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School must offer extra help
by Gregory R. Norfleet · News · September 18, 2014
For the second year in a row, neither West Branch Middle School nor Hoover Elementary met “annual yearly progress” requirements for reading and math under No Child Left Behind.
And while both schools sent letters to parents explaining their options for helping their child do better in school, Hoover Elementary sent a second letter to offer tutoring and other programs to pupils who scored poorly on state tests.
WBMS did not need to send this second letter because, unlike Hoover Elementary, they do not receive “Title I” money — federal education funding. Because Hoover gets Title I money, they now must spend 20 percent of it on “supplemental education services” like tutoring for children falling short of the federal goals.
Attached to the Hoover letter are three pages of state-approved tutoring programs which families may use, throughout Iowa and in other states, like Alabama, Maryland, New Jersey, Georgia, Michigan, Texas and more.
Hoover Elementary Principal Jess Burger told the Board of Education on Sept. 8 that the school sent the second letter not just to low-income families, as required by NCLB, but to everyone.
WBMS Principal Sarah Oswald, who also oversees curriculum, said the 100-percent goal is a “lofty goal we’d never meet.”
Superintendent Kevin Hatfield said that most Iowa schools are sending out some form of these federally required “School In Need of Assistance” letters because getting 100 percent of any grade to score proficient grades is difficult.
In the SINA letters, school leaders point out that the school report cards are not the only way West Branch school measure student achievement.
As of 2013-14, 100 percent of pupils in second through 11th grades were required to meet or exceed federal minimums on state tests in reading and math, known as the Iowa Tests of Basic Skills. Here’s how West Branch pupils fared:
Second grade: Reading 77, Math 75
Third grade: Reading 73, Math 71
Fourth grade: Reading 70, Math 72
Fifth grade: Reading 66, Math 87
Sixth grade: Reading 71, Math 80
Seventh grade: Reading 77, Math 88
Eighth grade: Reading 82, Math 82
Ninth grade: Reading 95, Math 91
10th grade: Reading 93, Math 93
11th grade: Reading 93, Math 95
The NCLB is most focused on reading and math as these two subjects are important to understanding all other subjects, like science, writing and social studies.
In the letters to parents, school leaders stress that WBMS and Hoover Elementary are each still “fully accredited” and “in complete compliance with State of Iowa regulations,” and that “our proficiency scores remain slightly ahead of the State of Iowa proficiency averages.”
“We are very proud of our students and of the education they receive from the staff at Hoover Elementary,” Hatfield and Burger wrote in the Sept. 5 letter to parents. “We are also committed to continuous improvement, and so will continue to seek new data and make any changes necessary to benefit student learning. We appreciate and depend on your ongoing support and assistance, and welcome your suggestions.”
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