Local schools excel

Superintendent Walt Wegener expressed his enthusiasm for the Baker School District’s most recent performance on the state’s School Report Card ratings this way: “Yahoo!”

That was his jubilant response to the “outstanding” label awarded to four of the district’s buildings in a year that saw standards raised and fewer schools across the state receiving the top rating.

“We did a really nice job,” Wegener said Thursday, the day the 2010-11 report card results were released to the public by the Oregon Department of Education (ODE).

“I hope the community, the staff and the kids, too, celebrate that we’re performing well on the academic side,” Wegener said. “I’m very pleased by these results.”

Baker schools designated as “outstanding” were Baker High School, Baker Middle School, Brooklyn Primary School and Haines Elementary. Keating School was not rated because of its small size. (Last year, the school enrolled 25 students in Grades K-6.)

104 schools were not rated because of size or because they have not been open for at least two years.

South Baker Intermediate School, which serves students in Grades 4-6, was one of 751 out of the state’s 1,182 districts to receive a “satisfactory” rating. South Baker fell just short of the score of 90.0 in math and reading achievement needed to be named outstanding, with a score of 88.3, according to ODE statistics.

The district’s charter school, Baker Web Academy, was one of 98 schools statewide to be rated as “in need of improvement.” The Web Academy and the Early College, which was not rated on the report card, did not meet requirements of the federal adequate yearly progress (AYP) report, which was released last month. 

As a result, the entire  Baker School District received a “not met” AYP rating. 

Baker AllPrep Early College met AYP academic standards, but the school failed to meet the 95 percent testing participation target, with just  85 percent participating in math testing. That kept the program from meeting AYP in the area of mathematics knowledge and skills.

Students at the Baker Web Academy failed to meet the 70 percent math target, with just 65.57 percent of the students meeting math standards.

“We’re working to get in the right place as soon as we can,” Wegener said of the district’s charter school programs.

The superintendent noted that the district’s focus on math at the other schools has helped keep the percentage of Baker students meeting standards high despite the tougher requirements imposed by the state this year.

The district’s writing scores, which plummeted in 2009-10 when students took the tests via computer, are back where they should in 2010-11 with the return to paper-and-pencil testing, Wegener said.

The report cards also show that all Baker School District teachers are highly qualified to teach in their assigned classrooms.

That goal was achieved by setting a policy that requires the district to consider only applicants who meet the highly qualified standard as staffing was reduced, former employees retired and programs were adjusted to the four-day program implemented this year, Wegener said.

“We can’t interview anyone anymore who’s not highly qualified,” he said.

The North Powder and Pine-Eagle charter schools and the Burnt River School District at Unity also were among the 64 percent of schools statewide  to receive a “satisfactory” rating on their 2010-11 district report cards. 

The Huntington School District also was one of 98 schools to receive the “in need of improvement” designation. Huntington also failed to meet the AYP requirements of national school reform.

More information about the district report cards is available at this website:

www.ode.state.or.us.