I've crunched the numbers adding up every school's "% At/Above Goal" result across Grades 3, 4, and 5 in each of the CMT's core subjects of Mathematics, Reading and Writing. The best possible score a school could get was 900.
Rowayton School turned out to be the winner.
I'll do this same type of list for middle schools tomorrow.
Posts
Rowayton School as a winner? Rowayton school with its 34% minority enrollment and the highest per capita income in the city?
ReplyDeletePlease do your readers a favor and dig deeper. Some of the schools 'down' on your list are doing an amazing job of improving their scores. And they are doing it with poor, minority kids, many of whom are just learning English. Take a four year look at their history and see the numbers going up.
Calling Rowayton a 'winner' at the expense of all of the other schools doesn't do anyone justice.
I don't really think it should be a 'competition' between schools.. we are one city, one community and we should all be working together to help all of our schools be the best they can be.
ReplyDeleteYes it's not a competition but we all should have an understanding of which schools are performing and which schools are not relative to each other.
ReplyDeleteParents at Tracey have a right to know why their school is the worst school in Norwalk based on CMT scores. What's going on in that building versus a place like Naramake.
Simply sticking our collective head in the sand is not the answer
This was really valuable information. Moina thank you providing it. People don't like to look truth in the face.
ReplyDeleteThe truth is that our schools are a mess. It's really easy to blame it on the minorities and non-English speakers but it should be the job of our school system to make sure that these students are reading, writing and adding at the level that the State says the should be.
Anything else is a cop-out.
The data as presented is lacking some key information. Six schools (1-6 listed above actually) do not have a high enough minority population to have that data broken in the www.cmtreports.com-those schools are: Columbus, Cranbury, Rowayton, Fox Run, Naramake and Wolfpit. Two schools (again in the top 6 above)do not have enough Free & Reduced Lunch students to have that data broken out in the cmtreports-those schools are: Columbus and Naramake. The achievement gap is about those very populations, minority, free and reduced lunch. If a school doesn't have enough of those populations, their results as presented as a percent are positivly affected and artifically raised by the fact that they have less kids with needs. It is statistically easier to teach a middle class white kid than a poor minority kid; just because one school has more of those kids than another does not necessarily mean it is doing the best job, but it's numbers will look better. This data, to be fair to those schools that are 'closing the gap', should reflect that vital information.
ReplyDeleteSchools like Brookside, Tracey, Kendall don't have enough white kids for their scores to count. If you look at the top six schools only the scores of the white kids show - they do not have enough minority or free/reduced lunch kids to count. This top school list should show the minority/white population percentage so people can see how unbalanced the schools really are.
ReplyDeletePerhaps we should also look at parent involvement as a barometer of student performance. Seems to me that the schools that have DEMONSTRATED parent involvement are at the top of that list.
ReplyDeleteIs Norwalk in effect operating what is in effect segregated school system?
ReplyDeleteThat's the sense I get when the discussion seems to be focusing on the fact that there are some schools that don't have many minority like Wolfpit or a school like Kendall that doesn't have many white children.
Except for the magnet school which accept students citywide, Norwalk's schools are neighborhood based so the children that are living in poor areas of town are going to be largely minorities and in the more well-off parts of town the children are going to be white.
The problem with Norwalk schools is that the disadvantaged and educationally challenged students aren't being spread evenly throughout the school system. They are being ghettoized in certain schools. This ghettoization reinforces poor performance.
Someone like the NAACP or La Raza needs to become involved.
If you look at how much vertical growth happened from 3rd grade to 5th grade with this year's CMT results you will find Tracey School had the greatest growth in combining the reading and math scores. Listing data is always dangerous for data can be used any way that the writer wants it to be read. In comparing vertical growth of the state and Norwalk Schools the results show 9 out of 12 schools out performed the state growth. Good things are happening in Norwalk.
ReplyDeleteI don't believe this is a race issue, this is an issue of parents getting involved when their children are beginning to fall behind. There are many parents in this town who do not even attend the twice yearly parent teacher conferences! EVERY child can learn, black, white, latino, etc... but the parents must take responsibility and work with the schools and teachers if their kids are not learning.
ReplyDeleteIt's nice that there is vertical growth, but the bottom line remains that all of the schools are below the goal. That is the fact. Everything else is window dressing and an excuse. This has happened year after year after year.
