THE WASHINGTON POST
D.C. Schools Show Progress on Tests
By Bill Turque
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
D.C. public school students continue to improve their reading and math skills, and the achievement gap between African American and white students has narrowed, according to preliminary test results released yesterday.
The biggest gains in the D.C. Comprehensive Assessment System exams were in the elementary grades, where almost half of the students tested were deemed proficient: 48.6 percent in math (up from 40.5 percent in 2008) and 49.4 percent in reading (up from 45.6 percent in 2008). In 2007, fewer than a third of elementary students were considered proficient in either category.
Gains at the middle and high school levels were more modest. Reading proficiency grew from 39 percent to 41 percent; math proficiency, from 36 percent to 40 percent.
The annual exams, given in grades 3 through 8 and to high school sophomores, provide a much-awaited snapshot of Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee's effort to transform the District's 45,000-student school system, widely regarded as one of the country's weakest.
The results also are important because federal officials use them to assess whether schools have achieved "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) toward proficiency benchmarks established by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Persistent failure to reach those targets can trigger provisions in the law that would require Rhee to make drastic changes in a school's staff or academic programs.
On that count, District schools lost ground this year. Just 27 percent of public schools -- 34 of 128 -- made AYP. That is down from 31 percent -- 45 of 143 -- in 2008. Rhee closed and consolidated some schools at the end of the 2008 academic year because of low enrollment.
This year's AYP targets require D.C. elementary schools to show that 60.5 percent of students are proficient or better in reading and 55.2 percent in math. In secondary schools, 57.6 percent of students are supposed to meet that standard in reading and 55.4 percent in math.
D.C. officials said test scores are only one factor used in determining yearly progress. Attendance, graduation rates and student turnout for the tests are other important elements.
In announcing the systemwide scores yesterday, Rhee and Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D), who is up for reelection next year after staking out school improvement as his top priority, focused on the rising numbers.
"We're thrilled at the progress we've made this year," Rhee said at a news conference on the steps of Drew Elementary School in Northeast Washington, attributing the improvement to the hard work of teachers, principals and students. She added, however, that "we still have an incredibly long way to go."
Test scores also rose at public charter schools, which serve about 25,000 District children. They registered their biggest gains at the secondary level, increasing math proficiency by nine percentage points and reading by nearly seven points.
"These results underscore the continued success of D.C.'s vibrant public charter school reform," Robert Cane, executive director of Friends of Choice in Urban Schools, a charter advocacy organization, said in a statement. "These superior growth results reveal that the longer students remain in D.C. public charter schools, the better they do academically."
As with public schools, however, the number of public charter schools making AYP also declined, from 18 of 58 in 2008 (31 percent) to 13 of 73 (18 percent).
Test scores for individual schools will be available in about two weeks, the district said.
Perhaps most striking was the change in what many education experts regard as the most alarming of all testing statistics -- the gap between scores of white and African American students in public schools. Rhee reported yesterday that last year's narrowing of the achievement gap continued in 2009 across all grade levels and subject areas. The gulf between secondary math students closed by 20 points, from 70 to 50 percent.
Public school scores overall did not improve at the same rate as they did between 2007 and 2008, when elementary proficiency levels in reading and math rose eight and 11 points, respectively.
Some parent activists reacted cautiously to yesterday's announcement, saying they wanted to scrutinize the school-by-school numbers.
"The one thing Rhee and the mayor seem to be very focused on is PR. I'd want to be able to slice the data myself before I'd get really excited," said Mary Melchior, a parent at Langdon Education Campus, a school in Northeast that runs from pre-kindergarten through grade 8.
This is the second round of test scores on Rhee's watch. Most experts say it takes at least three rounds of testing to determine the effect a school district's leadership is having on classroom achievement.
Rhee attributes the continued progress to improved teaching methods that are starting to take hold, including "differentiated" instruction tailored to the individual needs of students and more strategic use of test data to identify academic weaknesses. A new school staffing model added 144 full-time "professional developers" to help teachers improve their skills
Rhee mobilized the schools to prepare students for the annual assessment tests, establishing "Saturday academies" to offer extra instruction to students on the cusp of proficiency-level scores.
She also diverted significant amounts of classroom time to test preparation, with a special focus on the written portions of the reading and math tests, or the "Brief Constructed Response." In the weeks leading up to the April exams, the BCR Initiative required students in all classes, including music and art, to practice writing the short essays.
Rhee also cited the leadership of the many principals she put in place at the beginning of the 2008-09 school year. She and Fenty selected Drew Elementary as the backdrop because of the leadership of Kimberly Davis, a young principal promoted by Rhee. Drew's reading scores grew by 18 percentage points, and its math scores rose by 28 points this year, Rhee said.
The District will learn more about where students stand relative to their peers in other cities this fall when it receives math test results from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The test evaluates math, reading and science skills of fourth- and eighth-graders in 11 urban school systems, including the District, New York, Chicago and Atlanta.
The most recent scores, from 2007, showed D.C. schoolchildren at or near the bottom in every measure. Reading and science scores are expected to be available sometime next year.