Messenger-Inquirer (Owensboro, Kentucky) July 26, 2009

HEADLINE: Aiming higher: Regional schools get good results in reading, math

By Joy Campbell

Reading and math are two core subjects -- they cross over into every other one. It's hard to imagine students succeeding in science, for example, without being able to read well and do basic math.

They are important enough that the federal government -- in the No Child Left Behind Act -- holds schools accountable for ensuring that all students are proficient in these two areas by 2014.

The rub is that the feds don't define proficiency -- that's left up to the states.

"Proficiency in Kentucky means that students have learned enough about the subject to apply it to the abstract," said Lisa Gross, spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Education.

In simple terms, it's not enough for students to be able to recognize words on a page; they must also understand them and be able to use them to communicate.

And students can't just be able to add and subtract numbers on a test and be proficient. They also must be able to perform tasks such as make change.

NCLB requires states to use their own tests, based on their own standards, and set annual goals to reach in reading and math with the ultimate goal being at 100 percent proficiency by 2014.

Kentucky uses its Kentucky Core Content Test results in reading and math and the percentage of students in grades 3-8 who score at proficient or higher to determine whether schools and districts have met their NCLB goals for the year.

Most schools in the five-county region are doing well -- performing above the state average -- according to the KCCT reading and math scores for 2007-08.

The tests use a scale of 0-140 with 100 the proficiency mark.

Some schools are doing extremely well with scores that show they already have exceeded the proficiency targets.

For example, at Sutton Elementary School in the Owensboro district, the school's math score last year was 123.43, and the reading score was 111.50.

Cravens Elementary School, also in Owensboro, scored 120.70 in math, and South Elementary School in Muhlenberg County posted a 119.97 math score.

Parents who want to know how their students' schools fared on the most recent assessment also can look at the percentages of students performing at novice, apprentice, proficient and distinguished levels.

If the majority of students are scoring at proficient or distinguished, then the schools are doing well.

The state education department brought educators together to examine students' core content work and to determine the points that mark novice, apprentice, proficient and distinguished levels.

Two districts share strategies

Owensboro Public Schools uses a variety of measures to ensure its students are making progress each year in reading and math, said Paula Roberts, director of instructional services.

All five of the district's elementary schools have Read to Achieve grants that allow them to hire reading specialists at each school. The specialists provide individualized instruction, and that has made it possible to move students along faster, especially those who start the year below grade level, Roberts said.

The district has taken an aggressive approach to emphasize math instruction in elementary schools with the employment of a math curriculum specialist four years ago for kindergarten through sixth grade and math intervention teachers at all schools that provide specialized instruction.

Sarah Lamb, the math curriculum specialist, has worked with teachers to develop math concepts. Their strategies provide relevance for students by posing real-world reasons they will need the concepts and using proven instructional methods.

A major focus at the middle school level is to provide teachers with ways to integrate reading teaching into all content areas, Roberts said.

Owensboro Middle School also provides its gifted math students with the opportunity to complete algebra I, geometry and algebra II by eighth grade and to complete a MATHCOUNTS engineering curriculum that "allows them to master content usually not introduced until advanced college math courses," she said.

At OHS, teachers meet in teams to talk about curriculum and ways to increase student literacy. They also get together with a curriculum specialist when test data become available. At that retreat, they dissect the data and decide how to use it in instruction.

OHS also provides additional individualized instruction through freshman academies, Extended School Services and strategies across all courses.

Daviess County Public Schools looks at multiple performance measures of student achievement, according to Jana Beth Francis, director of assessment, research and curriculum assessment.

They examine the Kentucky Core Content Test, and ACT's suite of tests -- ACT, EXPLORE and PLAN -- as well as Measures of Academic Performance or MAP.

"We use MAP primarily for reading and math achievement," Francis said. "We want to meet the state and national goals to be proficient."

"As a district, we want every student, at a minimum, to be on grade level," Francis said. "We also want every child to move up an academic year each year and have a year's growth in reading and math."

At the high schools, Daviess County uses ACT and PLAN as academic measurements.

"We want all high school students to look at postsecondary options, which doesn't just mean a traditional four-year college," she said. "And we want them all to be prepared, especially in reading and math. We don't want them to have to take remedial courses."

Daviess County has literacy goals and a plan in place to achieve them.

"Now, we're starting to look at numeracy goals," Francis said. "We want to try to get at the root cause of why students are not being successful in math."

Part of that process will be to help students overcome math phobia.

"You don't often hear people say, 'I don't read well,' but how often do we hear people say, 'I'm not good at math?' "

The district focuses on content, student engagement and good teaching -- putting more relevance into math. "Both reading and math are national issues," Francis said. "We're starting to see math rise to the top."

Parents can play a big role in ensuring their children are succeeding, she said.

"The biggest thing for parents is to find out from teachers how to support the academic progress of their kids in reading and math," Francis said. "There is a real need for parents to make sure their children are increasing their knowledge every year and comprehending in all areas."

Ask the teacher during the year: Is my child moving forward? And ask again at the end of the school year: Did my child move forward?

Success, for Francis, is all about "how diagnostic you can be."

Teachers and specialists often have to discover the information students are missing and replace it. "We need to find opportunities for both enrichment and re-teaching," she said. "The most successful schools I've seen are building those opportunities into the school days."

Assessment is changing

Having a national focus on reading and math is positive, but there's a reason for caution when states look at NCLB, Gross said.

"The pro side is that students need reading and math as a sound basis for learning," she said. "You can't be successful without that. So it's good to focus on them."

Another positive aspect is that reading and math are important on a "philosophical level" as an indication of how students are doing overall, Gross said.

On the flip side, the federal attention to reading and math can cause some schools to focus only on those two subjects leaving other important subjects lacking.

Kentucky chose not to do that, Gross said.

"Social studies, science, writing -- other subjects -- also are important, and we want our students to be well-rounded," she said.

Kentucky was a pioneer in student assessment with the introduction of CATS -- the Commonwealth Accountability Testing System -- which was up and running by 1993.

Schools were given target goals for improving student performance in reading, math, science, social studies, arts and humanities, practical living/vocational studies and writing and held accountable for them. The system included public reporting.

"When NCLB came out in 2001, we had to go back and make sure we were in line," Gross said. "We were able to do that without harming the validity of our system."

One major difference in NCLB and CATS was that NCLB is student-based while CATS was school-based.

With NCLB, every year, every school has a goal for a specific percentage of students to reach or exceed proficiency in reading and math with the goal for all students to be proficient.

The goal for CATS was for every school to reach proficiency.

The 2009 Kentucky General Assembly passed Senate Bill 1, which calls for a new assessment system to be implemented in 2012.

Like Francis, Gross encourages parents to stay tuned to their children's progress during the interim.

Until that new system is ready, parents should be vigilant in asking teachers and others how well their students and their schools are performing, she said.

Kentucky families are likely to continue to see the national focus on reading and math -- through the No Child Left Behind Act with President Obama's administration gearing up to put its stamp on the legislation.