4 Lacey Schools Fall Short on State Assessment (Again)

The Board of Education recently approved the district’s Progress Targets Action Plans, an outline of steps to be taken at the schools that did not meet their Annual Progress Targets.

Four of Lacey’s six schools did not meet their Annual Progress Targets, which are indicators of a school's progress toward meeting the state proficiency benchmark of 90 percent. The Progress Targets Action Plans were approved at the school board’s March meeting and posted to the district’s webpage.

Superintendent Dr. Sandra Brower is out of the office for spring break but said she intends to do a presentation at an upcoming Board of Education meeting once performance reports are released.

According to the Progress Targets Action Plan, Lacey Middle School as well as Mill Pond, Cedar Creek and Lanoka Harbor Elementary Schools did not meet their annual progress targets in Language Arts. The middle school and Lanoka Harbor Elementary also did not meet its target in Mathematics.

that those same schools, with the exception of Lanoka Harbor Elementary School, were placed on the state’s list of schools that need improvement based on the Department of Education’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) reports. The Forked River School was included on that list and if the middle school missed AYP one more year, the district and state would need to take corrective action.

The state has since moved away from AYP, a mandate of the No Child Left Behind Act, and introduced a new system of accountability — Annual Progress Targets. The system is based on statewide assessments and benchmarks implemented by the Department of Education. It accounts for participation, conditions applied to test scores, a review of test results and secondary measures such as graduation and attendance rates.

The new system also categorizes schools as priority (lowest performing), focus (room for improvement) or reward (outstanding achievement). But Lacey’s schools were not listed under any of these categories.

As Title I schools, funds have been allocated for intervention. Lacey Middle School will receive $70,000 for Language Arts and $3,000 for Mathematics and Mill Pond will receive $56,500 for Language Arts. Cedar Creek and Lanoka Harbor do not receive Title I funds.

For the Progress Targets Action Plans, action steps for each of the schools included extended day program, study island program, professional development and basic skills instruction. Additional resources dedicated include instructional supplies, computers and curriculum mapping and instructional strategies workshops.

Action steps for the Lanoka Harbor School in Mathematics also includes Envision Math, a new math series aligned to the common core standards.

The state’s school report card will be released later this year.

Representatives from the State Department of Education did not return calls for comment. Lacey school board President Eric Schubiger declined to comment.