A national report out early this year and the West Irondequoit School District’s 2009-2010 state “report card,” due out today, Thursday, Feb. 10, could have your head spinning.
For instance, at various times just this year, the district’s reported “graduation rate,” the number of students who complete their high school education and receive a diploma, will fluctuate between 83 and 92 percent.
“It’s easy to pick up numbers and look at them in isolation,” said Irondequoit High School Principal Patrick McCue, “but to me, as a whole, they show what we’re doing to help each and every student achieve at their highest potential.”
Overall, New York State provides the “report cards,” said Linda McGinley, the district’s assistant superintendent for instruction, to provide information that shows schools “are performing at levels the state and federal government expect.”
The good news is that the district, according to this year’s report card, made “adequate yearly progress,” or AYP, in all areas but one subgroup. They missed the state target, 145, for that one subgroup, 109 students with disabilities, with a performance index of 144.
“We know we’re very close, and this is an intense area of focus for us,” McGinley said.
She stressed, however, “we’re not on any list,” for missing that state target.
McGinley also points out that in a recent Center for American Progress Report, where the district was ranked for educational productivity, West Irondequoit's student achievement index rating was calculated at 88, making it third in Monroe County, behind just Brighton with 91 and Pittsford with 95.
“What that means is that West Irondequoit is high-achieving and low-spending on all three ratings,” McGinley said, “demonstrating that the quality of education in the district is an excellent value.”
What’s not on the report card, McGinley said, is the district’s actual graduation rate for the class of 2010. That rate is seven percent higher than for the class of 2009.
“We want to make it clear that substantial improvements have been made,” McCue added, noting that the district has acted to support students in a number of ways, including expanding summer programs, increasing connections between community college and high school, and providing extra help during lunch periods.
The point, McGinley said, is that the goal in West Irondequoit is for students not just to graduate with a Regents diploma, but to receive one with an “advanced” designation.
In addition, the district’s Advanced Placement performance continues to be exemplary, with 827 AP exams written — the highest number in the district’s history — in the 2009-10 school year, and 71 percent of students reaching the mastery level (the national average is 58 to 60 percent).
A national report out early this year and the West Irondequoit School District’s 2009-2010 state “report card,” due out today, Thursday, Feb. 10, could have your head spinning.
For instance, at various times just this year, the district’s reported “graduation rate,” the number of students who complete their high school education and receive a diploma, will fluctuate between 83 and 92 percent.
“It’s easy to pick up numbers and look at them in isolation,” said Irondequoit High School Principal Patrick McCue, “but to me, as a whole, they show what we’re doing to help each and every student achieve at their highest potential.”
Overall, New York State provides the “report cards,” said Linda McGinley, the district’s assistant superintendent for instruction, to provide information that shows schools “are performing at levels the state and federal government expect.”
The good news is that the district, according to this year’s report card, made “adequate yearly progress,” or AYP, in all areas but one subgroup. They missed the state target, 145, for that one subgroup, 109 students with disabilities, with a performance index of 144.
“We know we’re very close, and this is an intense area of focus for us,” McGinley said.
She stressed, however, “we’re not on any list,” for missing that state target.
McGinley also points out that in a recent Center for American Progress Report, where the district was ranked for educational productivity, West Irondequoit's student achievement index rating was calculated at 88, making it third in Monroe County, behind just Brighton with 91 and Pittsford with 95.
“What that means is that West Irondequoit is high-achieving and low-spending on all three ratings,” McGinley said, “demonstrating that the quality of education in the district is an excellent value.”
What’s not on the report card, McGinley said, is the district’s actual graduation rate for the class of 2010. That rate is seven percent higher than for the class of 2009.
“We want to make it clear that substantial improvements have been made,” McCue added, noting that the district has acted to support students in a number of ways, including expanding summer programs, increasing connections between community college and high school, and providing extra help during lunch periods.
The point, McGinley said, is that the goal in West Irondequoit is for students not just to graduate with a Regents diploma, but to receive one with an “advanced” designation.
In addition, the district’s Advanced Placement performance continues to be exemplary, with 827 AP exams written — the highest number in the district’s history — in the 2009-10 school year, and 71 percent of students reaching the mastery level (the national average is 58 to 60 percent).
That being said, the rules have changed along the way, McGinley said, which tends to skew numbers.
For instance, a federal expectation for the graduation rate of various subgroups has moved from a standard of 55 percent to 80 percent — in one year, she said.
“It can appear as though a lot of different numbers are being reported by the district,” McGinley said, “but the very specific information being requested (by the reports) has been changing in a fairly compressed time frame ... It could give the impression the district is not being forthcoming, when in fact we are being very forthcoming.”
In the long run, the many measures of student achievement “inform the work we do in West Irondequoit,” said Tamara Lipke, the district’s director of standards support.