ReplyDeleteThe BOE has a responsibility for putting a stop to this nonsense. It's obvious that our teachers are not doing right by the children in our community who come from non-English speaking or poor families (there is some overlap here).
We have a responsibility not to create an underclass. Since this year is an election year I would like the BOE candidates to speak about what they will do to tie the high salaries we are paying educators in Norwalk to the actual performance of their students.
The BOE like the board of a private company needs to take responsibility for the product their "company" is producing.
then we should make it mandatory for parents to attend the parent/child interview.
ReplyDeleteIf a parent doesn't attend then he/she should have their driver's license suspended.
The racial imbalance in the school system is unacceptable. The schools are not truly neighborhood schools because minority kids are bussed out of their neighborhoods into other schools, but if there is ever to be racial balance, the bussing is going to have to include White students.
ReplyDeleteRowayton cannot be the winner. AYP is based on the proficiency of subgroups.
ReplyDeleteHow does this REALLY affect us, is my question-if our kids are doing well in school? I'm worried about sacrificing our children's real education for the sake of the CMTs. I would hate to see my children's school focus MORE on test prep for the CMTs, giving them less hands on time. What I'm most interested in is keeping them excited about learning, which they are, and keeping them stimulated. Everything else seems to fall into place when they are excited about learning. Getting them to focus on test prep is not the way to engage our kids.
ReplyDeleteI tend to think of the CMTs as a measure of how my kids are learning relative to other schools/students. Teachers and schools use a variety of approaches to teach children.
ReplyDeleteGetting kids excited and motivating about learning is important for sure but at the end of the day we have to see if that particular teaching method worked or not.
Of course over doing SAT-like drilling in preparation for the CMT is not the best thing but a certain amount is necessary.
We must be able to measure what is happening in the classroom in addition to using subjective measures of how "engaged" students are.
Naramake and Brookside have amazing leadership. Let us not rule that out. Leadership is important. These principals can pull together a team and do great things no matter where they go. We are fortunate to have them here in Norwalk. And if you are going to post the these test scores, why not post the annual yearly progress (AYP) as well since one of the above posters brought up minority schools. This will give you an idea of how hard some of the schools with minority children are working.
ReplyDeleteAnother poster above is correct, however; the schools are a bit unbalanced. I do think that Columbus School has been a farce for quite some time and should be given back to the neighborhood children instead of bussing them all over the place, particularly to neighborhoods where they are not wanted. Then they and their neighborhood is looked down upon by those who use the school. If it is not working as the school it is purported to be, it can also be turned into a regular elementary school. Let us stop the politics. Majority black children, particularly boys have not faired well at Columbus and the school has nothing on Kendall as far as really getting with the reading program.
This is not a personal attack. It is a researched one that no one seems to want to admit. Of course, they will admit it when it is too late.
I am being very careful for whom I vote from the BOE to the state senate.
Brookside and Kendall have excellent principals leading schools with a majority minority population and high poverty. Both Brookside and Kendall made AYP last year under NCLB; most of the top 6 listed above did not. NCLB bases AYP on the proficiency numbers for the whole school and all subgroups. When that happens, those top 6 can't hide behind their numbers.
ReplyDeleteI am Taxpaying Teacher. I agree with the poster above about the excellent principals at Kendall and Brookside. There are other strong leaders, as well.
ReplyDeleteI spent a lot of time last night trying to assess subgroup performance at some of the schools high on this blog's list, and specifically, the 'winner', Rowayton. What your readers need to know is that there are not enough black, hispanic, or poor students in most grades to even show as a subgroup.
People - it is easy to teach rich white kids! Great things are happening at Tracey, Kendall, and Jefferson against huge obstacles. Visit them and take a look before you judge.
Why is it easier to teach rich, white kids?
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with the above poster who stated that Columbus has been a farce for quite some time. At times the noise level in the halls there is practically deafening; how is a child supposed to concentrate enough to learn under those conditions? I'm all for hands-on, participatory learning, but I believe that there should be time for quiet, sit in your seat, write in a workbook type of schoolwork, like what is required on a standardized test.
ReplyDeleteFrom being in my kids' school as a volunteer and hearing what comes out of the mouths of babes, so to speak, one gets the impression that a lot of free/reduced lunch kids only eat what the school provides for them and not much if anything at home, many economically disadvantaged students do not have a regular bedtime, or a male authority figure in the home,all of which work against a child being able to succeed in school. How much is within the control of the school to compensate for these types of factors? Let's face it, a child from a 2 parent home with educated parents, nutritious meals in the home, a consistent schedule, is going to do better in school than one who does not have these advantages at home.
