Achievement Gap Widens

[jwh]

gatordog said:

rew said:

For all their fancy talk, the proposed boundaries leave WVHS achievement worse off than it is now.

Current achievement for all test scores:

WVHS 88.4
NVHS 93.6

With the proposed BB boundaries the gap narrowed:

WVHS 89.4
MVHS 90.3
NVHS 93.3

But with the new proposed MWG boundaries gap widens:

WVHS 88.1
MVHS 91.3
NVHS 93.3

What happened to the BIG FIX??

There is no real difference at all in these numbers. Taking your number:

Current has range 88-94
BB had range 89-93
Proposed has range 88-93.

Where is the difference? These numbers are virtually identical. I think its misleading to say the achievement gap is "widening".

Lets just compare WV and NV now. My data shows around Jan 2006, when we were talking about this too, the achievement gap btw WV and NB was 9. Well now its less than 6. Not because any moving happened, but lower achieving students improved (well documented on this board and other places)

Is any HS school different or better if it gain or loses a fraction of point on its ISAT scores? Heck, I bet almost all the ES scores change more than half a point from year to year.

Yes, Its fair to talk about reassigning different areas to diff schools than what the admin proposed here. But I think it should be for other reasons (better geography, better MS splits, etc). It should not be to gain another few fractions of a point on a test score. I dont see what that buys the district.

These ranges are close enough to not use as a reason to move students.

[concerned]

Heard from several in the area that make no moves at all that they are concerned over the enrollment numbers at NV.

[casey]

hmmm said:

Then let's split the middle school and triple their driving time to HS. Show me ONE instance where the Fry area has caught a break in this process. You are all about proof after all.

I agree with you 100%. No soup for us! IMO, we will have the longest commute time (I'm guessing 35-40 minutes each way) and we get the added bonus of a split MS. Ok, as someone pointed out FRY may make up 50% of Scullen but I still think that stinks. Bottom line is my kids make friends with kids from other areas and they all go on to NV and we go to WV. There is plenty of animosity out there to the Tall Grass community and I know there's plenty of people (including some SB members) glad to see us get what we got. So to all the TG bashers - CONGRATULATIONS! We got the big screw! You won.

[Avenging Eagle]

In addition to taking the weighted average, it is worth looking at the range of E. school scores who are assigned to each of the high schools:

If you assign ranks based on the latest ISATs, you get:

1. Young 96.3
2. Wht/Pet 96.1
3. Fry 95.9
4. SB 95.7
5. Patters 95.2
6. Clow 95.1
7. Watts 94.9
8. WE 94.8
9. Brooks 93.0
10. Steck 93.8
11. Graham 93.8
12. Kendall 93.6
13. Owen 93.2
14. Cowl 92.1
15. Welch 91.6
16. BD 90.7
17. Builta 90.4

18. Gombert 82.1
19. McC 81.2
20. GT 80.9
21. LW 78.3

Here are the school assignments, by rank:

Neuqua{Builta, Clow, Graham, Kendall, Patterson, Petersen,Springbrook, Welch } or {17, 6, 11, 12, 5, 2, 4, 15 } or avg. rank (9)

Metea {Brookdale, Brooks, Cowlishaw,Longwood, Owen,Watts, Young } or {16, 9, 14, 21, 13, 7, 1} or avg. rank (11.5)

WVHS {Fry, Georgetown, Gombert, McCarty, Steck, White Eagle } or {3, 20, 18, 19, 10, 8} or avg. rank (13)

Other observations after looking at these numbers:

From 1 - 17, the scores are in a pretty tight range from 96.3 down to 90.4.

But then, there is a huge drop-off down to the bottom 4 schools ranging from 78 - 82; an 8 point drop.

I believe that this drop off of 8 points is the true achievement gap we should be focusing on in our district.

It makes no sense to bunch 3 out of 4 of the struggling schools at WVHS, while MVHS gets 1 and NVHS has NONE.

As stated in many articles I have read, the way to eliminate the achievement gap is to mix lower performing students with the higher performing ones, and over time the gap will decrease.

Somebody tell me what part of this initiative the students at Neuqua will be taking on........

I agree with those who have suggested a swap between NVHS and WVHS to level the playing field and share our community responsibility evenly....

[gatormom]

I am starting to feel like the entire district would be happy if the 4 lowest achieving schools were put on a bus and sent to Aurora East. We could raise their scores and remove the anger about having to go to school with us. Everybody wins then, right?

Hiding the scores of our lower achieving students is not a solution. The scores have been going up steadily at all those schools. We need to educate the students and not hide the problem.

[gumby]

gatormom said:

I am starting to feel like the entire district would be happy if the 4 lowest achieving schools were put on a bus and sent to Aurora East. We could raise their scores and remove the anger about having to go to school with us. Everybody wins then, right?

Hiding the scores of our lower achieving students is not a solution. The scores have been going up steadily at all those schools. We need to educate the students and not hide the problem.

Uhh, but that would take some actual effort. Why not just use the easy way out?

[Avenging Eagle]

I believe the focus on our real ISAT scores and related analysis is worth 1000 times the value of us focusing on skewed school board survey results or Proboards slanted polls asking about which ice cream flavor we prefer.

