June 9, 2010

Is the Highlander School Doing Well Enough to Have its Charter Renewed?

Carroll Andrew Morse

According to Jennifer D. Jordan of the Projo, the Highlander school, a K-8 charter school located in Providence, is in danger of having its charter not renewed by the state's Board of Regents for education...

[State Education Commissioner Deborah Gist] said she is concerned by a weak curriculum and uneven test scores that continue to trail state averages.

"I don't have confidence they are on the right track because their performance declined last year," Gist said in an interview.

However, according to the most recent New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP) data available, Highlander appears to have been on a definitively positive track for a while now. At the most basic level, NECAP results show that over the past two years, more Highlander' 8th-grade students have scored proficient-or-better in both reading and mathematics than did Highlander 5th-grade students from tests taken three years earlier.

Highlander Reading Math
# of 5rd-Graders, Prof or Better
2005 & 2006 NECAP
18 14
# of 8th-Graders, Prof or Better
2008 &2009 NECAP
34 20
Change in # Students Prof or Better +16 +6

An improvement in the number of students proficient has also occurred in the last two classes of Highlander 7th graders, as compared to 4th-grade results from three years prior; and in the last two classes of Highlander 6th graders, as compared to 3rd grade results from three-years prior.

Highlander Reading Math
# of 4th-Graders, Prof or Better
2005 & 2006 NECAP
22 16
# of 7th-Graders, Prof or Better
2008 &2009 NECAP
48 23
Change in # Students Prof or Better +26 +7

Highlander Reading Math
# of 3rd-Graders, Prof or Better
2005 & 2006 NECAP
18 13
# of 6th-Graders, Prof or Better
2008 &2009 NECAP
24 14
Change in # Students Prof or Better +6 +1

But how does the degree of improvement compare to what is happening elsewhere in Rhode Island?

To begin to answer this question, we can employ a method outlined a few months ago here at Anchor Rising, based on expressing changes in numbers of students in a district who demonstrate proficiency in a subject in terms of...

  • The percentage of students who began as less-than-proficient, in cases where the number of students proficient-or-better increases, or
  • The percentage of students who began as proficient-or-better, in cases where the number of students proficient-or-better decreases.
This metric is a better means of comparing results between districts (or between schools) than are single-moment-in-time comparisons of proficiency levels, because considering the change over time begins to incorporate the fact that different school districts are working with students who are beginning from different achievement levels, and a school that has 50% of its students proficient now when only 30% were proficient three years ago (28% of less-than-proficient students improved) might be viewed as doing as well or better than a school that has 80% of its students proficient now and had 80% proficient three years ago (0% of less-than-proficient students improved). More of the rationale and some caveats and limitations of this method as applied to NECAP data is discussed here.

Making the usual disclaimer that comparing NECAP results from different years is only an approximation to results describing a true cohort of students, because the publicly distributed NECAP data doesn't contain the information needed to adjust for student mobility in and out of a districts over a multi-year score-comparison period, the change in Highlander's proficiency percentages, as compared to other Rhode Island school districts over the same three-year period, shows that the percentages of students at Highlander who moved to proficiency relative to the number of students who began the three-year stretch as less-than-proficient 1) are significantly higher than the district-average changes in most RI urban communities and 2) are often comparable to results in suburban districts.

The details are displayed in the tables below. 6th, 7th, and 8th grade reading and math results from the NECAP summed over the last two years and compared to results from three-years earlier are included for Highlander, 4 urban districts (Providence, Pawtucket, Central Falls, and Woonsocket), and the two districts which would rank immediately above and immediately below Highlander, according to the metric described above, if Highlander were a district unto itself.