ReplyDeleteThis is great news and a great way to get it!! Thanks for the rankings. I recently pulled my children out of All Saints School where I had paid for them to attend for years. The education that they got there was nothing short of appalling. It was absolutely horrible. The school violence there is completely out of control and the principal and vice principals are inept and uncaring. The teachers refused to give and extra help unless you paid them by the hour. My kids are all in public school now in Norwalk and are doing amazingly well -- they are challenged, happy and finally getting a little bit of that self esteem back that they lost at All Saints. It is great to see that improvement is across the board.
ReplyDeleteExcellent discussion. However, I am not comfortable with the notion that white or well-to-do students are somewhow "easier" to teach than minorities and poor students.
ReplyDeleteIn New York City, for intance, a number of so-called elite public schools, with high percentages of white students, were not rated high because the yearly progress of its students was not deemed sufficient by the city.
So the question, as I see it, should be: How are our white students performing compared to students with similar demographics across the state; and how do our minority and poor students shape up on a comparative basis? This data is public and the BOE will soon be discussing it.
And, of course, the next set of questions should focus on the "gap" between our white and minority students.
ReplyDeleteThe "gap" that you are referring to exists wholly because of the lack of education on the parents part, and thus their involvement in their child's education is affected or non-existent because of that. There are some incredible programs all over the country that help deal with this issue and aid students whose parents did not receive any higher education learn how to achieve on their own. They also help parents get involved in their children's education.
ReplyDeleteThere are so many reasons for the achievement gap, but let me add a couple that are very disturbing:
ReplyDelete1. Some kids are brought up with the notion that it is too "White" to excel academically. (Note that this is not a sweeping generalization about minority kids, but it occurs too often, sometimes in subtle ways.)
2. Some teachers have the best of intentions, but they take it easy on the minority kids, thinking that they are too lacking in skills to be given more demanding work. It is common to hear teachers make the observation that test scores are low at _____ School because of the number of minority students at the school.
3. When one looks at the most challenging high school classes in Norwalk, the faces of the students are overwhelmingly White. Some teachers and counselors do everything possible to encourage students of color to take the most demanding courses, but there are prerequisites that sometimes disqualify them.
4. Some minority kids lack the confidence that they can do quality work.
5. And yes, undereducated parents can be a big part of the challenge educators (and students) face, but just because some parents don't participate doesn't mean that they don't care. Some are just intimidated, afraid of seeming ignorant, in front of better educated and more affluent parents.
If anyone doubts any of the above, which is by no means an all-inclusive list of factors, just understand that I have been a professional educator my entire adult life.
I agree that all those issues (and more) contribute to the "gap." But how do you change an entire cultural attitude about education and break a cycle of low personal and cultural self esteem? Where does that start? How can this be addressed? What can be done to change these attitudes in the community and those of the educators? Where do you even begin...it seems so overwhelming...but clearly something has to be done to help these kids break this cycle. It's easy to blame the teachers, BOE, SOS and even the parents, but the problem is much bigger than that. Ideas anyone??
ReplyDeleteI believe that it's important for minority students & parents have some minority teachers & principals providing their children's education. This would provide positive role models & leadership by example to minority (as well as white) students & parents. Minority parents may respond more positively to someone who looks like them & can relate to them & their background & situation better than to some white person talking at them. Even if the white person may have been disadvantaged at some point in his/her life, it's not the same thing. I think that the poster who stated that Columbus should be given back to the neighborhood has an excellent point in the sense that South Norwalk should have its own neighborhood school in the community. My children have attended both our neighborhood school & Columbus, & Columbus has a huge proportion of minority parents participating in the school & attending meetings compared to our neighborhood school. Many of the minority students there walk to school. I do not speak for the minority parents, but it seems to me that they feel much more comfortable & accepted at Columbus than the minority parents did at the predominantly white school that children were bussed to far from their homes out of their community. Transportation might be a consideration in some cases, not everyone has a car available to them at all times to travel to their child's school far from home, especially an economically disadvantaged person. And yes, the bussed in students were looked down on at the neighborhood school. As a white parent, I feel much more encouraged to participate at Columbus than I did at the neighborhood school, so maybe the schools in general need to act more welcoming to parents in general. At Columbus, volunteering is not only encouraged, it's expected, & I believe that this should be the norm at all schools, raise the bar for what's expected of parents. My neighborhood school's principal acted as if he did not want parents to know what's happening in the school during the day & that lack of transparency was very off-putting to me as a parent who wants to be involved.
