School system effectiveness is somewhat related to the socioeconomic status of the community and the educational levels of parents. Recent studies have suggested that early childhood experiences affect learning and development, with children from impoverished environments generally achieving at lower levels than those from more enriching situations. An article in the April 21, 1997, issue of US News and World Report, for example, supports the notion that improving social and family conditions, particularly in the early years, can enhance development.
The research of pediatric neurologists suggests that formation of synaptic contacts in the human cerebral cortex occurs between birth and age ten. In other words, most of the brain gets built after birth. (See Peter R. Huttenlocher and Arun S. Dabholkar, "Regional Differences in Synaptogenesis in Human Cerebral Cortex," The Journal of Comparative Neurology, 387:167-178 [October 20, 1997]). Higher intelligence is witnessed in individuals with more stimulation and protein in the early years of life.
Achievement has also been associated with child rearing practices, assertive mothers generally rearing children who achieve at higher levels than those reared by less assertive mothers. (See Guy Odom, Mothers, Leadership, and Success, Houston: Polybius Press, 1989.) These concepts open up many opportunities for parents and schools to work together in improving learning potential.
The effective school research has abundantly demonstrated that achievement levels between poor and affluent students can be narrowed considerably while increasing levels of achievement for all students.
Nevertheless, the criteria of effectiveness are generally met at a higher level when student populations contain a small percentage of free and reduced lunch students (an indicator of poverty levels) and the educational level of parents is high school completion or above. We can generally assume that school systems which have better entry level characteristics than the state average will meet the criteria of effectiveness at a higher level than those whose entry level characteristics match or are below the state average. Entry level characteristics used for predicting student achievement levels are items such as:
In this audit, the items used to predict the levels at which the effectiveness criteria should be met by the Marion County School District include:
Educational researchers and auditors realize that predictions and judgments cannot be made from a single indicator. Therefore, the audit uses a multiple variable approach to making recommendations and arriving at conclusions. It is the same method used by various state departments of education to establish accountability and validate school effectiveness. It was initially developed by the South Carolina Department of Education (Division of Public Accountability) and has been used in several other states.
If a number of variables indicate something, and all the variables are in the same direction, then the confidence level of the prediction, or the conclusion, is well established. This is a commonly accepted practice in educational auditing.
To establish effectiveness levels for the Marion County School District, we utilized the following conditions, as reported by the school district for the 1996-97 school year:
With the above socio-demographic profile, the Marion County School District should establish the following effectiveness levels in order to place the district's student and staff populations among the top 15-20 percent of performance for similar populations:
Section IV, Effectiveness Levels, provides the mean (average) performance for the comparison population for each variable, the performance standard at one standard deviation above the mean (the EFFECTIVENESS LEVELS), and the current status of the variables in the Marion County School District and individual schools within the district.
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Elementary Schools
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Middle schools
High schools
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Generally, groups of students achieving at a certain level in early grades should continue to achieve at that same level in upper grades. When this does not occur, a more rigorous academic program should be provided at upper grade levels. Uniform achievement from grade level to grade level is known as "value added" achievement.
Overall district achievement levels decline between the elementary and middle school levels as indicated in national percentile average scores on norm-referenced tests.
* Data on the district level (averaged) and data from individual elementary schools indicate that performance in both reading and mathematics tends to be at the highest levels in grades 3 or 4, and tends to drop in grade 5 at a majority of the schools in the district. This trend is most notable in reading.
* At most schools, and in the district as a whole, reading achievement is lower in grade 5 than in grade 1.
* In mathematics, achievement at the district and school levels tends to be higher in grade 5 than in grade 1, although grade 5 achievement rarely reflects a school population's peak performance.
These data indicate that instruction in both subjects is most effective in the middle elementary years (grade 3-4), and fails to achieve added value in grade 5 in reading at most schools.
These observations have direct implications for the greater effectiveness of the instruction of mathematics in developing students' cognitive ability at the elementary level. Effective strategies used in the elementary grades in the instruction of mathematics should be analyzed to determine what strategies, if any, could help improve reading instruction in the elementary grades. Likewise, effective teaching in reading during grades 9-12 should be analyzed to determine what strategies, if any, could be useful in improving mathematics instruction.
