Crunch time: Improving middle school math scores

By NATE HUBBARD/Staff

The Wythe County school system unveiled its latest battle plans Wednesday morning to conquer middle school math scores that again fell short of minimum state standards during the 2008-09 school year.
Marcy Olinger, the school system’s supervisor of elementary education, gave a presentation to the School Board that was met with mixed reviews as the governing body questioned whether the new tactics were all that different from the not-good-enough strategies of the past.
Last month, Olinger presented preliminary and unofficial results tabulated by the school system that showed two of the county’s three middle schools still short of the minimum 70 percent pass rate on math Standards of Learning tests.
Since the September meeting, last year’s results have been certified by the state; there was no change in the scores, however, from the school system’s projections.
Rural Retreat Middle School achieved full accreditation after 74 percent of its students passed their math SOLs. But only 67 percent of Scott Memorial Middle School students passed their math SOLs and Fort Chiswell Middle School’s math pass rate was even lower at only 58 percent.
SMMS and Fort Chiswell are accredited with warning for the third consecutive year, meaning they are two of only 17 of the state’s 1,867 schools that have that designation.
If they fail to reach 70 percent pass rates in 2009-10, they will be denied state accreditation for the 2010-11 school year.
In 2009-10, only four schools in the state are unaccredited, the lowest ranking on the state’s scale. The four unaccredited schools represent only 0.2 percent of the state’s schools, meaning 99.8 percent of Virginia schools are performing better than the lowest level that two Wythe County schools are on the brink of tumbling to next year.
Even though Rural Retreat jumped above the minimum 70 percent pass rate last year, Olinger said the school is still included in the improvement plan.
Olinger said one of the big new focuses in the latest plan, which was developed with the help of state consultants, is zeroing in on each student’s progress.
She presented a three-tiered, color-coded system for ranking students when analyzing data from practice tests taken throughout the year.
Olinger said students will be ranked as “benchmark,” “strategic” or “intensive.”
Benchmark students are generally progressing well, strategic students are not meeting targets in at least one area and intensive students are repeatedly struggling with many skills.
When tests results are analyzed, Olinger said teachers are being instructed to use red, yellow and green highlighters to make the three levels easily visible.
In addition to analyzing each student’s results, Olinger said each question will also be reviewed in the same manner to determine if there are certain areas that many students are struggling with.
Another change Olinger emphasized Wednesday was that students are being given “mini-assessments” every five weeks instead of tests only every nine weeks. The additional tests, she said, will give teachers a chance to catch problems quicker and begin remediation interventions.
School Board member Coy McRoberts questioned whether the students should be tested even more frequently, citing every three weeks, but Olinger said there still has to be time to teach.
Olinger and McRoberts’ exchange prompted Harry Pope, a candidate for McRoberts’ soon-to-be vacant seat in next month’s elections, to speak up from the audience.
Pope, a former teacher, expressed frustration at the emphasis in the improvement plan on the analysis of test data.
“You can’t put more weight on the pig just by weighing it every day,” he said.
After Olinger went on to detail the color-code system, Pope again broke in to protest that the school system’s solution to improving scores is overly complicated.
“I’m looking for simple explanations for what we need,” he said.
Olinger, however, responded back that the middle schools wouldn’t still be struggling if there was a simple way to bring up the low math scores.
Early in Olinger’s presentation, School Board member Deborah Crigger also asked the supervisor to explain what exactly was different about the new plan.
While Olinger went on to explain some of the new strategies such as additional testing throughout the year and the emphasis on analyzing test data on the individual level, she also stressed that some of the aspects of the latest plan that are continuations from past plans have worked at least to some degree.
Although Scott Memorial and Fort Chiswell are still accredited with warning, both of their math pass rates are at least moving in the right direction as both school’s scores improved last year compared to the 2007-08 tests.
One of the strategies that has been used in the past but will be continued to be stressed this year is improving student’s understanding of the vocabulary used on the SOLs.
Superintendent Lee Brannon said students often may know how to do a computation, but may not understand what a question is asking them to do because of unfamiliar terminology.
School Board member Stephen Sage, who has worked as a state consultant, expressed confidence that the improvement plan will lead to higher scores next spring.
He said most schools that have implemented similar plans wind up off the accredited with warning list – and not demoted to a loss of accreditation altogether, instead getting off the warning list and becoming fully accredited.
Nate Hubbard can be reached at 228-6611 or .