ReplyDeleteAs a resident of Norwalk teaching in another district I'm impressed with the conversation here. My district gets incredibly high scores on standardized tests but we are also an extremely wealthy area with mostly intact families. When we do have a problem student its almost always from a troubled family and despite our reputation and generous funding we likewise have an extremely difficult time making a difference for that child. I've often remarked that if we have one problem student in 30 and can't do much for them how can we expect Bridgeport and other urban areas where an intact family is almost an aberration rather than the norm to be able to do much.
ReplyDeleteI just got my test scores a few weeks ago and they were astoundingly good, but I also know that I have bright kids with actively interested parents who have little worries, except their sometimes helicoptering moms and dads. Some of the conversation here has taken exception to the serious racial imbalances at some schools and unfortunately in this area "white" has almost become synonymous with better off and more intact families where the parents show up at the parent conferences. As I teach my students this is a case where causation and correlation may be getting confused. There probably is a correlation but its not because they are white, its because students from families concerned about their education tend to do better. If parents read and talk to their children as toddlers and take part in school activities in elementary school its almost a guarantee their children will be successful in HS.
Here's part of the answer why in general, it is easier to teach some children than others? Until we have the courage to address the imbalance in our schools (economic as well as racial-because in our area, the two are absolutely linked), we will continue this disparity. Moina can continue to call Nathan Hale, Rowayton and Cranbury 'winners' at the expense of the rest of the district. Look closely at the numbers and their demographics? Can you even find a black or hispanic subgroup at Cranbury? Why doesn't Nathan Hale have English language learners? What is their minority enrollment.
ReplyDeleteFor those who think Columbus is a "farse" (?!) here is a great article written in a highly regarded national journal. I hope this clears up some misconceptions.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.teachingk-8.com/archives/school_story/a_rainbows_arcby_jessica_rae_patton_associate_editor.html
The above referenced article is all well and good, but why doesn't all this translate into better test scores & more children achieving goal levels on the CMT? It's great that parents are involved, teachers are dedicated, children are excited to learn, but when all is said and done, don't children need to obtain the necessary reading, writing, & math levels defined as "goal" for purposes of the CMT? How can our children be expected to compete at the university level and beyond that, on a global playing field, when their abilities as defined by the CMT lag behind the rest of the state, and they're still in elementary school? Won't they just fall further behind as time goes on?
ReplyDeleteRead the article on Columbus a while ago and figured the writer was friends with someone affiliated with Columbus. Columbus is a magnet school and the white parent feels very welcomed. What is that saying while the Black boys are failing?
ReplyDeleteWho is Columbus for because it certainly doesn't appear to be for all. It pretends to be, but is not in reality.
There is no need to disparage the staff, parents and children of Columbus by claiming it favors white children. As a parent of minority children who go to Columbus, I can tell you this is not the case. But I guess you know better.
ReplyDeleteIf anything, I think that Columbus bends over backwards to accomodate minority children and families, given the challenges and extenuating circumstances that many but by no means all of them are faced with in their daily lives outside of school.
ReplyDeleteAs a Tracey parent it does hurt to see our school ranked last, while it may be true listing it this way can only foster competitiveness between schools. Does this reslut mean that Tracey is a "bad" school? I think our principal works hard and so do our teachers. Is there room for improvement, absolutely but isn't there always? I find Tracey to be the most racial balanced of the schools. It is challenging during these financial times that the BOE budget doesn't give those in need all that they need.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Moira, for allowing us to post anonymously. YourCT.com has now compromised the comfort level of educators and administrators by forcing them to identify themselves. Unfortunately, the level of discourse will not be the same at YourCt regarding educational issues. This blog has increased the flow of traffic in a short time. Bravo to you and good luck with your site. Love it!
ReplyDeleteGet over yourself. There was a poster who identified his or herself as being a white parent from Columbus. And because these posts are anonymous who knows if you, the token poster for Columbus is even Black. Typical Columbus. People say bad things, let's round up the troops with a token or two... You're funny. Someone asked about the scores and lack of discipline (meaning academic discipline). Bending over backwards? In doing what? Low expectations.
