Sept. 3, 2009
           

 2008-2009 test results: The big picture

Test results for the SAT and Advanced Placement courses were reported this week, which pretty much brings the reporting season to a close for 2008-2009 exams. It’s all over now except for the arguing.

For those who love statistics and parsing numbers, it’s hard to beat the sheer volume of test data now available on student performance. But for the rest of the world, the strengths and weaknesses of the school system can be found in a few key areas.

High school exams: Something good clearly happened at the high school level last year. In late July the school system released test scores for 10 end-of-course exams from English 1 to physics. The results were part of a larger release tied to No Child Left Behind and received little attention. Scores increased in nine of the 10 subjects and the achievement gap between poor students and middle-class students decreased in eight of the 10 subjects. The high schools did not include “retesting” results as they did in the elementary and middle schools, so the comparisons are clean. The drop in Algebra 1 passing rates was worrisome, but the kind of consistency that generates improvement in nine of 10 subjects is rarely a fluke.

SAT scores: The 2009 SAT scores, which received more attention, confirmed the underlying message in end-of-course scores. Wake’s public school students posted the largest gain since 1992 for the combined reading and math portions of the test with a jump of 15 points. They did that in a year when state and national averages slipped one point.  It’s not unusual for child’s score to move 15 points in a year. It’s almost unheard of for an entire school district to make that kind of gain. A 21-point gain among black students is an obvious part of the reason in 2009.

SAT participation: Wake school leaders are clearly concerned about a decrease in participation rates on the SAT. It is likely – based on graduate intention surveys completed by students – that the economy played a role this year. More students than usual are saying they intend to immediately enroll in less expensive community colleges rather than universities. But the participation rate, which topped out at 80 percent in 2003, has fallen two consecutive years. It was 64 percent this year. Participation rates fell in all of the state’s large districts and Wake is still ahead of state and national averages. But falling participation rates and rising scores won’t bring success to all.

End-of-grade tests: The new state policy that requires schools provide a retest to students who barely fail the end-of-grade the first time almost guarantees endless debate about the value of the scores this year in elementary and middle schools. The scores would have increased slightly without the retests, but hardly as impressive as the high school gains.

Achievement gap: The gap in passing rates on end-of-grade exams between all students and those who are poor or those who are black closed some. But passing rates for both black students and poor students is still below 50 percent and about 25 percentage points below the district average.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, there isn’t more than a few percentage point difference in any given year between Wake’s achievement gap scores and those of other urban districts. That, in a nutshell, is the problem. But it is simply wrong to suggest the performance of poorer students is dragging down the performance of students whose families are not poor. Wake’s middle-class students (or “Not Economically Disadvantaged” in the jargon of schools) posted higher passing rates than every other urban county in the state in 2009.

It’s difficult to predict how debates over student performance will play out in 2009-2010, but those who aren’t working inside the framework of the numbers outlined above aren’t dealing with the reality of this year’s results.

 
Election day is closing in

The Oct. 6 school board elections originally looked like a stopover event on the way to runoff elections for most of the four contested school board seats this fall. But yet another change in the lineup has increased the odds that most – if not all – the seats will be decided on the first Tuesday in October.

Carlene Lucas, a mother of three from Garner who was already considered a long shot, dropped out of the District 2 race last week. That leaves incumbent Horace Tart and challengers Cathy Truitt and John Tedesco.

During a recent debate sponsored by the Partnership and the local chambers of Garner and Fuquay-Varina, the three staked their ground. There was the education professional (Truitt), the one best equipped to make politics a force of good for children (Tedesco), and the voice of experience (Tart.) If there is a runoff, District 2 is probably the best bet as all three are playing for keeps and they offer distinctly different profiles.

District 1 features the other three-candidate race where Chris Malone, Rita Rakestraw and Debbie Vair are on the ballot. That district could come down to turnout. Malone is a former Wake Forest town commissioner. Rakestraw is best known in Knightdale and Vair is best known in Rolesville.

District 7 (west Raleigh/Morrisville) and District 9 (western Wake) have been two-person races for more than a month now. Lois Nixon and Debra Goldman are the candidates in District 9. Karen Simon faces Deborah Prickett in District 7.

The importance of Oct. 6 can also be seen in the first push poll, first dust up over a newspaper ad and a rush to get out endorsements.  

The Partnership and local area chambers will sponsor three more school board candidate debates in each of the remaining contested districts. A schedule of the debates can be found here. In addition, video of each debate will be posted on the Partnership’s home page as it becomes available, courtesy of NBC17.

Noteworthy…

… The Wake County school board will meet Sept. 8 to interview candidates wanting to take the seat of Beverley Clark, who resigned Aug. 12. At least one of the applicants is reasonably well known: Former Broughton High School Principal Diane Payne. Payne led Broughton for 13 years before she retired in 2005. The person who fills Clark’s seat will serve until 2011.

… A study that looked at 11 years of North Carolina school data concludes that talented teachers have a measurable positive effect on their peers, according to an article in Education Week. The report due to be published in October in American Economics Journal: Applied Economics, will likely draw attention for insights into how schools can retain and attract quality teachers.

… The state Department of Public Instruction recently released some testing items to increase the transparency of North Carolina’s school accountability program. You can find them here or take a little one-question quiz lifted from the hundreds of items made available. “Plant cells that are specialized for cell division are most likely found in what part of a plant? A)  root tips B) leaf epidermis C) stem epidermis D) vascular tissue.”  “Can I be excused now?” is not one of your available choices.

Wake Education Partnership is a 501(c)(3) non-profit created in 1983 to support public schools, in part by educating the community on current school issues. Most of its financial support comes from local business. Send comments to Tim Simmons, VP Communications, at  tsimmons@wakeedpartnership.org