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Willcox middle, elementary "underperforming"
By Ainslee S. Wittig/Arizona Range News
Willcox High School is a Performing Plus school and met federal standards for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for the school year 2007-'08. However, neither Willcox Elementary nor Willcox Middle School met AYP standards and both were labeled as Underperforming schools, according to the Arizona Department of Education.
The department released the latest round of report cards for the state's public and charter schools today -- rating each school as excelling, highly performing, performing plus, performing or underperforming, labels they will live with for another year.
The achievement profiles are part of the state's accountability system, called Arizona Learns, that evaluates school performance based on AIMS results, graduation and dropout rates (for high schools) and whether the school has demonstrated adequate yearly progress (AYP) as defined by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
"We were supposed to have information (on AYP) by Aug. 1, but the data was too corrupt to publish. They already have the computer programs to generate the formulas - the only thing to disrupt the process would be the actual data. I think something happened to the data and we're not overly confident in ADE's data," said Willcox School District Superintendent Dr. Richard Rundhaug.
"Usually, I can look at why a school did not make it and the students causing the concern. At this stage, I can't look at that and the 2008 (AYP) link is missing. Initially, ADE announced that the high school did not make it (AYP), and we appealed based on corrupt data. They have not notified me that we have made it," he said.
Rundhaug added that he received preliminary indication that WMS did not make it and he has received no notification about WES.
As of Tuesday, ADE's spreadsheet lists WHS as making adequate yearly progress and meeting test objectives; and WMS and WES as not making adequate yearly progress or meeting test objectives.
"All of this makes me suspect about the validity of what has been published. And it concerns me greatly that such large consequences are placed on schools when we can't have the confidence that ADE is analyzing the data correctly," Rundhaug said. "ADE has all year to prepare this data and then let the computer do the analyzing. The AIMS tests are done in June and they upload the data in July and August. They should be tweaking the program the rest of the year."
Whatever the result may be, Rundhaug said, "While we are not confident in ADE, we are confident with what we are doing with instruction" - updating and improving the district's curriculum from K-12.
"Whether we made AYP or not, we're taking instruction as seriously as possible. If we didn't make AYP, there's not a whole lot we can change. We are putting every effort into making our kids meet standards."
He said the district is using Galileo, a program that uses simulated AIMS tests to determine how prepared students are and what the weaknesses of students are.
The district is giving four benchmark tests through the school year to all grade levels (the first test they did not give to K-2 or juniors and seniors, but will give it to all levels for the next test). Galileo sets up patterns of students with statistical predictions which will help pinpoint the areas where improvement is needed in each child.
"This will help us plan for instruction as well as individual tutoring through Title I funds," he said. "I invite the public to give us a call and we can assure them we're doing all we can to make our students successful."
The department released the latest round of report cards for the state's public and charter schools today -- rating each school as excelling, highly performing, performing plus, performing or underperforming, labels they will live with for another year.
The achievement profiles are part of the state's accountability system, called Arizona Learns, that evaluates school performance based on AIMS results, graduation and dropout rates (for high schools) and whether the school has demonstrated adequate yearly progress (AYP) as defined by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
"We were supposed to have information (on AYP) by Aug. 1, but the data was too corrupt to publish. They already have the computer programs to generate the formulas - the only thing to disrupt the process would be the actual data. I think something happened to the data and we're not overly confident in ADE's data," said Willcox School District Superintendent Dr. Richard Rundhaug.
"Usually, I can look at why a school did not make it and the students causing the concern. At this stage, I can't look at that and the 2008 (AYP) link is missing. Initially, ADE announced that the high school did not make it (AYP), and we appealed based on corrupt data. They have not notified me that we have made it," he said.
Rundhaug added that he received preliminary indication that WMS did not make it and he has received no notification about WES.
As of Tuesday, ADE's spreadsheet lists WHS as making adequate yearly progress and meeting test objectives; and WMS and WES as not making adequate yearly progress or meeting test objectives.
"All of this makes me suspect about the validity of what has been published. And it concerns me greatly that such large consequences are placed on schools when we can't have the confidence that ADE is analyzing the data correctly," Rundhaug said. "ADE has all year to prepare this data and then let the computer do the analyzing. The AIMS tests are done in June and they upload the data in July and August. They should be tweaking the program the rest of the year."
Whatever the result may be, Rundhaug said, "While we are not confident in ADE, we are confident with what we are doing with instruction" - updating and improving the district's curriculum from K-12.
"Whether we made AYP or not, we're taking instruction as seriously as possible. If we didn't make AYP, there's not a whole lot we can change. We are putting every effort into making our kids meet standards."
He said the district is using Galileo, a program that uses simulated AIMS tests to determine how prepared students are and what the weaknesses of students are.
The district is giving four benchmark tests through the school year to all grade levels (the first test they did not give to K-2 or juniors and seniors, but will give it to all levels for the next test). Galileo sets up patterns of students with statistical predictions which will help pinpoint the areas where improvement is needed in each child.
"This will help us plan for instruction as well as individual tutoring through Title I funds," he said. "I invite the public to give us a call and we can assure them we're doing all we can to make our students successful."
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