ReplyDeleteAnd yes, many do know better. Perhaps we should air the laundry here! Maybe the state pays attention to this site!
If you are so concerned and if the place is so great, why be snyde and defensive? Let's hear about those scores and rankings instead of attempting to perpetuate the sleight of hand.
This post has sparked an interesting discussion in general, but I wanted to interject about the several comments about Columbus school.
ReplyDeleteAs a Columbus parent myself I recognize that there are good things about the school and there are areas which need improvements.
One of the things I hope that this blog/forum accomplishes is a honest and civil exchange of ideas. School bashing -- of any institution does not further this purpose.
Score a "political" point for Noor and her backward school. Truth is not bashing.
ReplyDeleteThere was an interesting article titled "The Early Catastrophe: The 30 Million Word Gap by Age 3"
ReplyDeleteGranted it is an old study but I think it still has valid points that children from middle class families have more words spoken to them and more books read to them than children from lower income families. When you put it in terms that middle class children have been exposed to 30 million more words by age 3, it becomes fairly obvious why an achievement gap exists. Intervention needs to begin with families and very young children in order for the gap to be closed. Anyone who works with very young children can see differences in quality of vocabulary and quantity of positive time spent with children. It is unfortunate that our society does not see the value in this early start. Most of those parents in Westport don't spend any more time with their teenagers than the average parent. But when their children were infants, toddlers and preschoolers, they received much more attention than many other children do. The foundation had been laid for a lifetime of learning.
Having quality preschool experiences and introducing literacy via conversation, vocabularly, and experiences is important. However, children entering kindergarten without this kind of exposure should not be doomed to failure nor should a lack of that exposure be used as an excuse by schools to fail them. We know these kids can learn. The question needs to be, after all these years, why don't our schools yet know how to adjust for these realities. Schools need to do their jobs better.
ReplyDeleteIf a child is entering kindergarten without exposure to books, literacy, and vocabulary, then what has that child been doing for the first five years of his life? It seems that plenty of kids entering kindergarten without that type of early exposure still manage to be quite proficient in the latest video games & TV shows. If a child does not come from a culture of education and can't make the grade, it's not the school that is making excuses to fail the child, it's the child's parents and caregivers that are failing him.
ReplyDeleteIf the schools can't teach these children, then they need to admit it and quit taking public funding for a job they can't do. The public funding should be given to an entity that can succeed, with a track record, and who has planned for the realities of poverty or neglect. These schools are out there.
ReplyDeleteOn that note, why don't the parents of these children admit that they aren't doing the jobs that they are being paid to do by taxpayers and quit taking public funding in the form of housing subsidies, food stamps, and whatever else that they get for free?
ReplyDeleteI am a very proud parent of one current student and one graduate of Tracey School. Every child enters at the same pace, some with a little more intelligence due to a preschool program they attended. All schools have the same curriculam and teachers with for the most part the same required education. Unfortunatly, with the econony the way it is the "middle class" and "lower Class" families are more concerned about just surviving in this town, as the "upper class" may not have the financial burdens as such. More children are left unsupervised or at after school programs because both parents have to work, and homework or studying isn't being done. My older child is going into 8th grade at west rocks and has achieved high honors every qtr, she also was invited by UCONN to take college level classes for 3 weeks this summer and will continue to go to UCONN every summer untill she enters college. Eleven students from west rocks were invited, four were tracey school gradutes. Its so easy to place blame in many different catergories, but, unfortunatly alot of the blame is on the lack of parental involvment. I am a very involved parent and education is the #1 priority in my home. I am very proud when I say I am a Tracey School Parent.
ReplyDeleteBrookside is listed as 11th but our white subgroup which whether you like it or not tends to be the highest scoring subgroup does not even count in our scores. So Rowayton's scores reflect only ONE subgroup - white, no other subgroup counts for them and Brookside has only minority subgroups represented in that score so really it is not a fair comparison. And that is the case for many of the schools in Norwalk, we are racially unbalanced and the focus on test scores contributes to that - a school that might be really great but shows lower scores because it has fewer white or upper middle class students = even fewer white or upper middle class students because those families that live in that schools district and should be at that neighborhood school run away before they even give it a chance. I love that we have neighborhood schools though and would hate to see that change, I just would like to see more people embrace their neighborhood school! I do also agree parental involvement is key.
ReplyDelete