Norm-referenced test outcomes and criterion-referenced test outcomes cannot be equated. The CAT/5 and Terra Nova are norm-referenced tests, and achievement of Marion County School District students on these instruments can be ranked against all students in the nation. While these two tests are not exactly the same, meaningful analysis of overall achievement for grades 1-8 can be made because both tests are nationally normed. The High School Competency Test is a criterion-referenced test exclusive to the State of Florida. Because no norm-referenced test is administered to high school students in the Marion County Schools, further comparisons about the development of cognitive ability through reading and mathematics instructions at the high school level were not made.
Cognition is the process by which knowledge is acquired through the use and interpretation of environmental symbols. When groups of students achieve results which indicate aggregate performance at a particular level in one cognitive area, the group should be expected to achieve aggregate performance at that same level in other cognitive areas. Groups can do just as well in one cognitive area as in any other cognitive area (e.g., reading and mathematics). Equalization of expectations of cognition among groups should not be applied to individuals within those groups.
Data indicate that students in the Marion County School District achieve at higher levels in mathematics than in reading throughout the elementary grades. In the middle school grades, overall district achievement in mathematics is at a slightly higher level in mathematics than in reading, but achievement levels are far more uniform than in the elementary grades. Data also indicate that greater percentages of students at the high school level pass the communications component of the State of Florida-mandated HSCT than pass the mathematics component.
At the middle school level, mathematics and reading achievement are both in the forty-ninth (49) percentile for the district, indicating overall uniform achievement in middle school. At individual schools, math and reading percentiles tend to be equivalent or very close, with two exceptions: Dunnellon (Reading, forty-eighth [48] percentile; mathematics, forty-second [42] percentile) and Lake Weir (Reading, forty-sixth [46] percentile; Mathematics, forty-ninth [49] percentile).
On the high school level, the percent of 11th grade students passing the communications portion of the HSCT is higher than the percent passing the mathematics portion. This trend is the same at each school with the exception of Forest (communications, 84 percent; mathematics, 84 percent) and Vanguard (communications, 77 percent; mathematics, 78 percent).
The data indicate that instruction in reading and mathematics is most uniform during the middle school years; in spite of slight declines in overall performance, cross-subject performance during this period is remarkably even. At the high school level, the divergence in performance levels between communications and mathematics implies a decline in the effectiveness of mathematics instruction, and/or an increase in the effectiveness of reading/communications instruction in grades 9-12.
Furthermore, district personnel should examine instruction and curriculum to determine reasons for the apparent shift in effectiveness (from mathematics to reading) as students progress throughout the school system. Effective teaching strategies and approaches used in the middle school grades should be analyzed and replicated to improve teaching effectiveness across all subjects.
We recommend adding a norm-referenced testing mechanism in the high school grades to measure student achievement in reading and mathematics. Data from such test administrations can provide valuable information on which to base decisions about instruction, teacher preparation, and curriculum materials.
Please refer to Section 2, Lower Grade/Upper Grade Analysis, for student outcomes data and additional discussion on the effectiveness of the curriculum in both reading and mathematics.
The implementation of an Advanced Placement program in the high schools places emphasis on academic rigor and increases expectations for student achievement. The ability of the district to be successful in this endeavor is related to its commitment for a more rigorous curriculum in all high schools and the willingness to retrain its teaching staff to ensure successful implementation.
In the Marion County School District, enrollment in AP courses is 6.54 percent (of all juniors and seniors), below both the mean and effectiveness levels of the cohort of similar student populations. While a sufficient percentage of juniors and seniors do take at least one AP exam, the number of test takers who earn scores of 3, 4 or 5 is below the mean and effectiveness level.
District personnel should strive to develop students' ability and interest in advanced coursework, beginning in the early grades, to increase the pool of eligible students for AP courses during high school. Greater efforts should be made to encourage qualified students to enroll in AP courses.
