2-year CATS scores climb

By Laura Hagan
lhagan@owentonnewsherald.com

Elementary school sees 2.8 point increase

For Owen County Elementary School, this year’s Commonwealth Accountability Test Scores (CATS) showed a significant improvement.
With a previous academic index of 70.8, this year’s index was 71.0, two-tenths of a point higher. Since 1999, the index has risen close to 11.5 points, growing higher each year.
Scores were released in seven content areas. The school increased its scores in four and fell in three of the areas. The school improved in the areas of reading, mathematics, social studies and practical living. In those subjects, less than 10 percent of the students scored a novice. They did poorer this year in the areas of science, arts and humanities and writing, with more than 10 percent of the students scoring a novice.
While the school has not yet met its goal for growth accountability, its accountability index has also increased, from a 72.4 to a 72.9. The goal for the school index was 77.4. Each year the school must also lower the number of students who score in the novice category. This year, 23 percent of elementary schools received a novice score, the lowest possible on the test.
Principal Charlotte Elkins said she would have liked the school to meet its goal index, but said she is “very pleased with how hard the teachers and students worked.”
She attributed the higher scores to that hard work and the students’ better understanding of the core content. There were also a number of students who scored a high novice because they scored right on the line between novice and apprentice.
The school has implemented a Web-based diagnostic program that will show which students need work in which areas. It is one of the “necessary changes” Elkins said needs to be made to reach the school’s goal in the next two years.
Superintendent Mark Cleveland said the elementary school is not in jeopardy of needing assistance. He also said that though the primary school is not responsible for any testing, its teachers and administrators are “complicit in the results shared at the elementary school.”
In all schools, not just the elementary school, Cleveland said teachers and administrators know what needs to be done, it is just a matter of implementing the right plans.
“It is up to leadership to make sure that gets done,” Cleveland said.
Barbara Newcomb teaches fifth grade at OCES. She said she focuses on a number of subjects: practical living, science, language arts, economics and geography. Like any other teacher, she is responsible for making sure the students learn what they need to know before they move on to the next grade.
She said she is pleased with this year’s improvement and said the teachers are hopeful they will see a dramatic increase in upcoming years.
“I think the scores have improved because teachers and students are working extremely hard to reach our goal,” Newcomb said.
With the upcoming changes in CATS testing, Newcomb and others will have to change the way they prepare their students for the tests. While they will continue to teach Kentucky Core Content, the Program of Studies and Academic Expectations, fifth-grade teachers will put more emphasis on open-response writing. On-demand writing has been moved from the fourth grade test to fifth grade.
Newcomb said she plans to have her students practice writing every day. She also wants to collaborate with other teachers and spend some time focusing on vocabulary.
“I feel the most important thing I can do as a teacher is to instill confidence in my students so they can reach their potential,” Newcomb said.
Elkins said she has high hopes for the school’s program and believes it will affect scores the next biennium. Next year’s testing will be different, so the school is working to prepare students not only for the subjects they did poorly in, but those they excelled in as well.
“You may have a child who does great in one math concept but not another,” Elkins said. “As a school we work to make sure all children are learning the utmost they can learn.”

