Gary Moskowitz
The Glendale Unified School District is contesting recent reports
that label the district as "low performing" on the Adequate Yearly
Progress report.
California schools, beginning this year, have to demonstrate
adequate yearly progress, which means a percentage of students in
each school in each district must be at or above a proficiency level
in reading and math each year.
The AYP rates districts and individual schools on proficiency in
the two subjects and on participation, or the number of students who
took the required tests.
Proficiency was based on this year's test scores for the
California High School Exit Exam and the California Standards Tests
in elementary and middle schools. Schools that show that 95% of
students took the tests achieve satisfactory participation grades.
Initial reports released by the district Tuesday show that an
insufficient number of English-language learners took reading and
math tests districtwide, thus qualifying the district as
underperforming, said Mary McKee, assistant superintendent for
educational services.
District officials, after several high school principals said
school site-participation data received by the state was inaccurate,
have resubmitted data to prove GUSD met participation requirements.
If the state confirms that the district's data is accurate, GUSD
would be labeled as "meeting all criteria," McKee said.
"We think there was some miscoding on the pre-made, identification
labels that go on students' test booklets," McKee said Tuesday. "We
believe that many of our kids were not appropriately labeled, so we
will resubmit our information. We think this incorrect information
resulted in our 'low performing' rating, and we want to fix that."
Rosemont Middle School is the only Glendale school that did not
meet reading proficiency requirements, according to reports. The
school's high number of special-education students most likely
contributed to the school's rating, McKee said. Rosemont has about
100 special-education students, McKee said.
"Part of the problem with our participation rates is that many of
these tests were given in a three-day period, with no opportunity for
make-ups," said Terry Dutton, the district's director of assessment
and evaluation. "Our proficiency rates are above state standards, and
we feel that our proficiency rates are strong and growing. We are
above the [state] bar."
State officials talked with Dutton Tuesday and said the data
review process would take six to eight weeks to complete. The process
will delay the release of GUSD's Academic Performance Index results
until December, said Pat McCabe, an administrator in the Department
of Education's office of policy and instruction.
"This is not uncommon," McCabe said Tuesday. "Last year, we had
between 800 and 900 schools resubmit data."