[thebeefeater]

avengingeagle said:

In addition to taking the weighted average, it is worth looking at the range of E. school scores who are assigned to each of the high schools:

If you assign ranks based on the latest ISATs, you get:

1. Young 96.3
2. Wht/Pet 96.1
3. Fry 95.9
4. SB 95.7
5. Patters 95.2
6. Clow 95.1
7. Watts 94.9
8. WE 94.8
9. Brooks 93.0
10. Steck 93.8
11. Graham 93.8
12. Kendall 93.6
13. Owen 93.2
14. Cowl 92.1
15. Welch 91.6
16. BD 90.7
17. Builta 90.4

18. Gombert 82.1
19. McC 81.2
20. GT 80.9
21. LW 78.3

Here are the school assignments, by rank:

Neuqua{Builta, Clow, Graham, Kendall, Patterson, Petersen,Springbrook, Welch } or {17, 6, 11, 12, 5, 2, 4, 15 } or avg. rank (9)

Metea {Brookdale, Brooks, Cowlishaw,Longwood, Owen,Watts, Young } or {16, 9, 14, 21, 13, 7, 1} or avg. rank (11.5)

WVHS {Fry, Georgetown, Gombert, McCarty, Steck, White Eagle } or {3, 20, 18, 19, 10, 8} or avg. rank (13)

Other observations after looking at these numbers:

From 1 - 17, the scores are in a pretty tight range from 96.3 down to 90.4.

But then, there is a huge drop-off down to the bottom 4 schools ranging from 78 - 82; an 8 point drop.

I believe that this drop off of 8 points is the true achievement gap we should be focusing on in our district.

It makes no sense to bunch 3 out of 4 of the struggling schools at WVHS, while MVHS gets 1 and NVHS has NONE.

As stated in many articles I have read, the way to eliminate the achievement gap is to mix lower performing students with the higher performing ones, and over time the gap will decrease.

Somebody tell me what part of this initiative the students at Neuqua will be taking on........

I agree with those who have suggested a swap between NVHS and WVHS to level the playing field and share our community responsibility evenly....

You are fogetting a couple of facts.

1. Gombert is being split. Half to WV and half to MV
2. McCarty is being split. some go to MV.
3. The worst of the performing schools LW goes to MV.
4. If you add Gombert and Mccarty ranks to MV I think you will see that the balance is much better than you are making it out to be.

[204family]

Are we suggesting that we bus Georgetown and/or Gombert to NV?

[doctorwho]

casey said:

hmmm said:

Then let's split the middle school and triple their driving time to HS. Show me ONE instance where the Fry area has caught a break in this process. You are all about proof after all.

I agree with you 100%. No soup for us! IMO, we will have the longest commute time (I'm guessing 35-40 minutes each way) and we get the added bonus of a split MS. Ok, as someone pointed out FRY may make up 50% of Scullen but I still think that stinks. Bottom line is my kids make friends with kids from other areas and they all go on to NV and we go to WV. There is plenty of animosity out there to the Tall Grass community and I know there's plenty of people (including some SB members) glad to see us get what we got. So to all the TG bashers - CONGRATULATIONS! We got the big screw! You won.

We should hold a we got screwed in 204 party --

Owen / Watts / Cowlishaw and Fry -- ( and part of Peterson)

I sitll think they should close down May Watts - because it is far too close for us -- maybe we can go to Brookdale also- since we already travel to Hill and now MVHS. Why leave the ES here - we don't deserve it -- we could be our own satellite. We could train our kids on bus etiquette from Kindergarten then, why wait until MS.

[rew]

Beefeater, you see sending the 36 students from Chesapeake Landings from McCarty to MV, out of 716 kids, evening the scores out?

[Avenging Eagle]

thebeefeater said:

You are fogetting a couple of facts.

1. Gombert is being split. Half to WV and half to MV
2. McCarty is being split. some go to MV.
3. The worst of the performing schools LW goes to MV.
4. If you add Gombert and Mccarty ranks to MV I think you will see that the balance is much better than you are making it out to be.

And where was Neuqua mentioned in your fact list?
How are they helping with the cause?

[rew]

And Gatormom, before you call people out for discussing this, call the SB/SD out. THEY are the ones that coined the tern "new Waubonsie" and THEY were the ones that said balancing achievement was a criteria.

[gatormom]

rew said:

And Gatormom, before you call people out for discussing this, call the SB/SD out. THEY are the ones that coined the tern "new Waubonsie" and THEY were the ones that said balancing achievement was a criteria.

As the mother of a Warrior, the school my daughter is destined to attend is not the same Waubonsie my son went to. That is not to say good or bad, just different. I like the term new Waubonsie.

I do not have a problem with the district as I see them addressing the achievement gap in a manner I approve of, you know by educating our students, all of our students.

[thebeefeater]

avengingeagle said:

thebeefeater said:

You are fogetting a couple of facts.

1. Gombert is being split. Half to WV and half to MV
2. McCarty is being split. some go to MV.
3. The worst of the performing schools LW goes to MV.
4. If you add Gombert and Mccarty ranks to MV I think you will see that the balance is much better than you are making it out to be.

And where was Neuqua mentioned in your fact list?
How are they helping with the cause?

Nequa is nequa. I do not believe in busing lower achieving schools to drop nequa. I do however believe in doing everything you can to balance then WV with MV. That is why they are pulling Brookdale, Longwood, parts of Gombert and parts of McCarty out of WV. Plus it works geographically (but we should discuss that on another thread).