Data dive on testing proficiency
At September’s New Hanover County Schools Turnaround Task Force meeting, proficiency scores on end-of-grade tests and rankings were unveiled. Member Scott Whisnant, the former director of government affairs at NHRMC, presented the data compiled from schooldigger.com, which pulls from the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction’s databases. (*Note: View the entire presentation at the end of this article.)
Whisnant’s presentation showed disparities between the district's schools. For example, an average 45-point gap exists between the top 12 performing elementary schools (like Ogden, Masonboro, and Wrightsville Beach) and the bottom six (like Freeman, Forest Hills, and Wrightsboro).
However, most of the elementary grades tested improved their scores compared to last year. The ones that did not were grades 4 and 5 reading and grade 5 science. Whisnant highlighted that in the rankings, which are driven by achievement scores, Pine Valley Elementary (improved by 182 spots), Gregory Elementary (226 spots), and Wrightsboro (146 spots) jumped significantly.
Disparities include racial achievement gaps on these tests. For example, the difference between White and Black students is 49 points on average — the difference between White and Hispanic students is 33 points.
Whisnant pointed out some granular details.
“Let's look at third-grade reading [test] at Ogden, Masonboro, Wrightsville Beach; they are at the 80th percentile, plus. In that same test, Black kids at Freeman, 7.7% passed. How does that happen?” he asked.
NCDPI needs at least 30 students in a subgroup on a specific test to show up, and a Black student cohort doesn’t appear at any of the top-performing schools; however, there are enough Hispanic students at Masonboro, Bellamy, and Ogden. Some White cohorts don't appear at some of the lower-performing schools.
Task force member and UNCW’s Angel Garcia said about the data for Masonboro: “I'm really curious as to the difference in the makeup of the Hispanic population at Masonboro and the Hispanic populations at the six schools on the lower half of the screen. Somebody might say, ‘Well, it's demographic difference, poverty, wealth.’ I don't know, but I think it’d be interesting to know more about how the Masonboro Hispanic student population has achieved at that level in contrast.”
Dr. Lam Pham of NC State University and Dr. Thurston Domina of UNC-Chapel Hill previously told WHQR that redistricting the schools to be more similar demographically would benefit all students academically.
Task force member Chris Furr, a UNCW instructor and former NHCS administrator, said that even when some schools are overcrowded and need to be redistricted, they’re not sending students to higher-performing ones.
When he was the interim principal at Forest Hills Elementary in 2020, he said they had a dedicated small group of parents who lobbied the board to get the school under capacity, but what they did was they shifted a “block of students from Market North Apartments, which is low-income housing and moved them to Snipes. All we did was move them from one silo to another silo, so it's almost a shell game unless something changes within that thought process,” he said.
Middle and high schools mimic these testing gaps that start in elementary school. In middle school, there is a 45-point gap between White and Black students. For Hispanics, it’s 36 points. In high school, there are 41 points between White and Black students and 31 points between White and Hispanic students.
However, according to Whisnant, the task force's ultimate goal is to address disparities within the district.
“It breaks my heart because I've worked a lot with them [some of the lower-performing schools] this year. Snipes is so happy that they've got a fantastic culture. They got off the low-performing list. They exceeded growth,” he said, adding, “We've got a school system where there's two different worlds, and so that's the whole challenge we have here.”
Snipes was removed from that low-performing list because they exceeded growth and had an overall report card grade of ‘D.’ Schools are considered low performing if they receive an ‘F’ or have a ‘D’ and ‘didn’t meet’ or ‘met expectations.’
NCDPI has looked at ways to find an alternate way of grading schools — but a change in evaluation has yet to occur. School report card grades are judged on 80% proficiency and 20% growth based on a proprietary algorithm called EVAAS from SAS. The development is mainly measured through teacher impact, comparing how demographically similar students come into the year versus how they improve on end-of-year tests.
Interim superintendent Dr. Christopher Barnes said he thought the district's only two F schools (Freeman Elementary and the Career Readiness Academy at Mosley) were an improvement from the previous year’s five. He also praised that 32 out of the 40 graded schools either met or exceeded growth.
Pushback on how data is presented
Christina Beam, a task force member and NHCS' director of communications, took issue with Whisnant presenting only proficiency data.
“I think we're doing a bit of a disservice to the educators and students at those schools by circling them in red and making them look like they're failing, when in fact, a number of those schools are banner success stories from our data from last year,” she said. “Forest Hills met growth expectations. They raised their grade from an ‘F’ to a ‘D’ for the first time since 2018. Williston Middle went from not meeting growth last year to exceeding it this year. Snipes raised their grade from an ‘F’ to a ‘D,’ and they exceeded growth. And it was the first time they have [done this] in a decade.”
NHCS board member Stephanie Walker responded, “It's not about saying who's worse or who's bad. It's about looking at the problem for a way that we can help try and fix it or at least figure it out. It's always hard to have the conversation.”