Rank Community # of '08/'09 8th-Graders, PoB at Reading # of '05/'06 5th-Graders, PoB at Reading Change in # PoB at Reading, between 5th and 8th Grades # of '05/'06 5th-Graders, LtP at Reading Change in # PoB at Reading, as % of '05/'06 5th-Graders LtP(+) or PoB(-)
7 Narragansett 216 195 21 57 36.8%
- Highlander 34 18 16 48 33.3%
8 Bristol-Warren 399 351 48 149 32.2%
23 Pawtucket 718 689 29 730 4.0%
25 Providence 1368 1338 30 2240 1.3%
32 Central Falls 192 208 -16 315 -7.7%
33 Woonsocket 390 433 -43 517 -9.9%

Rank Community # of '08/'09 8th-Graders, PoB at Math # of '05/'06 5th-Graders, PoB at Math Change in # PoB at Math, between 5th and 8th Grades # of '05/'06 5th-Graders, LtP at Math Change in # PoB at Math, as % of '05/'06 5th-Graders LtP(+) or PoB(-)
10 Smithfield 307 291 16 121 13.2%
- Highlander 20 14 6 52 11.5%
11 Jamestown 76 72 4 35 11.4%
29 Pawtucket 519 619 -100 820 -16.2%
31 Central Falls 139 184 -45 355 -24.5%
32 Providence 922 1236 -314 2412 -25.4%
33 Woonsocket 244 372 -128 587 -34.4%

Rank Community # of '08/'09 7th-Graders, PoB at Reading # of '05/'06 4th-Graders, PoB at Reading Change in # PoB at Reading, between 4th and 7th Grades # of '05/'06 4th-Graders, LtP at Reading Change in # PoB at Reading, as % of '05/'06 4th-Graders LtP(+) or PoB(-)
5 Lincoln 478 399 79 139 56.8%
- Highlander 48 22 26 46 56.5%
6 Johnston 407 317 90 189 47.6%
24 Woonsocket 534 480 54 513 10.5%
26 Pawtucket 732 662 70 719 9.7%
28 Providence 1431 1278 153 2409 6.4%
30 Central Falls 231 223 8 295 2.7%

Rank Community # of '08/'09 7th-Graders, PoB at Math # of '05/'06 4th-Graders, PoB at Math Change in # PoB at Math, between 4th and 7th Grades # of '05/'06 4th-Graders, LtP at Math Change in # PoB at Math, as % of '05/'06 4th-Graders LtP(+) or PoB(-)
6 Exeter-West Greenwich 216 201 15 108 13.9%
- Highlander 23 16 7 52 13.5%
7 Little Compton 53 51 2 24 8.3%
21 Central Falls 147 161 -14 385 -8.7%
24 Pawtucket 509 566 -57 833 -10.1%
27 Providence 933 1073 -140 2690 -13.0%
31 Woonsocket 329 397 -68 603 -17.1%

Rank Community # of '08/'09 6th-Graders, PoB at Reading # of '05/'06 3rd-Graders, PoB at Reading Change in # PoB at Reading, between 3rd and 6th Grades # of '05/'06 3rd-Graders, LtP at Reading Change in # PoB at Reading, as % of '05/'06 3rd-Graders LtP
8 Chariho 411 386 25 136 18.4%
- Highlander 24 18 6 33 18.2%
9 Narragansett 173 166 7 39 17.9%
14 Pawtucket 705 669 36 709 5.1%
15 Providence 1465 1367 98 2408 4.1%
16 Central Falls 231 220 11 310 3.5%
18 Woonsocket 501 497 4 546 0.7%

Rank Community # of '08/'09 6th-Graders, PoB at Math # of '05/'06 3rd-Graders, PoB at Math Change in # PoB at Math, between 3rd and 6th Grades # of '05/'06 3rd-Graders, LtP at Math Change in # PoB at Math, as % of '05/'06 3rd-Graders LtP(+) or PoB(-)
15 Pawtucket 614 551 63 847 7.4%
- Highlander 14 13 1 37 2.7%
16 Johnston 269 271 -2 230 -0.7%
24 Central Falls 154 162 -8 386 -4.9%
31 Providence 967 1088 -121 2742 -11.1%
32 Woonsocket 365 413 -48 635 -11.6%

The initial conclusion is that, over the most recent three-year stretch, Highlander and Highlander students seem to have shown an improvement in both reading and math that is comparable to districts not usually considered to be in crisis, at least within the intra-Rhode Island world of education policy (with the results from 3rd-to-6th grade math being on the bubble). But as always, when giant charts of numbers are presented at Anchor Rising, the floor is open for commenters to offer their own analysis and suggestions for refinement...