The WASL and “Adequate Yearly Progress”

[from an email from Leadershipnews/The Washington State PTA]

Dear Washington State PTA Leaders:

Most of you probably saw the news today about the results from the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL) tests administered last spring.  While results for individual schools varied, with some showing significant gains, in general the results statewide were similar to those from the previous year.  For more complete information, including detailed information about a particular school or school district, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) website includes state-wide and school-by-school information:  http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/summary.aspx?year=2007-08.

Tomorrow (August 28th) OSPI will release the names of those schools which have been determined not to have met the “Adequate Yearly Progress” (or AYP) requirement of the federal No Child Left Behind law.  Under that law, schools and school districts’ are expected to make gains in the percentage of students meeting the “proficient” standard on the state’s reading and mathematics test (in Washington the WASL) according to a fixed timeline, with the timeline structured so that all students are expected to meet the proficient standard by the year 2014.  Those that don’t meet the specified percentage according to the timeline are considered not to have made AYP.  This determination is made not only based on the test scores of all students in the school or district, but also on the basis of eight additional subgroups of students:  five major racial/ethnic groups, students with disabilities, English language learners and students in poverty.  If the percentage of students in any one subgroup meeting the proficiency standard does not meet the required NCLB percentage, then the school is determined not to have made AYP.

Most observers expect that the number of schools identified as not making AYP will increase substantially this year, due to a number of factors.  Unfortunately, there will likely be media reports describing the identified schools and district and labeling them as “failing”, a description that is far too general in scope and often misleading or completely inaccurate.  This in turn may lead to confusion among parents and members of the community as to the import of a determination that a particular school or district either met or did not meet the federal AYP standard.  What follows is designed to help parents and others understand what significance, if any, should be attached to a determination that a particular school or district has or has not met the AYP requirement.  Please share these comments with your members to help them sort through these issues.

Why the anticipated increase in schools not making AYP?

First, in implementing NCLB, each state had to establish the percentages required to remain on track to have every student proficient by 2014.  In Washington, rather than have a timeline that had percentages increase annually, Washington chose to increase the percentages on a three year cycle.  As a result, there were large increases in the required percentages necessary to make AYP when compared with the previous three years.  OSPI has stated that elementary, middle and high school targets went up by an average of 14 percent in reading and 19 percent in math.

Second, because test results from a small number of students are not statistically reliable, subgroup results are not considered in the AYP calculation unless there are at least a minimum number of students in the subgroup.  In the past, that number for some subgroups was 40, but for this year and in the future the minimum number has been reduced to 30 for all subgroups.  Thus, for example, if a school or district had 35 students in a particular subgroup for which the minimum number was 40, that subgroup’s results would not have been reported last year but are reported this year.  Because every subgroup must meet the required percentage for the school or district to be determined to have made AYP, the more subgroups that are reported, the greater the chances that a school or district will not meet the standard.

Third, there were recent changes in the way special education students were assessed for AYP purposes, and that may affect the number of schools or districts making AYP this year.

It’s important not to “blame” students from different subgroups if a school or district doesn’t make AYP—keep in mind that these results are based on a one-time snapshot of how students perform on a given assessment.  At the same time, it’s equally important not to dismiss the AYP calculation as meaningless or irrelevant.  What is most important is to get more information and not rely on the sweeping generalizations that you are likely to see in the news media.

What significance should parents attribute to the AYP determination of their children’s schools?

While a school’s AYP designation provides a conveniently simple way to label a school, it is, like most simplifications, highly prone to lead to erroneous conclusions.  First, the fact that a school or district has made AYP, while commendable, may not be helpful to those parents whose children are struggling in that same school.  The school may also simply not have the required number of students at each grade level in one or more of the subgroups so that test results from students in one or more subgroups were not separately considered in the AYP determination.

By the same token, because not meeting the required percentage in any one subgroup results in a determination that the entire school did not make AYP, the determination may hinge on the results of a very few students.  Of course we want every student to succeed, so we shouldn’t minimize the significance to those students who are not meeting the standard, but drawing conclusions about the entire school based on the performance of a relatively small number of students on a single test could be dangerous.

In short, parents should be cautious about putting too much emphasis on whether or not their children’s school was determined to meet AYP, and should seek additional information about their children’s performance in particular and their school’s performance in general before drawing any conclusions.

What additional information should parents seek out and where can they find it?

Most parents have a good sense of the quality of education their children are receiving in their schools.  Because that sense is based on personal observations and interactions with teachers and other parents over a period of time, it may very well be much more reliable than the results of a single standardized test given once a year.  For those who want more detailed information about how students from a particular school or district are performing on the WASL is available at the OSPI website at http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.us/summary.aspx?year=2007-08.

Also, parents want to be sure that their students are being taught—and more importantly are learning—at least at the same rate expected of other students throughout the state.  The OSPI website (http://www.k12.wa.us/resources/default.aspx) has information about what students should be learning at each level from Kindergarten through tenth grade.

Those parents whose students are struggling or who are not progressing at the rate the parents expect should make an appointment to talk with their children’s teachers, counselors and/ or principal to see what programs or assistance may be available to help their children, and to get ideas about how the parents can help their students at home.  The research is clear that parental involvement is a significant factor in making sure that children are successful in school.

Finally, those parents whose children are not struggling, or those in the community who do not have children in school, may want to considering volunteering their time or other resources, either during the school day, through the PTA or in other ways.  The reality is that we all have a stake in making all students successful as well as something to contribute toward that end.

Bill

Washington State PTA
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