47 percent of LHS students receive F in algebra 1

By Larry Coonrod, Lebanon Express writer

A combination of poor scores on state assessment and college placement tests, parental concern and sanctions for failing to meet No Child Left Behind (NCLB) standards led Superintendent Jim Robinson to declared an academic emergency on Friday.

The Lebanon Community School District received a federal order not to hire more instructional assistants because students at Lebanon High School and Seven Oak Middle School failed to make adequate progress on assessment test and for not meeting the requirement that all teachers in the district be rated as highly qualified.

"The logic of the penalty is instructional assistants are less well trained, less educated and not as capable as highly qualifieds. They're saying put the money toward hiring highly qualifieds," Robinson said.

Sand Ridge Charter School is the only district school not meeting highly qualified requirements. Assistant Superintendent Steve Kelley has been working with the charter school over the past few months to resolve the issue.

"We're satisfied with the progress that's been made in assuring that all staff are highly qualified at Sand Ridge," Robinson said.

Robinson said that had the district met either the adequate yearly progress standard or the highly qualified teacher standard, the sanctions likely would not have been imposed.

The main impetus behind Robinson's academic emergency declaration is poor math assessment and college placement tests at the high school level. Adequate yearly progress (AYP) for NCLB is measured by testing students in grades 3 to 8 and 10 in reading and math. Although LHS has shown improvement in math almost every year since AYP testing began in the 2002-03 school year, it has yet to have enough students pass the math portion to receive a "met" rating.

The percentage of students required to pass has been increasing by 10 percent every two years.

"We're running a race where the finish line keeps moving away from us," Robinson said.

The student population as a whole met math academic status requirements in 2002-03, with 43.37 percent passing, surpassing the 39 percent needed for a met rating. But NCLB testing breaks students down by categories and failure in any one of those categories to meet standards results in the school receiving a "not met" rating. Only 24 percent of students with disabilities met math standards that year.

In 2004-05, the number of students meeting academic status requirements in math dropped to 38.5 percent. Math scores have been climbing gradually ever since.

Preliminary AYP results for 2007-08 show 50.34 percent of LHS 10th-graders receiving passing marks, but the standard jumped to 59 percent.

One-hundred percent of students will be required to pass AYP tests by 2014.

Scores on the state's own assessment testing show the number of Lebanon 10th graders meeting or exceeding requirements is about 10 percent below the state average since 1991.

In 1991, 32 percent of LHS 10th-graders met state math standards. During the 01-02 and 02-03 years, that number peaked at 41 percent then dropped to 32 percent the next year, climbed to 36 percent in 04-05 before dropping back to 32 percent in 05-06.

"This is a long established problem that predates the academy system," Robinson said. "It's an issue of instruction in the classroom. It's an issue of learning in the classroom."

Fifty percent of students met state standards in 2006-07 compared to a statewide average of 55 percent. Robinson said a change in how the test was administered in 06-07 made it difficult to compare to the previous years.

Other data presented by the district Friday showed how LHS students are struggling with math in ACT and Linn-Benton Community College placement testing.

LHS sophomores taking the ACT PLAN test in 2007-08 scored about a 16-point average on the math portion. A minimum score of 22 is needed to predict a student being successful at college level algebra.

Results of LBCC placement testing showed a similar trend in LHS students not being ready for college level algebra. In 2007-08, 66 percent needed remedial math classes before they could take a college credit class. In 2008, 73 percent need remedial classes.

Perhaps the starkest indicator of the math problems at LHS came from principal Mark Finch's admission that last spring 47 percent of students taking Algebra 1 received an F and another 21 percent earned a D.

Finch said he did not pull data to compare those results to previous trimesters.

Finch and other district staff will meet privately with parents of on Sept. 10 to discuss why such a large number of LHS students are failing math.

Robinson has directed LHS and district staff to convene weekly meetings to develop standards based reporting grading criteria, creating common assessments, design effective lessons based on student outcome as well as intervening with students who are not meeting math standards.