2009 School District 27J CSAP Executive Summary

Comments from Executive Director of Student Achievement Isobel Stevenson and Director of Assessment and Grants Peggy Robertson

Summary of this year’s results

This year’s CSAP results across School District 27J look strong.

* Of 29 tests, we improved in 26, or 90 percent.
* 27J is one of the three metro districts with the most improved scores
* 100 percent of grade level tests in math and science improved from 2008 to 2009
* In 10 of those tests, and compared to 4 last year, the increase was 5 percentage points or more: third-, seventh-, ninth-, and 10th -grade reading; third-grade English, third-grade Spanish, and seventh-grade writing; fifth- and seventh-grade math; and eighth- and 10th -grade science
* Sixth-grade sustained the high gains seen last year and seventh-grade made the greatest gains across the board.

On an individual school basis, some of our schools performed much better on this year’s tests than on last year’s:

* Prairie View High School improved on 100 percent of their tests
* Vikan Middle School improved on 90 percent of their tests

Schools with the majority of their scores at or above the state average include Pennock, South, Southeast, West Ridge, and Landmark Academy

In general, while the performance of the district on all tests certainly gives us a great picture of where we are as a district, on a school level the longitudinal data are much more significant. They give us a much better picture of the impact that a school has made on the achievement of their students.

Trends in Achievement based on Proficient and Advanced Percents

Probably the best news of all in this year’s results is the changes to the patterns in our data over the last five years (see Background Information below). Notably:

* In the past, our high third-grade CSAP reading scores have been followed by a drop-off, leading to a distinct gap in district and state performance by sixth-grade. This year, third-grade reading scores were higher than the state average and we have the clearest evidence so far that the gap is narrowing at the elementary level and is closing at sixth- and seventh-grade.
* Third-grade math scores were higher than the state average and we continue to see a slow but marked upward trend in math at the 10th-grade level. State math scores at 10th-grade have been stagnant.
* Middle school achievement is trending upward, which is a reflection of focus on changes to the math course offerings, language arts instructional materials, and reading interventions, with low-achieving students in all our middle schools receiving READ 180.

Background Information

We have some patterns of achievement in 27J during the last five years that remain relatively constant. This statement holds true for the district as a whole and for individual schools. Broadly stated, these are as follows:

* Our third-grade test results have been our highest. In third-grade, students are tested in reading, writing, and math. In reading, only one standard, comprehension, is tested. The high third-grade reading scores may be attributed in part to the fact that many of our native Spanish-speaking students (those who attend South, North, and Northeast) receive instruction in and are tested in Spanish in third and fourth grades, and in English in fifth grade. Traditionally they do extremely well at all three schools in third grade, and much less well in fifth grade as a cohort, although the fifth-grade results see much more variance by school.
* In math, for the state and for the district, rates of proficiency have declined with increase in grade level. This has happened every year. We have had a similar but not identical pattern as reading, where our results at third grade are above the state average for the first time and the gap between the state scores and the district scores has increased with grade level.