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| Crowe: We’ve got to step it up a notch |
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Posted: Monday, July 7, 2008 9:59 pm
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By LINSEY MAUGHAN
Staff Writer
WASECA — The recent release of the MCA-II test results in reading in math revealed TEAM Academy’s scores to be lower than those of the Waseca School District and the state as a whole. The Waseca charter school’s averages also dropped more than 20 percentage points from last year in both reading and math. According to TEAM Director Jody Crowe, the explanation for the change in scores is multifaceted.
Reading tests were administered, statewide, in grades three through eight and 10, while math tests were given to students in grades three though eight and 11. This was TEAM’s first year fully operating (and testing) with a class in each of the K-6 grade levels, as this was the first year TEAM had a third grade class.
The most significant drop in TEAM Academy scores was in reading, where third through sixth graders scored 68 percent compared to last year’s 91 percent. In math, the same grades dropped from 89 percent to 64 percent.
“I’m not making excuses — we have to work with every child individually, and we have to step it up a notch,” Crowe said. “I think that another thing that everybody has to realize is that our school is only four years old, so we’re in a growth mode, too.”
As a charter school, TEAM Academy approaches education in different manner than other schools. Teachers at TEAM also don’t give students practice tests to prepare for the MCA-II testing.
“The thing with us, we don’t teach to the test — we teach kids to learn,” said Chris Hering, the fifth grade teacher at TEAM. “We teach a lot of things that are not on the test; with different things that we do, our kids are doing much better than what the MCA’s are reflecting. I don’t feel it was a real accurate representation of our kids’ abilities.”
Transferring to TEAM
Many of TEAM’s students have switched to the charter school from the Waseca School District or other districts; as the school has only existed for four years, all of the students in grades four through six had at least kindergarten through third grade elsewhere.
“The true test of our ability to deliver academic excellence will come when the 2007-2008 third graders finish sixth grade in 2011,” said Crowe.
TEAM’s small class sizes are also a factor in low averages, Crowe said, as there were less than 25 students in each class, and only 10 fourth graders. Crowe calculated that with such small numbers, one student’s test score could affect a class average by anywhere from 4.16 to 10 percentage points.
Grades three through six also saw 18 newly enrolled students for the 2007-2008 school year, the entire fourth grade class among them.
“We have been the choice of parents whose children have not been doing well in the public school,” said Crowe. “The parents have chosen to move them into our school to see if we can do something differently.”
More than 60 percent of the new students who took the MCA-II test were functioning below grade level when they enrolled, according to Crowe.
“This fact alone reveals a transfer of lower academic functioning students from the resident public school to TEAM Academy, making the resident public school’s data look better and TEAM Academy’s data look much worse because of our small numbers,” Crowe said. “We will never be ashamed of working with children our society deems as ‘below average’ and will never give up on any student. We just want the facts to be known.”
Striding toward improvement
Because TEAM’s self-assessments over the past six months (through two new computer programs, DIBELS and SuccessMaker) showed similar scores, Crowe said he wasn’t surprised by the MCA-II test results.
“We’ve implemented more ways that we can find what areas the children are needing additional help in,” said Crowe. “I believe we’re on the right track; we will use the data from these to differentiate our instruction and drive our instruction, certainly.”
Crowe has recently applied for two different grants with the hope of receiving funding to hire some licensed teachers to teach remedial classes and help catch up students who are behind. Also, in a May school board meeting (prior to the release of TEAM’s MCA-II test results), TEAM Academy added a new position for the 2008-2009 academic year: a Reading/Math Coach/Title I Coordinator.
“This teacher will be working with all the teachers in developing interventions for individual students and assisting in the intervention delivery,” Crowe said, “as well as coaching teachers in math and reading curriculum delivery.”
Hering said she is looking forward to the addition of the new staff member.
“We’re really going to be happy to have this reading/math coach to help zone in and improve,” she said.
The teachers of TEAM don’t have the individual scores of students yet, but when they do, the scores will be utilized to make positive changes in the classroom.
“Our philosophy is to teach kids to learn and to enjoy learning, and to have them do the best that they can,” said Hering. “We’re going to really take a look when we get the individual student scores — to take a look at individual students who maybe didn’t fare as well as others, and that will give us a good baseline as to what to do with them.”
Parent perspectives
Since the release of the MCA-II test results, Crowe has been hearing from some parents.
“I appreciate the fact that parents are concerned and are calling, and I certainly encourage that,” he said.
Sheryl Osweiler, of Waseca, had two children enrolled at TEAM Academy for the 2007-2008 school year. This fall, four of her children will attend school there. Osweiler said she hadn’t anticipated TEAM’s lower scores.
“To be honest, I was surprised, but I’m not sure that the teachers at TEAM teach to the test,” she said. “I don’t think that much emphasis was placed on the test; they teach more to the kids than to the test.”
Although she has not yet seen her children’s scores on the test, Osweiler is confident that they’re receiving an exceptional education at TEAM. She also said that she doesn’t “put a lot of stock” in test scores.
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“They’re getting better education than they ever have,” she said. “There is no doubt that my kids are receiving a really great education.”
One of Osweiler’s sons, who is going into fifth grade, performs at advanced academic levels for his age. At TEAM, he found the right kind of education he needed through a curriculum that challenged him.
“My son has never been challenged in school before,” said Osweiler. “His teacher last year told me she just would make up new spelling words for him until he started missing some of them.”
Test scores aside, Crowe said that TEAM remains committed to working with students and parents to achieve the most success possible for each student.
“This is not blaming the kid or the parents; we’re doing what we can,” he said. “Our goal is to meet the individual needs of every child, and work with every parent to make sure we’re having the highest expectations of that child. We have some kids who are doing tremendously well — we have the whole spectrum of kids.”
Linsey Maughan may be reached at (507)837-5449 or lmaughan@wasecacountynews.com
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