Middle school’s biennium increase is 6.4 points,

scores fall from 2005

Their scores rose considerably last year but Bowling Middle School saw a decline overall on this year’s CATS tests.
Last year, BMS had a total academic index of 67.6, up more than seven points from the previous year. This year it dropped two points. The accountability index also dropped two points. Though the school is still progressing overall from where it was in the past, the school remains in assistance.
“I’m disappointed we didn’t get out of assistance,” Principal Jo Ella Wallace said, “but I’m happy the school is progressing.”
Assistance means the help of a scholastic review, in which a team of educators comes into the school and observes the teachers and administrators. The team evaluates what needs to be changed for students to do better on next year’s test. The scholastic review is done every two years if the school is deemed to be in assistance. It will be done at BMS sometime this fall.
This year, scores in five of the seven test areas fell. Social studies scores increased by .97 and practical living scores increased by four points.
The accountability index also fell – from a 71.2 to 69.3.
Superintendent Mark Cleveland calls the middle school’s results the most heartbreaking, because though they did make the most gains in their scores, they also had the most to make up.
On Monday, a Data Day was set up for teachers and administrators to see the good and the bad of what happened with last year’s tests. Cleveland said the tools were there in each school for implementation to take place.
“We are at a point that we can no longer develop a plan and then walk away from it,” Cleveland said. “We need to make sure it is implemented and evaluate it at various steps to make sure we are getting the results we desire.”
Like OCES, the middle school has implemented a new program that will show a student’s strengths and weakness within each subject area. The middle school uses a test called “Explorer” that eighth-graders are given at the beginning of the school year.
It will show the student where they excel and also serves as a helpful transitional tool for high school. Wallace said it will provide a lot of information for both parents and teachers and the proper changes can be implemented when the results are received in November.
In addition, next year’s testing will change for all of the schools. For BMS that means on-demand writing moving from seventh-grade to eighth-grade and the practical-living test being a part of the seventh-grade test rather than the eighth-grade.
While the scores were not what Wallace expected, she said she is pleased with the hard work of students and teachers and said she wants the students to do the best they possibly can.
“We have to start from here, working toward next year,” Wallace said. “You can’t change what happened in the past.”
Marsha Derringer is a member of the Site-based Decision-making Council and also a parent of a student at BMS. She has seen the results from different points of view.
As a member of the Site-based Council, Derringer said she will be able to look at the scores and help determine some strategies that will help target areas where scores were low. The council will meet again the second week of October
As a parent, Derringer said on test days she makes sure her daughter gets a good night’s sleep, eats breakfast and does not stress. She understands the importance and the emphasis put on the testing and said she believes the test is a good tool to see how the schools are impacting students.
“But I don’t think how well my daughter does on the test will make or break her career,” Derringer said.
She said she does think the school is responsible for its scores but also said that even though a student may have the best teacher, the students themselves are the ones ultimately responsible for the results. As a parent, she said she doesn’t worry about the test and trusts her daughter to do well. She added she does think the tests last too long, and it can be a stressful time.
“This is only one form of assessment that shows how the school does,” Derringer said. “It is important, but it isn’t the only one.”

High school scores climb 1.7 points over 2-year period

On this year’s CATS test, Owen County High School showed more of an improvement in non-academic areas, but the improvements weren’t enough to offset drops in academic areas and move the school closer to its goal.
Attendance rates were higher this year for the school, increasing from a 92.3 to a 93.2. The dropout rate was lowered by three points, from 6.3 percent to 3 percent.
The retention rate decreased considerably, from 13.88 percent to just 3.3 percent. One of the most important non-academic measurements is that of a successful transition to adult life, which was reported this year to be at 99 percent, up almost five points from last year.
As far as academics though, scores went down in six of the seven areas tested, with scores increasing only in mathematics.
As a result, the accountability index was lower this year as well, from 74.6 to 71.5.
Like the middle and elementary schools, the high school fell considerably short of its goal as well.
Superintendent Mark Cleveland said the school should take pride in its improvements, but he said he expected more of an increase than the school reported. He added that he’s not satisfied that the school is just two-tenths of a point away from being in assistance.
Compared with surrounding counties, Cleveland also said he believes Owen County can do better.
“The leadership at OCHS is relentless towards moving every child toward proficiency,” Cleveland said, “and the staff is beginning to understand that to move forward we must move each individual (student).”
Cleveland has met with each of the principals and said he is confident that each has the ability to improve their scores. He said he sees the quickest way to turn novice scores into apprentice scores and higher is to identify those who are scoring at the novice level and help them, while keeping those who scored higher from lowering their scores.
A “Data Day” was held on Monday for teachers and administrators at all three schools to look at and discuss the scores. It is the first time a day has been set aside for discussion of CATS scores. District Assessment Coordinator Mark Cooper said the day was scheduled to look at the causes for the scores.
Cooper said the trend in the district seems to be that the students are scoring better on multiple choice questions than they are on open response questions. The open response questions are worth 67 percent of the test.
He said he believes the students have the knowledge they need to get better scores, but it is just a matter of applying that knowledge.
With 50 to 70 percent of students scoring ones and twos – the lowest scores for open responses – Cooper said it is important the students know how to “attack” the open response questions. He said he wants to make sure students answer all parts of their questions, understand the vocabulary and are able to see responses that have earned threes and fours.
Principal Tim Hitzfield said he is proud to see the changes in the non-academic areas, stating that the attendance level and successful transition to adult life level are the highest the school has reported since 1999. The dropout and retention rates are the lowest they have ever been. These areas count for 10 percent of the test.
Hitzfield said he’s not pleased that the only content area in which scores went up was in math, but he said new programs and expectations put in place in the school last year are part of the equation.
“It takes a while for people to adjust to new programs,” Hitzfield said. “I think the next biennium we will see the rewards of the work put into them.”
He also stressed a level of accountability from both teachers and students and said there is a bar that is continually being pushed. He said he believes that programs must be in place for three to five years before results can be seen.
“You can’t change things based on a year,” he said.

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