August 23,
2007
Dear
Parent or Guardian,
The
expressed purpose of the federal No Child Left Behind Act
(NCLB) of 2001 is to close the achievement gap among various
subgroups of students as the means of ensuring the academic needs of
all students are met. Based on the federal mandates of NCLB, the
Mehlville R-IX School District received notification on August 9,
2007 that we are a “district in need of improvement.”
What does
this mean for our school district and others across the nation? It
means even when we succeed in providing an excellent education for
our students as a whole and are meeting or exceeding the established
state standards for student performance, it is possible for our
district to be deemed as “in need of improvement” in
accordance with the federally mandated NCLB. How can this happen?
This designation can occur when one or more subgroups of students
fail to meet the established target for Adequate Yearly Progress
(AYP) for at least one content area for two consecutive years. Such
is the current situation in which we find ourselves at Mehlville
R-IX.
Based on
student achievement data from the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP)
test for the past two years, the Mehlville R-IX School District is
meeting the standard for seven (7) of the eight (8) subgroups of
students in the tested content areas of Math and Communication Arts.
However, we failed to meet this standard for one (1) of the subgroups
in one (1) of the tested content areas (Communication Arts). Again,
according to NCLB, failure to meet the standard for one subgroup for
two consecutive years in at least one of the tested content areas
causes a school to be defined as a “district in need of
improvement.” It is important to note the established target
for Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) will continue to increase and by
the year 2014 all students (100%) must achieve at the level of
proficient or advanced.
What is meant by Adequate
Yearly Progress (AYP)? The State of Missouri sets target goals each
year for the Missouri Assessment Program (MAP) testing. The target
goals relate to the percent of students that should score in the
proficient or advanced categories on the MAP test. The state’s
goals this year were 42.9% in Communication Arts and 35.8% in Math.
In comparison, 50.5% of Mehlville R-IX students scored proficient or
higher in Communication Arts while 55.2% of our students scored
proficient or higher in Math. Overall, this past year’s
performance on the MAP test by Mehlville R-IX students was
commendable.
We will be
revising our Comprehensive School Improvement Plan to focus on the
need to improve the performance of the identified subgroup of
students in the area of Communication Arts. While we will pay
particular attention to this group, the Mehlville R-IX School
District is committed to improving the academic achievement of all of
our students. To ensure this occurs, we will continue to provide
early intervention and remediation opportunities for students who
have been identified through data from a variety of sources to have
particular academic needs. The interventions are delivered in
several formats including but not limited to A+ Tutoring, before and
after school tutoring by faculty members, student mentoring programs,
homework intervention clubs, and modified and collaboratively taught
classes for students in need of academic support. Literacy coaches
will provide our faculty with specialized training in reading,
writing, and learning strategies. Finally, we will continue to look
at best practices in other schools both inside and outside our
district to seek new ways to improve student achievement.
It is the
continued goal of Mehlville R-IX to provide the best education
possible for every student.
Please
feel free to contact me if you have any questions regarding the
information contained in this letter.
Sincerely,
Terry
Noble
Superintendent
of Schools
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