District appeals NCLB test scores
State Dept. of Ed. response to appeal expected by Sept. 30
BY CHRISTINE VARNO
Staff Writer

The Long Branch School District has appealed the status of two district schools that the state said have not met standards set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB).

The results of the appeal of the state's In Need of Improvement status for the West End and Amerigo A. Anastasia schools are expected to be returned by the state this week, according to Long Branch Abbott Implementation Liaison Roberta Freeman.

"Our appeals were due by Sept. 5 and we were told we would hear back [from the state] by Sept. 30," said Freeman in an interview last week.

According to Freeman, the preliminary scores released by the state Department of Education (DOE) include data that does not have to be factored into the final NCLB results.

The initial finding that the schools had not met the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) standard included the test scores of students who entered the school system after July 1 of the previous year, Freeman said.

"Those students [who entered after July 1] did not receive an entire year of instruction at the schools, so we are not required to count their scores," Freeman said. "Those students still have to take the test, but we don't have to count their scores."

Long Branch school officials filed appeals with the DOE earlier this month for the grades 3-5 West End and Amerigo A. Anastasia schools, which both failed to meet the NCLB benchmarks for the second consecutive year, Freeman said.

The DOE released the test results of its NCLB AYP report Aug. 22. In addition to the West End and Anastasia schools, Long Branch Middle School and Long Branch High School did not meet the benchmarks, according to Freeman.

The West End and Anastasia schools both failed to achieve AYP in the special education category, according to Freeman, who added that when school officials revisited the data that comprises the test scores, it was found that the schools had reached AYP.

Freeman added that the state also permits schools to participate in an Alternate Proficiency Assessment (APA) program for students with "severe special needs" who are not required to take the standardized test.

The APA assesses students' proficiency through samples of their work collected from throughout the year.

"The results of APA students are not included in the scores," Freeman said, adding that districts can apply 1 percent of the scores from the assessment to the final results.

When the results for students who entered the school system after July 1 were subtracted, and the scores of the APA students were added to the West End School's results, the figures met AYP, according to Freeman.

Anastasia School also achieved AYP when the July 1 scores were removed.

"The state will check our numbers thoroughly and if they add up, the state will release whether or not we made it," Freeman said.

"If they make AYP, both schools will then be put on a hold status, which would mean they are not in need of improvement," she said.

School Superintendent Joseph M. Ferraina said he is awaiting the results from the state, and a passing grade for both schools would benefit the district greatly.

"People just look at scores as pass/fail," Ferraina said last week. "But there is more to it than that.

"It will be a boost for the people who work so hard to make it happen," Ferraina said. "[The school administration] takes a lot of pride in the work they do and in the work they have accomplished."

The Long Branch School District comprises approximately 5,000 students in 11 schools, with approximately 600 students categorized in different areas as special needs, according to Ferraina.

In order to achieve AYP, students must meet both the proficiency targets and a 95 percent participation rate in math and language arts assessment for each grade span at the school in each of 10 subgroups, which include: total grade population, students with disabilities, limited English proficient students, economically disadvantaged students, and white, Hispanic, African American, Asian/Pacific Islander and American Indian/Native American students, according to the DOE Web site.

There must be at least 20 students in each subgroup in order for that group to be counted toward AYP results.

There are 40 indicators determined by DOE officials that are based on four primary categories. The categories are grouped into two areas, participation rate and performance by all students. Those groups are then applied to the 10 subgroups that classify students.

The Long Branch student body consists of a diverse population with a student body that fills most of the 40 indicator categories, according to Ferraina.

If a school misses achieving AYP in any one of the indicators, the school is placed on an Early Warning list, according to the DOE Web site.

When a school fails to achieve AYP for a second consecutive year, the school is placed on an In Need of Improvement list, which requires the district to offer the school technical assistance to address the area that caused the school to be in need of improvement, according to the Web site.

At the West End School, 81.7 percent of the students passed the language arts test and 84.3 percent passed the math test. At the Anastasia School, 78.3 percent of students passed the language arts test and 76.2 percent passed the math test, according to Freeman.

Freeman said that even though the percentage of students passing the tests in both schools is high, an entire school will fail to meet AYP if just one category falls below the requirements.

"If someone does not have a thorough understanding of [NCLB], they could look at the Long Branch school's results and say we are really failing," Freeman said. "But that is not the full truth.

"If one subgroup is missing the mark, then the whole school misses the mark. [NCLB] means just that: every child in every subgroup will not be left behind."

Freeman said she views NCLB as a positive and important tool in the education process.

"When we see that even one subgroup falls short and doesn't make AYP, then we know where we need to look at and see what we can do to see that they make it the next year," Freeman said.

"A test is one day, but an education is a lifetime," Freeman said.