School officials concerned over falling test scores

Friday, Jan. 9, 2004 | 11:28 a.m.

Clark County School District officials expressed concern Thursday over results on a statewide proficiency exam that again showed scores dropping in the higher grade levels.

Results of the Iowa Test of Basic Skills were presented to the Clark County School Board at its meeting Thursday.

It's the second straight year that the scores have dropped for older students, Clark County Schools Superintendent Carlos Garcia said.

"We're making progress at the younger grades and then we seem to lose ground when they hit middle school," Garcia said. "The good news is we have very specific data to work with to try and figure out the root of the problem."

Overall Clark County students performed close to the national average.

The district tests students in grades three through eight as well as high school freshmen and sophomores.

On the reading portion of the exam, administered in the fall, 48.2 percent of the district's fifth graders demonstrated proficiency. But at the sixth grade level, the percentage of proficient students dipped to 36.9 percent. Reading scores climbed up slightly at the eighth grade level with 38.1 percent of students showing proficiency.

Similar drops occurred in language arts and math scores. Districtwide 49.8 percent of fifth graders were proficient in language arts compared with 41 percent of sixth graders. And 47.4 percent of fifth graders were proficient in math compared with 41.3 percent of sixth graders.

School Board members hearing the report Thursday night said they wanted more information and a way to compare the Iowa scores with the TerraNova results. They voted unanimously to review the scores Jan. 20.

The Iowa test replaced the TerraNova in the 2001-02 academic year.

Brad Reitz, assistant superintendent of student support services, said aggressive steps are already in place to reverse the trend, including a comprehensive reading program for middle schoolers. Beginning next year at-risk ninth graders will also participate, Reitz said.

"We know reading skills are the key to all areas of academic success," Reitz said.

Special education students in every grade tested showed the strongest gains overall of any subgroup. Third grade special education students jumped five percentile points in reading, 11 points in language, 13 points in mathematics and six points in science.

Similar gains were made at other grade levels. Fifth grade special education students gained eight percentile points in reading, 11 points in language, nine points in mathematics and 10 points in science.

Special education students at the ninth grade level improved two percentile points in reading, four points in language, three points in math and three points in science.

"This is very good news," Reitz said. "For this entire group of students districtwide to make these kinds of strides means we're paying attention to the right things."

Reitz attributed the improved scores to a shift in the district's attitude toward special education services.

Reitz said the district had been focused for "too long" on writing student learning plans for special education students, as required by federal law.

"All of our efforts were on compliance," he said. "Now our emphasis on achievement is beginning to show."

Karen Taycher, executive director of Nevada Parents Educating Parents, a nonprofit group that provides support services to families of children with disabilities, said she would be pleased to see test results that indicate the needs of special education students are being met.

"My caution would be that I don't believe there is any one measurement that tells the whole story," said Taycher, who had not yet reviewed the district's Iowa results. "I would say (the federal education reforms) have renewed the focus on what children are attaining, and that is very positive news for children with disabilities."

The federal No Child Left Behind Act, signed into law two years ago, calls for 100 percent of public school students to show proficiency in reading, writing and math by the 2013-14 academic year. Districts must show gains both by schools and by "subgroups" of students -- ethnicity, low-income, special education and non-native English speakers.

The federal law also imposed stricter requirements on districts when it comes to testing students who are not proficient in English, which had an effect on this year's scores, district officials said.

State law in the past allowed Clark County to wait until non-native English speakers had been in the district for three years before including their test scores in the overall results. Now those students must be tested after one year.

Hispanic elementary school students showed drops of six to seven percentile points this year from last year but made one- to two-point gains at the high school level. Those gains are significant given the increase in the number of students being tested.

"We added 8,800 students from the lowest-performing group and still managed to keep our overall scores relatively stable," said Karlene McCormick-Lee, director of research and accountability for the district.

In grades three through eight, the largest achievement gaps exist between:

In all subject areas black students made one to two point gains in elementary schools, four to five point gains in middle schools and one to two point gains in ninth and 10th grade, Lee said.

The district is also "ahead of the curve" when it comes to satisfying the the federal law, Lee said. School districts nationwide must have yearly tests for all grades three through eight by the 2005-06 academic year. The district is already meeting that requirement, Lee said.

Scores for individual schools are expected to be released soon, Lee said.