ARTICLE - Dare County Schools 2007 Growth Reports

This is NOT my work - it's posted on the Dare County Schools web site.

I personally think "showing growth" needs to be revised the minute "No Child Left Behind" is no longer in effect. How do top students who consistently score in the high percentiles on EOG and other standardized tests, possibly show "growth"? Especially for students scoring in the 99th percentile of the students tested...they can't score any higher! Anyway, here's how Dare County Schools stacked up on "growth":

The link can be found by clicking the title of this article (above) or by pasting this in your browser - http://www.dare.k12.nc.us/moxie/schools/DCS-measures-up.shtml

Dare County Schools measure up on state standardized tests
Posted Thursday, September 6, 2007

Ten of eleven schools in Dare County have earned recognition in North Carolina’s standardized testing program. Schools qualify for recognition based on growth and overall composite scores.

Students at two schools, Manteo High School and Kitty Hawk Elementary School, scored at least ten percent higher than would be required by the growth formula, earning designation as a “high growth” school.

“To measure growth,” explained Superintendent Sue Burgess, “the state administers pretests and post tests. There is a growth formula which determines if students made at least one year of academic progress during a single school year.” Other factors, such as the dropout rate, are included in the growth formula.

The schools which met “expected growth” were: Cape Hatteras Elementary School, First Flight Elementary School, Nags Head Elementary School, Manteo Elementary School, First Flight Middle School, First Flight High School, and Dare County Alternative School. “We are pleased that ten schools met or exceeded expectations for growth,” said Burgess. “Cape Hatteras Secondary was close, but didn’t quite make it.”

In addition to growth, schools are measured by their composite performance scores. At the elementary and middle school levels, the composite performance score is the average of all end-of-grade (EOG) tests in subjects at the grades tested. At the high school level, the composite performance score is an average of end-of-course (EOC) tests administered by the state. A composite score indicates the average number of students who were at or above grade level in the tested subjects.

Elementary composite scores were as follows: Cape Hatteras Elementary School – 77.8; First Flight Elementary School – 79.7; Kitty Hawk Elementary School - 89.5; Manteo Elementary School – 72.8; and Nags Head Elementary School – 79.4. Cape Hatteras, First Flight, Manteo and Nags Head qualified as Schools of Progress for having composite scores above 70 percent and less than 80 percent. Kitty Hawk was named a School of Distinction for having a composite score above 80 percent and less than 90 percent.

Both First Flight Middle and Manteo Middle Schools were named Schools of Distinction with composite scores of 88.7 and 80.8, respectively.

Composite scores at the high school level were as follows: Cape Hatteras – 72.7; Manteo – 72.3; and First Flight – 75.3. Manteo and First Flight were named Schools of Progress. Despite its comparable composite score, Cape Hatteras was not eligible for that designation because it didn’t meet the growth requirement.

“Teachers and students have worked hard and deserve this recognition,” stated Burgess, who added that teachers and administrators at the ten schools which made growth will receive performance bonuses from the state.