Test Scores Increase, but Percentage Reaching Proficiency Remains Low
By V. Dion Haynes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 10, 2008
D.C. public school students made significant achievement gains during the past academic year, according to preliminary test data released yesterday.
The math proficiency level for elementary school students increased the most, by 11 percentage points. In 2007, the scores climbed by three percentage points. Elementary students' reading scores rose by eight percentage points, compared with one percentage point last year. Students in secondary schools gained nine percentage points in reading and math, compared with one-point and four-point growth, respectively, last year.
The number of schools making adequate yearly progress in reading and math under the federal No Child Left Behind law rose from 31 to 47.
D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee said the initial results demonstrate that the approach she used in her first year in office is working. Rhee said previously that she did not think test scores would receive a bump from her initiatives for a few years.
Although he applauded the results, Michael Casserly, executive director of the Washington-based Council of the Great City Schools, said it is impossible to draw broad conclusions about the numbers without school-by-school data, which will be released later.
"It's unclear how much of the gain was from the efforts this year and how much was contributed by the former administration," he said. There is "insufficient evidence to try to sort out which parts of the reforms produced which gains," he said.
Since taking over the system in June 2007, Rhee has been criticized for her hard-charging style, requesting more accountability from principals and teachers, increasing test preparation programs and emphasizing data-driven results.
"We made every one of those decisions because we felt that this is what was needed to happen . . . so achievement can be maximized. I fully believe we will see the upward trajectory as long as we're making the hard decisions," Rhee said at a news conference at Plummer Elementary School in Southeast Washington, where reading scores jumped 17 percentage points and math by 15. In the 2007 academic year, the reading scores rose by two percentage points and math by six.
"I wasn't expecting to see such large gains early on," Rhee said. "It's a testament to what kids can do. I believe the children in the District of Columbia can achieve at high levels."
In 2006, the number of schools achieving proficiency dropped, which officials and outside experts said then was an expected byproduct of administering the new, more difficult D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System (DC-CAS). It replaced the Stanford 9, which used multiple-choice questions and tested students on national standards.
Then-Superintendent Clifford B. Janey introduced the DC-CAS exam, which requires students to give short responses. It was part of an effort to upgrade instruction by aligning testing with new learning standards.
School system officials said yesterday that this year's gains resulted in part from programs that accustom students to the DC-CAS format.
Despite the improvement, District students still have a long way to go. The percentage of students in traditional public schools who reach proficiency is low. In elementary schools, 46 percent of students were considered proficient in reading and 40 percent in math. In secondary schools, 39 percent were proficient in reading and 36 percent in math. In many of the region's school systems, which take a different test, the percentage of students reaching proficiency is twice as high.
"No one in the administration is satisfied. No one thinks we're all the way there or close to being all the way there," Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) said at the news conference.
Still, he said, the results show that "the initiatives the chancellor is putting into place are bearing fruit and the school system is moving in the right direction."
Plummer Elementary Principal Christopher Gray said his school made adequate yearly progress for the first time in his three years there. The school, he said, made progress under the Safe Harbor provision of No Child Left Behind, which gives schools credit for making significant gains without making the academic target.
He said Rhee had schools conduct three pretests early this year to gauge student progress. Students spent several hours a week taking practice tests. Teachers, he said, analyzed the data and retaught material that students got wrong. Before the DC-CAS was administered in the spring, principals were required to devise a plan on how teachers would prepare for it.
"Principals were paying more attention to lesson plans on how teachers would cover [the topics] on the test," Gray said in an interview. "There definitely was [more] accountability for principals and teachers."
School-by-school data will be released this summer after the numbers are verified, Rhee said. The results appear to put the District on par with school systems in cities such as Philadelphia, Richmond and Dallas that have made large annual gains, Casserly said.
Deputy Mayor for Education Victor Reinoso said students in the traditional system made strong gains and were outperforming their peers in public charter schools. Although he said school-by-school charter results would be released yesterday, they were not.
Josephine Baker, executive director of the D.C. Public Charter School Board, said data will not be released until they are verified. "It's been our policy to do the necessary checks and balances to make sure the data is accurate," she said.
She said she had no information to determine whether Reinoso was correct in saying that charter school gains lagged.
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