No Child Left Behind Waiver Changes Schools' Goals

will affect how Melrose schools are held accountable, but shouldn't affect how students are learning each day, Melrose school administrators told the School Committee last week.

Roosevelt School Principal Kerry Clery said the first question she has heard from parents is what the waiver means for their child.

"Right now it doesn’t mean anything for specific children," Clery said. "It’s more school-wide and district-wide accountability with these changes."

The major change is that Massachusetts schools are no longer held to the law's requirement that all students test as proficient in reading and math by 2014. Instead, schools must cut their proficiency gap in half by 2017.

Progress towards that goal will be measured using the existing Composite Performance Index (CPI) measurement, which assigns each student's MCAS score a value of 0, 25, 50, 75 or 100, with a mean score of 100 indicating that all students in the school test as proficient.

For example, Clery explained, if a school's mean CPI in math is 88, resulting in a 12-point gap, it must increase it's CPI score by six points by 2017.

Schools previously were classified by the state by the Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) measurement, which was determined by CPI. —as did the vast majority of schools across Massachusetts, with 82 percent of the state’s schools and 91 percent of school districts missing performance targets, according to the Boston Globe.

That has now been replaced by a new accountability measure called Progress Performance Index (PPI).

"We’ve tried this (presentation) several times without acronyms and you simply can’t do it," Winthrop School Principal Mary Alise Herrera humorously said to the committee. "This is my blanket apology for educators everywhere throwing out acronyms all the time."

New Calculation to Determine Schools' Progress

PPI will take into account four different measures: CPI, test participation, graduation/drop-out rates (for high schools only) and Student Growth Percentile (SGP), the last of which measures how students grow from one year to the next compared to students with the similar or same MCAS score the previous year.

The SGP score was previously reported, but not factored into how schools were held accountable, as it will be now. CPI scores from MCAS science exams, previously not factored in, will also now be part of the school's PPI score.

"There's also the possibility, for those playing at home, for bonus points," Herrera said. If a school increases the number of students testing as advanced by 2.5 percent or more, or decreases the number of students testing as warning by 10 percent or more, that will be factored into the school's PPI. Not meeting those goals will not negatively affect the school's PPI score.

AYP was also reported for each of the nine student subgroups, and any one of those subgroups failing to meet that benchmark could affect the school's standing.

Now the four non-ethnic based subgroups—special education, low-income, English Language Learners (ELL), and flex students (who tested out of ELL)—will be calculated into one High Needs subgroup, which will be used to determine whether the school met its annual benchmark, according to interim middle school Assistant Principal John Muldoon.

Clery added, "Each of nine subgroups is still reported and still a focus, but won’t in isolation determine whether you made PPI."

Also, only 30 students will be needed to constitute a subgroup now, instead of 45 previously, meaning more schools will now be reporting on subgroups, Muldoon said.

Five New Classification Levels for Schools

Once the 2012 MCAS scores come out, the state will calculate each school's PPI score, taking into account the previous four years, weighing the most recent scores by 40 percent, 2011 scores by 30 percent, 2010 by 20 percent and 2009 by 10 percent.

That four-year calculation will be used annually to classify each school, which Clery said should prevent radical jumps between classification categories.

Schools will be classified on five levels:

• Level 1 – On track to college and career readiness
• Level 2 – Not meeting gap closing goals
• Level 3 – Focus: Lowest performing 20 percent of schools
• Level 4 – Priority: Lowest performing schools
• Level 5 – Priority: Chronically underperforming schools

Muldoon said that "approximately 80 percent of Massachusetts schools will be Level 1 or 2."

Another major change, but will have limited effect in Melrose, is the flexibility given to use of federal Title I, Title II and Title III funds, Muldoon said. The primary impact would be on the Lincoln School, which receives Title I funding.

Currently schools that receive Title I funds are required to hold up to 30 percent of that funding for specific causes that "sometimes don't always line up with what's needed at the school," Muldoon said. Previously that money could only be used to extend the school day, but could now be used for initiatives during the current school day. Relaxed rules also means more schools may be able to apply for federal grants in the future.