FUSD continues AIMS slide

Jul 15, 2010 — The Arizona Daily Sun

Hillary Davis

Jul. 15, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Flagstaff Unified School District lost more ground again this year on the standardized Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards test.

What's more, it has slipped in a big way over the last five years: Once ahead of state averages on almost all tests in all grades, the district is now typically equal or behind, according to pass rates released Wednesday.

AIMS is given to students in grades 3-8, and 10 every spring. Math and reading are required at all levels, with writing or science given at some grades. Passing the exam in high school is required to graduate, and students are given multiple opportunities if they don't succeed on the first try.

Math: Scores dropped significantly statewide after the State Board of Education adopted more rigorous, internationally benchmarked math standards.

In FUSD, pass rates ranged from 51 percent (sixth grade) to 63 percent (fourth grade). Among 10th graders who need to pass the AIMS test to graduate from high school, the rate was 55 percent on their first try.

The district was equal to state pass rates in fourth and eighth grades (63 and 56 percents, respectively) and below by up to 5 percentage points in the other grades. FUSD's steepest drop has come in math -- in 2008, students in all but fourth grade passed at a rate equal or better to the state pass rate.

Reading: The spread wasn't quite as wide when it came to reading.

In FUSD, pass rates ranged from 68 percent (eighth and fifth grades) to 77 percent (seventh and 10th grades).

The district was equal to state pass rates in fourth, seventh and 10th grades (71, 77 and 77 percents, respectively) and, again, below by up to 5 percentage points in the other grades.

Writing: This was FUSD's relative strong suit, even with pass rates falling in all grades in which the test is given (fifth, sixth, seventh and 10th only) -- the test was not given to third, fourth or eighth-graders across the state this year.

In FUSD, pass rates ranged from 68 percent (10th grade) to 77 percent (seventh grade). Though the writing test is now limited, this is where FUSD nabbed all its state-toppers. Only 10th-graders fared worse than their peers statewide.

Science: Passing the science portion is not required for graduation. But improvement has been slight but steady statewide, if still not in high or even medium-high numbers. Now in its third year, the biology-focused test produces below-passing scores by nearly two-thirds of Arizona sophomores and about 40 percent of fourth- and eighth-graders.

In FUSD, pass rates varied widely among schools -- from 27 percent (Thomas fourth-graders) to 53 percent (Mount Elden eighth-graders) to 87 percent (Knoles fourth-graders).

At the high school level, 39 percent of Flagstaff's 10th graders passed, compared to Coconino's 31 and Sinagua's 27. The statewide pass rate was 35 percent.

SCHOOLS CONSISTENT

Individual schools that have traditionally been strong performers kept pace this year, with some well beyond state averages.

Above average: Sechrist, Knoles, DeMiguel, Flagstaff Middle (now closed) and Flagstaff High scored above district and state pass rates in all subjects in all grades. The single best pass rate on any test belonged to Knoles, where 93 percent of sixth-graders passed the writing test.

Cromer and Marshall bested district and state pass rates in all but a few sub-tests.

Mixed: South Beaver (now closed), Puente de Hozho, Kinsey and Sinagua Middle had scattered scores. In general, Kinsey and Puente scores strengthened in the older grades, while South Beaver -- which had FUSD's second-highest population of English language learners -- had relatively strong reading scores.

Sinagua Middle has only been open for one year and was considerably smaller than FMS or Mount Elden Middle, with enrollment numbers fluctuating and class rosters shifting in the first half of the year as the school showed more popularity than district officials expected. Its math and science scores, however, were tops among eighth-graders.

Below average: On paper, Leupp, Christensen (now closed), Thomas, Killip, MEMS, Coconino and Sinagua High (now closed) struggled.

The fifth-grade math pass rate at Leupp was 10 percent, although it recovered some ground in writing scores (61 percent passing in sixth-grade, 62 percent success among seventh graders). Coconino High School scored below Sinagua in all categories, but not necessarily by a significant difference -- math pass rates were 49 and 50 percent, respectively, and reading rates were 72 percent to 73.

Charters: In most cases, charter schools handily outpaced FUSD schools. Northland Preparatory Academy's 10th-grade pass rates were nearly perfect across the board.

Steve Boadway, former principal at FMS and now principal at MEMS, credited his staff with helping last year's students succeed.

Students were allowed to have gum and mints during testing, and students who typically struggle on the test got extra attention. The team-teaching structure at FMS, which will give way to traditional departmentalization this year, was crucial in helping students and teachers build relationships, Boadway said.

New boundaries have most of the displaced Flagstaff Middle crowd going to MEMS (which will pass on much of its attendance area to Sinagua Middle). So Boadway said he said he will try to keep as much of the Flagstaff Middle momentum at MEMS as he can.

FUSD Superintendent Barbara Hickman had not closely analyzed the scores Wednesday. But in general, she said the district takes test scores seriously, although she would like to take a broader look at student achievement.

"They don't measure student growth from one year to the next. These are each individual tests of each individual set of standards," she said. "Currently, in lots of education talk, there's this sense of, 'How do we measure growth of students?'"

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