The data indicate students are not being adequately prepared to pass the exams successfully. Performance on the ACT and SAT suggests that many Marion County students are capable of performing at higher levels on the AP examinations.
A review of the content and instructional goals of the AP course offerings, compared with the content and goals of the national AP guidelines, will help the school district better understand student performance on the culminating AP examinations. Staff development may need to be enhanced for those teaching advanced classes, and more rigorous standards may need to be established in the curriculum.
Grade Inflation Analysis
An analysis of grade point averages indicates the highest grade inflation occurs in the lowest achieving schools. This is suggestive of low expectations for those students who most need to have higher expectations. Schools with grade inflation tend to reward low quality work and grades may not reflect actual learning levels.
The Marion County School District reports that the grade point average for the senior class is 2.7762. The mean GPA for the cohort of similar student populations is 2.4 and the effectiveness level is 2.2.
An analysis of student performance data indicates that grade inflation does exist in the Marion County Schools. While SAT and ACT scores are commendably higher than the mean for the district overall, a relatively small number of students take these college entrance exams (approximately 5.6 percent of the total high school population take the ACT and 6 percent take the SAT).
To attain the effectiveness level, the district should:
(a) Establish district-wide criteria for rigorous grading standards;
(b) Train teachers in the district-wide standards; and
(c) Use data collection and analysis to monitor student grades and populations of students' grade point averages.
The benefits of rewarding high quality work and raising expectations for all students will be evidenced in lower overall grade point average, higher performance on the SAT and ACT examinations, and a capacity to achieve at higher levels in Advanced Placement and other rigorous academic programs.
Currently, student attendance is at 92.4 percent. The effectiveness level is 95 percent and the mean is 92 percent. While above the mean of the cohort group, district attendance levels have not yet achieved effectiveness. With some effort, the district should be able to attain effectiveness in this area. Disclosure of attendance goals to students and parents is often helpful in attaining higher levels of student attendance. Examination of practices in those schools which have achieved effective student attendance percentages may reveal methods to be applied to increasing student attendance in every building in the district.
Currently, the teacher absence rate (1997-98 school year) is 5.66 days per teacher per year (discretionary absence). The effectiveness level is 5 days per teacher per year, and the mean is 7. Teacher attendance is a proxy indicator of effectiveness. Generally, the higher the absence rate the less effective is a school system.
In the Marion County School District, the teacher absence rate is better than the mean for the comparison population and nearly achieves the effectiveness level.
A review of the average number of days, for all reasons, that teachers are away from the classroom may be useful as the school district designs strategies to improve the delivery of instruction, budgets for the cost of substitute teachers, and focuses on all factors that have an impact on improving student achievement.
We commend the teaching staff in those buildings where the average teacher absence per year meets the effectiveness level for the comparison population. (See individual school charts to see which schools achieve teacher attendance at levels at or above the effectiveness level for their individual school cohort.) The school district may benefit from a review of practices supporting teacher attendance, the balance of new and veteran teachers in each building, language in the negotiated teacher agreement which fosters teacher attendance, and facets of the individual school climate which contribute to this positive condition in these buildings.
The drop-out rate in this audit is established for grades 9-12 on a four-year cumulative basis. In the Marion County School District the cumulative drop-out rate is 17.52 percent (in other words, nearly one of every six freshmen who began school in the Marion County School District has separated from public education by the time he/she should graduate at the end of grade 12). The effectiveness level for this demographic group is 10.4 percent or lower. The mean is 11.6 percent.
Current efforts to reduce the dropout rate in the Marion County School District should be increased. The most effective ways, overall, to reduce the number of students who drop out of school are to provide ways for students to succeed based on concrete, attainable goals and to promote participation in school activities. The foundation for success includes the ability to read at or very near grade level and to be provided with effective instruction. Efforts to improve student achievement in reading will have short and long-term benefits in overall student success and, all other things equal, will have a positive effect on the school's holding power over high school students.
Specific strategies which may be effective in increasing the numbers of students who complete a high school education in the Marion County School District include:
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