Students exceeded state averages

Baker School District students performed above the state average in most areas of standardized testing in 2008-09.

But the district fell short of the federal No Child Left Behind requirements for all students to make adequate yearly progress (AYP), the district’s director of instruction and federal programs reported Tuesday night.

Beth Bigelow reviewed AYP results and district report cards with the Baker School Board.

Directors Ginger Savage and Lynne Burroughs attended Tuesday’s meeting in person. Deon Strommer, board chair, joined the meeting via telephone from Portland where he has been working for the past several months. Directors Damien Yervasi and Rusty Munn were absent.

The state Department of Education publically released AYP results and district report cards last fall.

“The point is not to mean we are a failing school,” she said. “It is just to show we have areas where we need to improve.”

The report shows that 58.09 percent of Baker Middle School students with disabilities met the math requirements. That figure narrowly misses this year’s AYP math target of 59 percent, Bigelow said. Those students also did not show the academic growth that could have brought the middle school into AYP compliance.

BMS students with disabilities also fell short of the 60 percent target for students meeting English and language arts standards, with 44.74 percent meeting standards in that subcategory. They also failed to show the required academic growth.

“That doesn’t mean the middle school is not doing a good job,” Superintendent Don Ulrey said. “We have to keep in mind that we are a very strong district. We want to show we have made strong grades.”

Mindi Vaughan, BMS principal, said the report was especially discouraging for her because her BMS students with disabilities showed “the most growth we’ve had,” but still did not meet AYP requirements.

Bigelow said the targets will increase each year until 2014, when under the No Child Left Behind Act, districts will be expected to have all students meeting standards.

“As targets get so high, we’re going to look at growth,” Vaughan said. “We know that the target’s there and we’re going to do our best to meet it.”

Baker High School met AYP requirements, but the report shows that economically disadvantaged high school students did not meet the math target (56.66 percent met, short of the 59 percent target). Those figures include all district high schoolers, those at BHS plus students attending Elkhorn Adolescent Treatment Center, the district’s alternative school and the AllPrep Academy and Early College charter school, Bigelow said.

South Baker School, which this year has been reorganized to include Grades 4-6, failed to meet AYP for the second year in 2008-09, according to the state. That moves South Baker to in “need of improvement” status and the school district must inform parents and communities that it has received the designation, according to the Department of Education.

Bigelow said South Baker was the only elementary school to fall short of the requirements.

Principals soon will be mailing out district report cards, Bigelow said. Brooklyn and Haines schools were rated “outstanding” for 2008-09  and other district schools received “satisfactory” designations.

Bigelow also reviewed the district’s improvement plan, which includes strategies to help students meet benchmark goals.

“We have a wonderful school district and everyone works really hard,” Bigelow said, in ending her report.

For more information about the district’s report card and AYP rating, go to: www.ode.state.or.us and click on “Reports.”