Elizabeth Redenbaugh, task force member and Coastal Horizons’ vice president of development and external affairs, said that teachers in the “low-performing schools are doing the best that they possibly can, and our students are as well, but I think what the real conversation needs to be is, as leaders in this community, we need to take responsibility for this. We're the adults in the room, and we are failing children. And people in this community think that it will not impact them. It will — when those children end up in our prisons.”
Jared Worthington, the district’s executive director of school support, attended his first task force meeting and, like Beam, voiced his concern over Whisnant's focus on proficiency scores in his presentation.
“I get very upset when I think about the people that are leading Wrightsboro and Freeman, and every one of those schools in between, and the work that they do, the hours that they put in, the struggles that they go through, the amount of blood pressure pills that they're having to take to try to do things that keep them afloat. And then we come in here and talk about how bad they look,” he said. “It ticks me off because I've been in those shoes. I've worked those 80-hour weeks, and I've killed myself to get to 20% [proficiency], and then people look at 20% they say, ‘Oh, man, you failed those kids.’ We didn't fail those kids; we grew those kids. We exceeded growth. We pushed further than the year before.”
Worthington highlighted the growth of Myrtle Grove Middle School, which his son attends.
“This year, they exceeded growth, and we're not giving them the credit. Instead, the neighborhood and public narrative is, ‘Let's find somewhere else for them to go.’ They should be going there because that school is kicking butt. [...] Sometimes, they don't come in with the advantages that I give my kids when I'm at home reading to my six-year-old daughter at night. They don't have that because sometimes they're trying to work the third shift to keep food on the table,” he said.
He continued to say that these proficiency conversations are not helping. “We say, ‘Oh, how can we help?’ And then we throw a bunch of bubbles up here and say, ‘These are all the things that schools need to do to be productive.’”
Walker pointed out that this was Worthington’s first meeting and that she appreciated his passion, but she added, “This is not a public conversation about how bad schools are. This is, ‘How do we help our schools?’ Trust me, nobody in this room feels like people at Snipes or Freemen are doing a terrible job; that is not where we are in this task force. The work is puzzling out how we help and celebrating the growth.”
She told the members that she disagreed with the current school report card model but repeated the reality that people do consult realtor websites for school performance scores and grades.
“We can be nuanced with our conversation about how well schools are doing and celebrate that, but we can't shy away from a conversation,” she said.
Whisnant told the task force that these proficiency numbers are more about the story of poverty.
“I just want to make sure everybody's clear on that. Now, race predicts poverty in a lot of cases. Discrimination predicts poverty,” he said.
Whisnant told Worthington that he didn’t think his passion was directed at him, “but I agree with you, and when I saw this, I was angry because I couldn't believe I lived in a community with [these disparities]. This year, I'm angry because I've been in those schools. I know every one of those principals. I've taken them snacks; I've taken them books; I've taken them clothes; I've gotten to see how hard they work. And I'm heartbroken.”
Whisnant thought these schools could continue to improve if they had more staff in the building, maintained consistency with that staff, and recruited more parents with means to stay at their districted school.
Worthington clarified that his issue was more with the community narrative around these schools and that having hard conversations about school performance is “very valuable.”
Task force member and Assistant Superintendent Julie Varnam said, “This is a conversation of, ‘Okay, we're not where we need to be, but dang, look at what's happening. These things are good.’ I'm so thankful to be sitting around the table with individuals who will say what needs to be said, fight for what needs to be addressed, and then keep going with the next steps.”
NHCS board member Melissa Mason agreed that the task force was a good use of time and that she’s seeing more focused attention on important issues facing the district.
According to Whisnant, another one of the task force's goals is to get to a place where, when people ask realtors, “‘How is the school?’ They’ll say, ‘It doesn’t matter; they’re all good.’”
New NHCS Septmber 2024 by Ben Schachtman on Scribd
Prior WHQR reports on the task force
NHCS Turnaround Task Force reorganizes, sets new goals
The NHCS Turnaround Task Force hears from parents about pending job cuts, support for mental health
A closer look at NHCS parents’ groups, and the significant differences in their funding capacity
NHCS task force discusses how public schools can compete against charter and private schools
The NHCS Turnaround Task Force’s ideas are taking shape
Unpacking the data behind New Hanover’s lowest-performing schools
The Newsroom: What will it take to turn New Hanover County’s low-performing schools around?
NHCS ‘Principals’ Roundtable’: Supporting Hispanic students, handling ACEs, and retaining teachers
Turnaround Task Force, Part I: NHC community discussion of low-performing schools
Turnaround Task Force, Part II: What principals need to be successful
Turnaround Task Force, Part III: What researchers say about improving low-performing schools
NHCS forms task force to address its lowest-performing schools