- Posted by David on August 21, 2009
Worthington Schools:
Met 29 out of 30 standards
District rating: Excellent with Distinction
AYP was met in every subgoup area
The overall value-added was above the expected growth
Performance Index - 102.6
- Posted by David on August 13, 2009
http://www.nmsa.org/portals/0/pdf/research/Research_from_the_Field/Policy_Brief_Balfanz.pdf
The above is a link to research brief from June 2009. Among the findings:
"As our research, experience, and the work of many others have shown, particularly in high-poverty environments, a student’s middle grades experience is critical to his or her life’s chances. It is during the middle grades that students either launch toward achievement and attainment, or slide off track and placed on a path of frustration, failure, and, ultimately, early exit from the only secure path to adult success. This essential path is leaving high school prepared for post-secondary education and career training."
"Our research, experience, and the work of many others, however, also shows that there is hope and considerable knowledge and know-how regarding how the middle grades can be transformed to enable all students to stay on the graduation path. Our challenge is to use this knowledge and know-how where it is needed most and in ways tailored to
local circumstances."
"We have subsequently replicated the Philadelphia study in five school districts. These replications confirm the core findings of the Philadelphia study and collectively indicate that, at least in high-poverty environments, it is possible to identify in the middle grades up to half, and sometimes even more, of eventual dropouts."
"First and foremost, the research demonstrates that the middle grades matter—tremendously. During the middle grades, students in high-poverty environments are either launched on the path to high school graduation or knocked off-track. It is a time when they can close achievement gaps and enter high school ready or at least close to ready for standards-based instruction that leads to college readiness. Alternatively, it is a time when students’ achievement gaps widen, forcing them to enter high school still in need of a good middle grades education."