Written by Andrew Melin, Superintendent
Last week, I had the opportunity to share information related to the Indiana Department of Education's recently released rankings of school corporations. This week, we want to inform our community of our individual school rankings.
The state's Public Law 221 accountability system is based upon two important measures: 1) Performance, overall student passage of required state assessments in the spring of 2011; and 2) Improvement, improved passage on those required state assessments either from 2010 to 2011 or over a three-year average, whichever is highest.
Seven of our schools earned "A" rankings: Benjamin Franklin Middle School, Thomas Jefferson Elementary, Central Elementary, Cooks Corners Elementary, Memorial Elementary, Northview Elementary and Parkview Elementary. All seven schools had at least 90 percent or more of their students pass the state assessment.
Two schools, Hayes Leonard and Flint Lake, each received "B" rankings. Hayes Leonard had 88.7 percent of its students pass the state assessment, while 85.7 percent of Flint Lake students passed the state assessment. However, both schools did not meet the state's required criteria of at least 1 percent improvement to qualify for an "A" ranking.
Two schools, Valparaiso High School (VHS) and Thomas Jefferson Middle School (TJMS), received "C" rankings because both schools did not meet the No Child Left Behind Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) federal standard, which measures how a school system meets the needs of each student.
Because both VHS and TJMS have not met AYP in two or more consecutive years, they could not receive a PL221 ranking higher than a "C." Flint Lake also did not meet AYP, but their PL221 ranking was not impacted because 2011 was its first year.
The "C" ranking for each school requires additional clarification. In terms of PL221, VHS had 84.1 percent of its students pass state assessments, which was an impressive 2.8 percent improvement over the previous year and would have earned VHS an "A" ranking. However, because the school did not meet the established AYP criteria, it could not earn higher than a "C" ranking.
In terms of TJMS, 84.5 percent of its students passed the state assessment, but the school did not meet the state's required criteria of at least 1 percent improvement and would have earned a "B" ranking if the school would have met the established AYP criteria.
Each VCS school is very proud of its academic standing earned through years of dedication from students, parents, and staff members. As has been past practice, each building staff is reviewing the detailed data, analyzing what it means, and looking at ways to enhance its practice for the benefit of our students.
We remain 100 percent committed to our mission and vision statements, in which we promise to maximize the learning potential of each student in our desire to move from excellence to pre-eminence.