TPS affiliates look for ways to improve state report cards

Dec. 11—With state school report cards from the 2022-'23 school year now out, Tahlequah Public Schools affiliates are brainstorming on how they plan to make more improvements.

The data used in the 2022-'23 state report cards are from the last school year and not the current.

Tahlequah High School received an overall grade of a C; a B in postsecondary opportunities; an F in chronic absenteeism; and a C in English language proficiency progress, academic achievement, and graduation. TPS Assistant Superintendent DeAnn Mashburn said the graduation portion of the report cards is different than the district's graduation rates.

"They have a huge formula for that because they figure in your four-year cohort, your five year, and your six year," Mashburn said.

Compared to the 2021-'22 state report cards, THS' overall score increased by 2%; postsecondary opportunities increased by 2%; the percentage of students in good attendance for chronic absenteeism increased by a little over 3%; English language proficiency progress dropped by 2%; and academic achievement increased by 2%. Mashburn said she attributed the increases to district leaders' focus on academics and the educators' hard work.

"We do still worry about the whole child," Mashburn said. "We provide lunches, breakfasts, rides, and any kind of social emotional needs they have, but I do they think they are trying to home in on the best thing they can do for a student, [which] is to help them achieve academically so they can better themselves, so they have more opportunities when they leave high school."

Tahlequah Middle School received a C overall; a B in academic achievement and academic growth; a C in English language proficiency progress; and a F in chronic absenteeism. From the 2021-'22 state report cards, TMS's overall grade dropped from a B by 7%; academic achievement decreased by 3%; academic growth dropped by 8%; English language proficiency progress also decreased by 12%; and the percentage of students in good attendance for chronic absenteeism dropped by a little over 6%.

"That chronic absenteeism is something we're going to try to pay attention to because if students aren't there, they can't receive the instruction," Mashburn said.

TPS Superintendent Tanya Jones said that this year and last, Mashburn has been doing instructional rounds with her administrative teams for classroom walk-throughs and visits to watch educators teach. Afterward, team members get together to discuss what they like and what needs improvement.

"I really feel like that's helped them to examine academics intentionally at the middle school and high school level, and it's causing scores to go up," Jones said.

To help with daily attendance at TMS and the elementaries, Kair Ridenhour, TPS executive director of elementary education, said the sites have started to post daily attendance rates, and teachers try to find ways to keep students motivated to show up each day.

Heritage Elementary's overall score is a B; chronic absenteeism and English language proficiency progress is a D; and academic achievement and growth both received a B. Compared to last year's report, the overall score remained the same, while English language proficiency progress increased by 6% and chronic absenteeism decreased by almost 2%. Academic achievement dropped by 3%, but academic growth increased by 4%

Cherokee Elementary received an overall of a D; academic growth is a C; chronic absenteeism received an F; and academic achievement and English language proficiency progress is at a D. The site's overall score dropped from a C by 12%, English language proficiency progress increased by 1%, chronic absenteeism dropped by a little over 11%, academic growth decreased by 12%, and academic achievement dropped by 13%.

Ridenhour said Cherokee Elementary also had an increase in the number of students who took the 2022-'23 Oklahoma Schools Testing Program exams.

"We make it very important that every student, no matter how we feel they were scored — we want them represented in the data, and we want them to have the chance to do these types of tests so they get more prepared for the next year," Jones said.

Ridenhour said chronic absenteeism has been an issue at all sites, prompting district leaders to brainstorm on ways to help curb it.

"These grade just make us work harder," Ridenhour said. "They show us the areas that we're low in, and we're looking at every way we can try to increase those scores."

When it comes to chronic absenteeism, Jones said, it should not be a part of the report cards.

"Some would argue — and I agree to an extent — that the culture of your school does drive whether they want to be there," Jones said. "I don't argue that point, so do a culture survey with our community or our parents or our students. Give us a score on that, but that's one piece we cannot control. We are graded on that, and everything else looks like we are not doing a very good job. It's unfair, and it should not be a part of this report card."

Greenwood Elementary's overall and English language proficiency progress this year is a D; a F was given for chronic absenteeism; and academic achievement and academic growth are at a C. According to the 2021-'22 data, Greenwood's overall dropped from a C by 19% and English language proficiency progress increased by 3%. The percentage of students in good attendance decreased by a little over 4%, academic achievement dropped by 9%, and academic growth decreased by 39%.

Ridenhour said TPS' students who are learning English, or EL students, are a heavy part of focus districtwide. Last year marked the first time in about 20 years for TPS to adopt a literacy and reading series, Jones said, which has been a significant undertaking. TPS will also be including a new math curriculum this year, which Jones said will include growing pains as with most new curriculum.

To better help the students in EL, Jones said, they are looking at common assessments and using daily data to determine student progress.

"We have certified teacher at every building," Ridenhour said. "Middle school has to share a certified teacher with one of our elementaries, so to see those gains in the EL program at every site is showing that where we're spending our money is working, because if that population is increasing, we're finding more and more resources to help those students be successful."