By Sarah Nagem
snagem@salisburypost.com
Fewer local elementary and middle school students passed reading tests this year in the wake of tougher standards.
In the Rowan-Salisbury School System, about 49 percent of students in third through eighth grades tested proficient on the reading exam.
Students in Kannapolis City Schools didn’t do as well. There, 46 percent tested proficient.
But school leaders say those numbers are a reflection of how the state increased standards for the reading test this year. It’s meant to prepare students for the future, state leaders say.
The more difficult tests dramatically impacted local schools’ scores.
For example, only 31 percent of Koontz Elementary third-graders tested at or above grade level. But if the old standards had been used, 70.5 percent of students would have passed.
With the old standards, more than 81 percent of elementary and middle school students in Kannapolis would have met the target, said Janet Jenkins, director of student assessment.
Both school systems fell behind statewide scores in 2007-2008. Across the state, 52.6 percent of students scored at or above grade level on the reading test and math test.
In Rowan-Salisbury schools, 43.5 percent tested proficient on both tests. In Kannapolis, 40 percent tested proficient.
“We’re disappointed that the test scores are still not where we want them to be by any means,” said Dr. Jim Emerson, chairman of the Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education.
But Emerson said the more difficult test skews the perception of how much students are learning and achieving.
“We are improving,” he said. “…It’s not that people can’t read.”
The results released by the state Thursday affect Adequate Yearly Progress results, which are part of the federal No Child Left Behind legislation.
The results of the reading test affect only three Rowan-Salisbury elementary schools, said Colby Cochran, director of assessment and accountability services.
Hurley and Overton elementary schools did not meet federal standards based on the newest scores, Cochran said. Those schools had met the benchmark in August when the state released math scores.
Title I schools, which receive extra federal money because they have a high number of low-income students, can face sanctions if they do not meet the standards. They might have to offer tutoring services or allow students to transfer to better-performing schools.
Hurley, a Title I school, already offers school choice anyway, Cochran said. Based on the newest test results, the school will continue to offer the transfer option.
Overton, which also receives Title I federal money, will be put on a watchlist but will not have to offer tutoring or school choice, he said. The school had been removed from the watchlist after students passed the math test in 2007-2008.
With Hurley and Overton falling out of the Adequate Yearly Progress success group, eight of Rowan-Salisbury’s 34 schools met the standards. All are elementary schools.
The third school, China Grove Elementary, had reading scores that were high enough for the school to come out of the school improvement category, Cochran said. The school had offered the transfer option and tutoring services.
Three of the eight schools in Kannapolis met the federal standards.
The results mean the Rowan-Salisbury system is in the federal district improvement status for the fifth year in a row, Cochran said. Kannapolis City Schools are not in district improvement.
In the past, school systems in district improvement got extra help from the state. State employees would travel to schools to offer assistance. But the state is rethinking its processes for assisting low-performing school systems as more districts fail to meet standards, Cochran said.
“They don’t have the money to send three or four people to every district and do what they were doing,” he said.
The reading-test results do not affect schools’ growth measures based on the state’s ABCs accountability program. Math-test results, which were released in August, affect those rankings.
So Thursday’s results will not change teachers’ bonuses at schools that met high growth or expected growth.
Emerson said Rowan-Salisbury school leaders will be “relentless” in their efforts to improve reading scores. But that might come with sacrifices, he said.
“It will probably take a concentrated focus at the expense of something else to get that done,” he said.