CASD continues to improve

From the Daily Local News:
CASD continues to improve

District overall among region's most improved
Monday, September 27, 2010

By KATRINA DIX, Staff Writer

COATESVILLE — Coatesville Area Superintendent Richard Como recently announced the school district has met the criteria for progress under federal No Child Left Behind legislation for the fifth year in a row.

State reports show the school district has continually improved its Adequate Yearly Progress standing over the last five years, although individual schools still face challenges.

Coatesville Area Senior High School did not meet its progress standards for the 2009-10 school year. The high school reached the status of Corrective Action II, the bottom bracket of the progress status levels, after repeatedly failing to meet its progress benchmarks in the same subject and subgroup since 2006.

Despite the seriousness of the school's status, the school has improved over last year, when it met seven out of 10 targets for academic performance.

This year, the high school met nine out of 10 targets. The only area in which it has still failed to meet Adequate Yearly Progress is in reading standards for the special education subgroup.

This means that the high school has met Adequate Yearly Progress for mathematics standards in all subgroups, an area that has been a primary challenge since the federal legislation was enacted.

"We had the fourth-largest increase in our mathematics scores at the high school level in the Delaware Valley," Como said. The Delaware Valley includes Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery counties.

District mathematics specialist Teresa Powell said the gains are partly due to a new mathematics seminar support program. Students are placed in the program after being identified through exam scores, feedback from teachers and a diagnostic test in the computer-based Measures of Academic Performance program, Powell said.

Math seminar students participate in a small, supplementary, half-credit class year-round, every other day, in addition to an algebra or geometry class, she said. In addition to the diagnostic test, the Measures of Academic Performance provides a prescriptive, interactive program.

"It's definitely based on student needs. Five to 10 students participate in one classroom, so teachers can work in very, very small groups to give the students exactly what they need," Powell said.

The district has also implemented several supplemental programs that focus on neglected areas at the middle and elementary schools.

"We never got to Chapter 12, which is measurement. We never got to Chapter 11, data analysis. So we pulled those two major chapters out of the textbooks and created a course so that we knew every student would be exposed to those concepts," Powell said.

The district also identifies individual needs based on multiple test scores, teacher recommendations, and the Measures of Academic Performance test itself, she said.

This year, the district is implementing similar programs in language arts, Como said.

According to state records, other schools in the district have come out of warning levels this year.

Scott Middle School holds the status of "Making Progress" because it is in its first year reaching Adequate Yearly Progress after having failed to make it for two consecutive years in the same subject.

Scott Middle must make Adequate Yearly Progress again this year to be considered back on track; otherwise, it will drop to the next level of school improvement status past its original warning level.

Caln Elementary made sufficient progress after having slipped for the 2008-09 school year. Because it did not make Adequate Yearly Progress for only one year, it was only placed on warning and is now considered back on track.

Reeceville Elementary made sufficient progress for the second year after failing to meet standards for two years in the same subject, and has moved out of Making Progress status.

North Brandywine Middle School also moved out of Making Progress status for making Adequate Yearly Progress for the second year after failing to meet standards for three years in the same subject.

The district's challenges have primarily been in the category of Academic Performance.

The district has consistently met requirements for the two other categories used to determine Adequate Yearly Progress, Attendance/Graduation and Test Participation.

State records for Coatesville's academic performance are available at http://paayp.emetric.net.

To contact staff writer Katrina Dix, send an email to kdix@dailylocal.com.