Only one school of the 11 in the Humboldt County School District is a five-star school, according to Nevada Department of Education's star rating system. That school is Paradise Valley Elementary School. McDermitt Elementary School is the only one-star school in the district.
What these ratings mean, and the very complex way schools are measured in teaching reading and math to students was discussed by director of innovation, Kelly Novi, at the school board meeting on Oct. 14.
Novi said the school ratings were convuluted and there were many indicators in which the schools are rated.
Four schools are rated as three-star: Grass Valley Elementary, Sonoma Heights Elementary, Winnemucca Grammar School and Lowry High School. Three schools are rated as two-star: French Ford Middle School, Winnemucca Junior High School, McDermitt Middle School. (McDermitt High School, Kings River, Orovada and Denio did not have enough population to meet the criteria for the star-rating system. The schools only had enough for two indicators instead of the required three indicators).
The ratings tell administrators in what areas schools are doing well and areas in which more time and effort needs to be expended.
Students are required to reach proficiency in math and reading according to No Child Left Behind, and the Nevada School Performance Framework (NSPF) index is used to measure how schools are performing. In previous years, the Adequate Yearly Progress provided administrators with either a pass or fail in student achievement in proficiency targets. The NSPF allows for a more nuanced approach to evaluating whether students are proficient in the key areas of reading and math.
The NSPF uses a star rating system with schools falling into percentiles, which, according to the Nevada Department of Education, are based on "achievement including proficiency, student growth, growth to target, reductions in achievement gaps, and college- and career-readiness indicators, including graduation rate and scores on national college-readiness assessments."
Schools are assigned a star-rating with one star for schools in the lowest percentile and five stars for schools in the highest percentile.
Novi said the way the schools are rated is extremely complex.
Students take proficiency exams and are placed in a "bucket" of students with like scores. As the student progresses through school and takes other proficiency tests, the student will then be placed in other "buckets" based on their scores. Novi said there could "buckets within buckets."
Adding to the complexity is the percentage of students who are Free and Reduced Lunch, English Language Learners and those with Individualized Education Plans. There are also differences in measurements between high school and elementary schools. Schools with small populations are impacted by the ratings tremendously as is the case with most statistical analysis.
The scale in which schools are measured, across Nevada, functions like a bell curve. There will always be a one-star school regardless of strides made in performance; just as there will always be a five-star school even if performance slips. The scale slides up and down and schools are compared with other schools across the state.
Winnemucca Grammar School dipped from a five-star rating to a three-star rating. Novi said it was because the sub-groups (FRL, ELL, IEP) scores had dropped in student growth percentiles. It doesn't mean that they didn't do better, said Novi, but compared to like-peers across the state, they didn't improve as much in reading and math.
Novi said they were still analyzing the results of the schools, and were looking to see how the schools would include the star-ratings into their school performance plans.
Board member Andrew Hillyer said he wanted to hear some "whys" to explain the two-star ratings. Again, said Novi, smaller schools have a greater fluctuation and some schools don't meet the criteria for certain indicators and don't receive those points.
The challenge, said Dr. Dave Jensen, superintendent of schools, is to keep Humboldt County School District schools ahead of the sliding scale. HCSD must outpace the improved performance at other districts.
Contact Stephanie Morton at s.morton@winnemuccapublishing.net.[[In-content Ad]]
