The school has seen some improvements but is still behind.
Field Elementary School’s principal, Carol Garman, said she is not surprised by this year’s standardized test scores, which show Field is not meeting the state and federal achievement level.
Garman said Field has had a school-wide improvement plan in action for two years, trying to help students grow academically.
“The piece we are focusing on is (academic) growth — how much does a student grow?” Garman said Friday, the day results of the 2006 Missouri Assessment Program were made public. How schools and districts fare is linked to federal dollars under the No Child Left Behind Act.
Garman said that last year no black students who took the MAP achieved the mandated level of proficiency in the test’s communication arts subject area. This year, however, almost 23 percent of black students did. Field has 279 students, most of whom are black.
“We don’t want to lose sight of all the good things,” Garman said. “MAP is just one glimpse of the school.”
Another glimpse of the school can come from a two-year comparison of reading growth as measured by the district Developmental Reading Assessment. The data shows that in the 2004-05 school year, about 44 percent of students achieved more than one year’s growth in reading. In 2005-06, slightly more than 70 percent of students showed a year or more of progress.
Garman said that although Field fell short of the achievement goal, its students did better on the MAP this year. However, that comparison is hard to show because of structural changes to the MAP.
“We wish we could compare these MAP results with past results to see how students improved,” Garman said.
Field has a unique structure to its reading plan. Each student receives 45 minutes of intensive reading time four days a week, in addition to his or her regular reading curriculum, which also is four days a week. On the fifth day, teachers work individually with students who need more attention.
“We want to help kids get over the humps,” Garman said.
The reading programs Field has in place seem to be working, Garman said. It was Field’s math scores that hurt most; no subgroup of students — for example, students who receive free or reduced lunch — met the achievement goal.
On Thursday, after Garman learned of the scores, she met with Linda Coutts, mathematics coordinator for kindergarten through fifth grade in the Columbia Public School District, to discuss future improvements.
“We really don’t know what area of mathematics they need work in,” Coutts said. “Until we get the students’ individualized scores, we don’t know where to put our focus.”
Coutts said Field’s goal is to place as much emphasis on math as it does on reading.
For example, Garman said, the school does all district assessments, which are required, and the Scholastic Reading Inventory, both of which are meant to ensure student literacy. Throughout the school year, weekly and monthly checks on student progress are made.
Garman said that if Field is officially sanctioned — which would occur in November after MAP results are finalized — extensive improvement
plans won’t be needed because they are already in place. The school just needs to build on its successes, however incremental.
“It is like baseball,” Garman said. “You practice often but are judged on one game, when you really play a series.”