The proof of Vance County elementary school students’ success on the end-of-grade tests is in the classrooms of summer school: The number of third- through fifth-graders forced into summer classes is down 20 percent from a year ago.
Schools Superintendent Norm Shearin told the Board of Education on Monday night that 208 third- to fifth-graders from Vance County’s 10 elementary schools are in summer school. The total is down from 259 last summer, the first year Vance County Schools mandated that children who didn’t score a 3 or 4 on the EOGs had to go to summer school before the two opportunities to retest.
The summer school numbers are the hardest data now to indicate whether the district had a successful testing season.
“Testing went very well, thanks to the principals and testing coordinators,” Assistant Superintendent Wright Anderson told the Board of Education in its regular meeting at the Administrative Services Center on Graham Avenue.
He said many of the numbers that will determine whether schools meet expected growth are in the hands of the state, so he couldn’t offer many testing details Monday. Instead, in an oral presentation, he offered a few highlights of what he and testing director Trudy Tidwell have discovered.
The elementary schools overall improved, some by a lot, despite performances that Anderson said were “up and down a little bit down.”
Generally, he said, the middle school results paralleled those in elementary schools, but “math continues to be an issue.”
Anderson found a mixed bag at the high schools. Scores from some courses, such as algebra I and II and chemistry, improved; on the other hand, courses such as biology, geometry and physical sciences are “problems.”
Shearin said reduced teacher turnover should help boost scores next year. He said 89.567 percent of this year’s Vance teachers are returning in August, compared with a teacher retention rate last year of 76 percent to 78 percent.
The end-of-year testing plays a role in determining schools’ ratings under the state’s ABCs of Public Education accountability system and the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The federal money that supports No Child Left Behind is Title I funding, which is meant for poor children. The school board approved the annual application for that money Monday night.
Vance County is seeking $2.4 million in federal funding, plus $371,000 of carryover money from this year to help cover salaries between the start of North Carolina’s fiscal year, July 1, and the start of the federal fiscal year, Oct. 1.
Of the $2.77 million Title I budget Vance is proposing, $691,710 would be allotted to the schools, and the rest would be set aside for various programs. All of that money is aimed at 3,817 impoverished children in the elementary school system, according the application.
Smith said the overall Title I application is little changed from the 2004-05 application. One difference is that Zeb Vance now joins the other nine elementary schools in being considered a school wide Title I site. That means poverty is widespread enough that the entire school is thought to need Title I aid.
Vance must set aside more money in its Title I account to handle potential expenses related to sanctions under No Child Left Behind. One school is on the watch list for sanctions, so if its students fell short of adequate yearly progress (AYP) on their EOGs this year, students next year will have the option to transfer to another school. The school district must provide that choice and provide transportation to the other school.
Vance has one school already under federal sanctions, Aycock Elementary. Just in case Aycock misses AYP for another year, Vance must set aside money for supplemental services for Aycock children. Those services, such as tutoring, would be available to all Aycock students in poverty.
Smith said that if the set-aside money isn’t needed for those purposes, it will be split up among all of the schools.
The board voted 6-1 to move ahead with the application; Robert Duke cast the no vote.