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Joseph
Phillips:
The Birds and The Beese
Dip
in Test Scores at Tibby Linked to Teacher Pregnancies, Illnesses
School being
monitored by the state after 23-point API dip as part of a program
for underperforming schools
By
Allison Jean Eaton
Bulletin Staff Writer
COMPTON – A
local elementary school is being monitored by the state because the
school’s standardized test scores fell last year, which the principal
links to several teachers having been sick or out on maternity leave.
A School Assistance and Intervention Team (SAIT) will now assist Ardella
B. Tibby Elementary School as part of the Immediate Intervention/Underperforming
Schools Program (IIUSP), in which the school several years ago volunteered
to participate.
The program, established by the state in 1999 to assist schools that
scored below the 50th percentile on achievement tests, provides schools
with funding to develop and implement an action plan aimed at raising
scores. In turn, each school is required to meet its API growth target
schoolwide and in all significant subgroups.
Schools that do not meet their targets after 36 months, or three years,
face sanctions including being required to work with a SAIT, which
is contracted by the district and will investigate and provide intensive
support and monitoring to assist in implementing corrective actions
and boosting achievement.
Principal Fredricka Brown, who took charge of the school in 2004, said
the decision to participate in IIUSP was made before she came on board.
During the first year of participation, Tibby was granted $50,000 to
develop its action plan. For the next three years, it received $250
per student to implement the plan, which up until last year appeared
to be working.
Test scores at Tibby had steadily risen until the 2006-07 school year.
In 2002, the school’s API score was 590. The next year it rose
to 612, and then to 624, 669 and 688 the next three years respectively.
But last year, its API saw a 23-point downturn.
Brown said that based on all of the available data, she believes the
decrease in scores is related to four teachers that school year being
out on maternity leave and two others being out due to serious illness.
“That particular year we faced some challenges… Several
classes had an ongoing substitute whether they were long-term subs
or they
were day-to-day subs, so there was no consistency in the instruction,” Brown
said.
“This is why it’s imperative that we have permanent teachers
in all our classrooms, because children need stability in order to
learn
at the rate they should,” said school board member Satra Zurita.
Board member Marjorie Shipp added that the district needs to ensure
it is utilizing qualified substitutes who “care about being here
and are not just here for a paycheck.”
Tibby’s SAIT will focus on English language arts and math. An
academic program survey will be completed and, based on that, the SAIT
will compile a report of findings and recommendations for corrective
actions, which will require school board approval before being submitted
to the state Department of Education.
In order to exit IIUSP after being identified as state-monitored, a
school has three years to make significant growth for two consecutive
years or achieve a decile rank of six or higher in any year.
Brown said the school is shooting for the latter.
Superintendent Kaye Burnside Ed.D. said the associate superintendent
will “be spending a whole lot more time on site” to “nip
this issue in the bud.”
“Teachers having babies – I have a little bit of a difficulty
when we align our lack of improved student achievement with teachers
having babies, so we just need to look at our practices,” Burnside
said.
Brown said she’s not trying to use pregnancy as an excuse and
that, according to all the data, signs point to the high frequency
of substitutes last year.
“This has been something that I was very disappointed in, as
well… But
when I looked at all the data, and I looked at those classrooms with
teachers that were pregnant, the scores did go down in those particular
classrooms,” she said.
“We had a little setback, but I think everybody’s on track
now and we are ready to move forward.”
A look at the school’s subgroup scores from last year shows that
African-American students scored far below their Latino counterparts.
Surprisingly, English language learners outscored students who speak
only English. Overall, the highest scores were earned by third graders,
while the lowest scores were earned by fourth graders.
Burnside said that Tibby’s SAIT process will be woven into the
district’s DAIT, or District Assistance and Intervention Team,
process, which Compton Unified is required to complete under the No
Child Left Behind Act because it has for five years in a row failed
to make adequate yearly progress as per the federal government’s
standards.
The district last month under state mandate hired Achievement Equity
LLC, a state-certified DAIT, at a cost of $325,000"
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