November 20,
2012
Dear
Stakeholders,
This fall Chadron Middle School celebrated our students’ NeSA scores, and while there was a lot to celebrate we
also have some areas where we need to improve.
Now that all of the Nebraska State Accountability (NeSA) data is in, and
Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) decisions have been reported, I would like to take
some time to explain the assessment outcomes for the students at Chadron Middle
School.
Last year was
the first time that districts were not organized by building, instead the Nebraska
Department of Education (NDE) organized districts by grade levels: 3-5, 6-8 and
11. Therefore, 5th grade
assessment results are not included in the middle school’s data that is
presented below. NDE has set scale score ranges of 85-134 as meeting standard and
135-200 as exceeding standard for math, science, and reading. In the area of writing, a scale score of 40-54
is considered proficient and a score of 55-70 exceeds standards. All Chadron Middle School students took the reading
and math test, 5th and 8th grade students took the science
test, and only 8th grade students took the writing test.
Federal Accountability - Annual Yearly
Progress (AYP):
Adequate Yearly Progress
(AYP) is a component of the federal law, No Child Left Behind, which requires
all schools and districts to annually measure the progress of students toward
goals established by the State. Student performance is measured in Reading and
Mathematics. Other academic indicators such as graduation rate for high
schools, and the participation rate for assessments are all included in the
determination of whether a school or a district has made adequate yearly
progress
AYP State Goals for 2011-2012
|
NeSA Reading
|
NeSA Math
|
Elementary
Middle School
High School
|
78%
80%
79%
|
67%
67%
61%
|
Chadron Middle
School students exceeded the standard in math with 83% of our students meeting
or exceeding standards. Chadron Middle
School did not meet AYP in reading this year with 74.46% of our students meeting
or exceeding standards.
State Accountability – Nebraska Public
Accountability System (NePAS)
The Nebraska
Department of Education has rolled out a new ranking system called Nebraska
Public Accountability System (NePAS), which ranks all of the school districts
and schools in Nebraska in order from 1 to 249.
Included in the NePAS report are data on school scale score averages
compared to the State in the areas of math, reading, science, and writing. The
report also shows student cohort growth data (students in the same group from
grade level to grade level) and student improvement data (comparing grade level
students in different years) compared to the previous school year. Below
is a breakdown of the NePAS report for Chadron Middle School.
- In
the area of science, Chadron Middle School’s average scale score was 108.02 and
we were ranked 65th in the State. There is no growth or improvement data
for science because it was the first year that schools were required to take
the NeSA Science test.
- In
the area of writing, Chadron Middle School’s average scale score was 42.2 and
we were ranked 157th in the State.
There is no growth or improvement data because of the new holistic
scoring rubric that was introduced last year.
- In
the area of math, Chadron Middle School’s average scale score was 116.53 and we
were ranked 45th in the State.
Cohort growth (students in the same group from grade level to grade
level) since 2011 was -4.02 and improvement (comparing grade level students in
different years) from 2011 was -2.32.
- In
the area of reading, Chadron Middle School’s average scale score was 112.64 and
we were ranked 116th in the State.
Cohort growth (students in the same group from grade level to grade
level) since 2011 was 0.58 and improvement (comparing grade level students in
different years) from 2011 was -2.74.
Although our
average scale score in reading was well above the minimum scale score of 85 for
proficiency, we did not meet AYP because 25.54% of our students did not meet that
standard. Most of our students are
meeting or exceeding standard and the average scale score shows that. However, Chadron Middle School needs to
continue to work to close the achievement gap for our students who are most at
risk and mobility to and from Chadron
continues to impact students who have not had the benefit of strong curriculum
and instruction at our schools.
.
We are using
NeSA and NWEA data to target students for specific reading interventions. In addition, we have designated the first
10-minutes of every mini course in grades 5-8 for Silent Sustained Reading
(SSR). We are also looking at the
schedule to create reading intervention time during the school day, but changes
to the master schedule will not take effect until the 2013-14 school year.
There will be a parent meeting on
November 29th at 5:30 PM in the CMS computer lab to answer questions about this data and I
hope that parents will be able to attend.
Thank you for your support as we work together to meet these challenges
and guide our students towards academic success.
Sincerely,
Nick Dressel
Chadron Middle
School Principal
432-0708
nichlas.dressel@chadronschools.net
