By Carol Reeves
Gazette-Times reporter | Posted: Thursday, October 9, 2008 12:00 am
Hoover Elementary and Philomath Middle School excel
More than 200 bright yellow volunteer nametags hang on a large bulletin board in the office at Hoover Elementary School. On any given day, dozens of parents grab their personal ID tag and spread out into the classrooms, library or gym to help children do math, read or learn a new sport.
At Philomath Middle School, the entire student body meets weekly with teachers and other adult staff in small groups as part of a school-wide effort to "banish anonymity." Principal Steve Bell says the goal is to make sure "every student is known and has an opportunity to be heard."
According to the Oregon Department of Education, the two schools are prime examples of how the combination of the two, along with other factors, help support student achievement.
Both schools received an "exceptional" rating on their annual school report card, released by the department on Tuesday.
Bryan Traylor, Hoover's principal for two years, said many deserve the credit for the school's success.
"It's like a perfect storm of circumstances that's come into play here - a highly skilled and motivated staff, very involved parents and kids that just want to learn," Traylor said.
Each fall, Oregon releases three major reports on public schools including the recent Adequate Yearly Progress reports, state tests results and the Oregon school report cards. Of the three, the report cards provide the most complete look at how schools are performing.
Five different "grades" are possible, from exceptional to unacceptable, and Hoover Elementary and Philomath Middle School are the only two in Benton County to receive the top rating.
Bell explained the "exceptional" grade at Philomath Middle School also credited the community as well as employees and parents: "They really work hard and they work together to really dedicate themselves to the students."
Four judging criteria determine each school's rating: Student performance on state tests in English/language arts and math; student behavior, including attendance and dropout rates; improvement over the last four years in each of those areas; and the percentage of eligible students participating in statewide assessments.
The report cards also indicate how many students are enrolled in English language classes, the number and qualifications of staff and how many "expulsions due to weapons" there were during the previous year. Elementary school report cards also include class sizes. High school reports list graduation rates and SAT scores.
The irony in the exceptional rating for Philomath Middle School is that the school did not meet the yearly progress standards. One subgroup of students with disabilities did not meet the state's standards for math scores, causing the school at large to fall short of a passing AYP grade.
So why the contradictory ratings?
"AYP helps us look at where we need to put more effort into meeting the needs of a subgroup, but the school report cards look at the whole group setting," Bell said. "It can be very confusing and misleading if people don't research both thoroughly."
Another case in point is Corvallis High School, the only school in the county to receive a "low" grade on the school report card. In three out of the four categories used to evaluate schools, the high school was rated high enough to earn an overall rating of "satisfactory." Students' reading and math scores have slipped over the last four years, but the percentage of students meeting state department standards still beats the state average.
CHS students' SAT scores also are well above the state and national averages, and 97.2 percent of classes at the school are taught by teachers who meet the federal definition of a highly qualified teacher. But because the number of students who took last fall's assessment tests fell 0.005 percent short of the state standard for participation, CHS received an overall score of "low" on its report card.
Benton report cards
DISTRICT AND SCHOOL SCHOOL'S RATING
ALSEA
Alsea Elementary School Satisfactory
Alsea High School Satisfactory
CORVALLIS
Adams Elementary School Strong
Cheldelin Middle School Strong
Corvallis High School Low
Crescent Valley High School Strong
Franklin School Strong
Garfield Elementary School Strong
Jefferson Elementary School Strong
Hoover Elementary School Exceptional
Lincoln School Satisfactory
Linus Pauling Middle School Satisfactory
Muddy Creek Charter School Not Rated*
Mt. View Elementary School Strong
Wilson Elementary School Strong
MONROE
Monroe Grade School Satisfactory
Monroe High School Strong
PHILOMATH
Blodgett Elementary School Not Rated*
Clemens Primary School Not Rated*
Kings Valley Charter School Satisfactory
Philomath Elementary School Strong
Philomath High School Satisfactory
Philomath Middle School Exceptional
* A "Not Rated" grade is applied to new schools, ones with less than four years of data to analyze or where the number of eligible students is too small to meet the state's requirement for test participation.
Across the state, schools get poor marks on reports
The Associated Press
PORTLAND - The 10th round of annual state report cards for Oregon schools gave out some poor marks.
Nearly 200 schools rated exceptional or strong by the state last year saw their ratings drop a notch this year because student achievement hit a plateau or dropped.
Sluggish reading and math scores meant that two-thirds of the state's largest high schools earned a satisfactory or low rating, the state's equivalent of C and D grades.
This year's state report cards cast most Oregon schools' performance as minimally acceptable because the grading scale rewards improvement. Just 15 percent of schools were graded as significantly improved, compared with 25 percent on last year's report cards.
State schools Superintendent Susan Castillo said Oregon needs to act urgently, and said tougher high school graduation requirements that start with this year's freshman class will help.
"It will mean exposing more of our kids to more rigorous content, and we know when we do that, they perform better,'' Castillo said.
The federal Adequate Yearly Progress ratings, by contrast, grade schools on the performance of students in groups, including special education students, low-income students and those learning English as a second language.
If a single group posts low passing rates on the state reading or math test, the whole school's performance is rated as inadequate.
So, only 3 percent of schools get a grade of low or unacceptable on their state report card, while one of every three Oregon schools was graded inadequate on the federal ratings issued in August.
ONLINE
On ON THE NET: Individual school report cards are available on the ODE Web site at www.ode.state.or.us/data/reportcard/reports.aspx. A complete explanation of how the ratings are determined is available at www.ode.state.or.us/data/reportcard/docs/rctechmanual0708.pdf.