Arakaki.
“I’m happy for the schools that met AYP,” he said.
Under NCLB, schools that don’t meet all of the 37 criteria with subcategories for minority, economically-disadvantaged, limited-English-language students, special-education students and many others, are labeled as not meeting AYP.
