The ASD recently announced Neely’s Bend as the school that will be converted into a charter school by LEAD. There is currently a data war going on between both sides. Because of that, I wanted to just provide data on both of these schools. I will literally copy and paste data from the state for to decide. Many people in this data debate always discuss the Proficient/Advanced students. I will discuss the Basic and Below Basic students who are falling behind.
First, Neely’s Bend had 548 students last years. Madison had 756 student. The ASD picked the school with over 200 fewer students.
Using the Report Card from the state’s website, I found this information:
This data shows that in Math, almost 74% of the school was Basic or Below Basic when it comes to Math. For reading, almost 76% of the school was Basic or Below Basic in Reading. For both of those tests, only a fourth of the population of the school was Proficient or Advanced.
Looking at the same data for Madison, we see that 81% of the students are Basic or Below Basic in Math. As for Reading, 76% are Basic or Below Basic. Comparing the two schools, Madison has more students struggling with Math (7 percent more) and the same amount struggling with Reading. Around a fourth of students at this school is Proficient or Advanced in Reading and Math.
When looking at TVAAS, we see the Neely’s Bend has an overall score of 1 and the rest of the scores were 2s.
Madison also had an overall TVAAS score of 1, but we see higher TVAAS scores in Numeracy and Literacy/Numeracy and lower score in Literacy compared to Neely’s Bend.
The ASD tells parents to look at the Brick Church College Prep because LEAD is currently converting a school there for the ASD. Below is the same information for Brick Church College Prep that I provided for the other schools. It should be noted the number of students is fewer (177) because they are converting one grade at a time.
At Brick Church College Prep, almost 60% of the students are Basic or Below Basic in Math (compared to 81% at Madison and 74% at Neely’s Bend). For Reading, almost 63% of the students are Basic or Below Basic (compared to 76% at Madison and Neely’s Bend).
Brick Church College Prep had an overall TVAAS score of 5, higher than both Neely’s Bend and Madison.
Neely’s Bend Picked
In the match up between Neely’s Bend and Madison, the ASD went with the school with
- Fewer Students
- Worse TVAAS scores on Numeracy and Numeracy & Literacy
- Fewer students struggling with Math
Data
In education circles across the country, the word data is treated like a curse word. We need to use data in school systems to find out where our students are. It’s horrible that only a fourth of our students are proficient or advanced in Reading in Math at these schools. It’s not just Neely’s Bend and Madison where this is a problem. It’s all over, in both traditional and charter schools.
The hardest part in being trained as a researcher is that you must put your personal opinions asides and look at the data. It’s hard because I have a lot of strong opinions. I know many people will tell me the data is off with Brick Church College Prep. But at this point, Brick Church College Prep is doing better when it comes to the tests we are giving our students.
Elementary Schools
As a middle school teacher, I believe the changes that we need to complete should take place in elementary schools. In Metro Nashville Public Schools, we have changed the High Schools (academies) and the Middle Schools Preps. What we are lacking is the changes to the elementary schools. We have far too many students leaving elementary school behind. I strongly believe if we work to stop this in elementary schools, we can help our middle schools become stronger and stave off the take over from the ASD.
As leadership changes take place at Metro Nashville Public Schools, I look for a new Director of Schools who can hit the ground running to help our elementary schools.
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Another way to prevent being taken over by charter schools would be to enforce discipline in metro schools. I think this is why some parents are drawn to charters- and I don’t blame them. Why is it that charters are allowed to be strict, but metro schools aren’t? Discipline is still the elephant in the room that people don’t talk about. I taught at Neely’s Bend a few years ago. There were few consequences for students with disruptive behavior. Teachers got the consequences- not students. The principal I taught under resigned this year.
Zack, can you explain how the standard error is calculated that impacts TVAAS scores? I’m linking the article below that says the raw growth scores at Brick Church in reading are worse than Madison or Neely’s Bend, but that the TVAAS scores are better because of the standard error calculation that was used.
http://tn.chalkbeat.org/2014/12/08/data-disagreements-muddy-takeover-debate/#.VIzsGbktDcs
What is the socio-economic demographic of Neely’s Bend? Madison?
Are both schools Title I schools?
What is the teacher/student ratio?