Last year Haines School students scored well above the state average in English and math in a new standardized exam, but school board members said the district’s results this year are “mediocre” and “concerning.”
In April grades three through 10 took a test called “Performance Evaluation for Alaska’s Schools,” or PEAKS, for the first time. Haines performed second best of every school district in the state behind Skagway. The exams are based on more stringent academic standards adopted by the state in 2012.
The fourth graders performed best overall in the Haines Borough School District. Sixty-three percent (or 14 students) of the 22-person class scored “proficient” or “advanced” in English language arts. Eighty-six percent (or 19 students) scored proficient or advanced in math.
The Alaska Department of Education and Early Development defines proficient as “demonstrating knowledge and skills of current grade-level content,” and advanced as knowing “complex grade-level content.”
The class of 14 10th graders scored the worst, with 28 percent (4 students) being proficient or advanced in English and less than 20 percent proficient or advanced in math.
Only grades four, eight and 10 took the Alaska Science Assessment, not updated since 2006. Seventy-four percent of Haines students were proficient in science.
Statewide, 32 percent of students scored proficient or advanced in math, 38 percent of students met standards in English and 47 percent of students met standards in science.
Haines’ director of student services, Kim Cunningham, presented the findings to the school board Tuesday. She said although the district scored “substantially higher” than the state average, “that still doesn’t mean we’re where we want to be.”
Board member Sara Chapell was most critical of the results.
“This is concerning. It’s concerning to parents…I had worried parents talking to me, so we’re worried that half of the kids in their student’s classes are not at grade-level or more in some instances,” Chapell said.
She also was concerned that because of the small class sizes, there may be a few students on either end of the spectrum that are throwing off the percentages.
“I guess I would like to know where the bulk of our students are,” Chapell said. “I want to know the mode. I want to see a more clear picture of where we think our students are.”
Cunningham said administrators have data for each individual student and plan to sit down with teachers to review the results “student by student, class by class.”
“Is it an instructional issue or is it a student issue? Is it a handful of kids who need extra attention? And that’s our first step. Let’s look at each student and look at each area,” Cunningham said.
Cunningham referred to the test as a “snapshot” of the district’s academic progress. After two years of data is gathered from the PEAKS exam, the state will use the scores – as well as attendance, graduation rate and test participation – to give the district a new rating out of five stars. Haines Borough School District currently is a four-star district.
Cunningham said students in grades three through 10 also take the “Measures of Academic Progress,” or MAP test, three times each year, which serves as a better benchmark for progress. PEAKS is a state exam whereas MAPs is national exam.
Cunningham said the results from a standardized test called “Alaska Measures of Progress” administered in 2015 can’t be directly compared because PEAKS is a completely different test, but Chapell said the district’s scores were similar.
“In general, our results were similarly mediocre,” Chapell said. “We’ve taken two pictures in the last three years and both pictures are not as good as we want them to be.”
Board member Lisa Schwartz said she was disappointed that education as a whole is becoming more test-based. She said she’d rather have her daughter be taught how to think instead of how to answer exam questions.
“Public education has changed a lot and it’s so focused on testing,” Schwartz said.
But interim superintendent Rich Carlson said, “Education is much more than one snapshot of a test.”
“We teach whole people, we don’t teach to a test,” said principal Rene Martin.
Board president Anne Marie Palmieri requested the administration update the board at its next meeting on how they are addressing the test scores. Palmieri said “it’s a conversation worth revisiting.”