FULTON, NY – The Fulton City School District has won two appeals to remove elementary schools from a state list of focus schools.
But, the district as well as the high school remain on the list.
Despite the district’s newly acquired status, school officials remain optimistic about the journey ahead for FCSD.
“It is a disappointment to be designated as a focus district,” said FCSD Superintendent of Schools, William Lynch. “But it is a reflection of how only one sub group is performing. Accountability is all about performance of subgroups.”
Focus schools and districts are identified based on the annual performance of students on state assessments, much like Local Assistance Plan Schools of which FCSD currently has 3 schools categorized as.
Focus schools are identified based on results of four-year and five-year graduation rates, grades third-eighth and high school ELA scores, and grades third-eighth and high school math scores.
A school or district is held accountable for all subgroups that have 30 or more students that identify in each subgroup.
If a school or district has a subgroup with a performance index that falls below the state provided cut point for any of the categories above including graduation rates and state ELA and math testing, the school or district would begin being categorized as a focus school or district.
For FCSD, initially the preliminary focus schools included G. Ray Bodley High School, Fairgrieve Elementary School and Granby Elementary School, with FCSD a focus district as well.
However, due to data collected by school officials, the district submitted appeals to the state education department which resulted in two schools, Granby Elementary and Fairgrieve Elementary, being removed from the list of focus schools in NYS.
Schools have the opportunity through progress filters to show alternate measures of growth aside from performance on assessments.
These progress filters are “seven opportunities to prove a subgroup has grown in other ways or is on track to grow,” said Executive Director of Instruction and Assessment, Betsy Conners.
While some subgroups fell below the needed cut point, they were able to measure enough growth through progress filters that they were not considered focus subgroups, whereas a few other subgroups were not able to show adequate growth through progress filters.
However, the data collected by school officials showed students in identified focus subgroups were making growth based on the school’s use of STAR testing which when submitted to the state, proved accurate and was enough to remove the elementary school’s off the list of statewide focus schools.
Granby Elementary was a surprising school to be found in the focus school category, as the school had never even been on LAP status, said Conners.
However, the students with disabilities subgroup fell below the performance index cut point for ELA and math performance at 50.89 according to the state and was removed when proved through school officials to have a performance of 53.46 through STAR testing results.
Similarly, the economically disadvantaged subgroup at Fairgrieve fell below the performance index cut point for ELA and math performance by half of a point. However, the school’s appeal showing that the STAR testing results were 52.87 as opposed to the state’s 50.89 was a successful attempt to remove Fairgrieve from the list of focus schools as well.
Ultimately, G. Ray Bodley High School’s economically disadvantaged subgroup fell below the ELA and math performance index cut point and the Fulton City School District’s Hispanic subgroup fell below the ELA and math performance index cut point, leaving both G. Ray Bodley and FCSD on the list of categorized focus school and district.
As a focus district, school officials have learned that NYS will make visits to the district to check instruction and data, with their soonest visit happening in April to G. Ray Bodley.
There is additional funding available to focus districts to help enhance learning.
FCSD officials already have plans set in motion to combat their newly acquired status by the NYSED, many of which were implemented before the status was brought forth.
Conners will attend a training in Albany in early March to learn more about being a focus district and what the necessary steps are to get off the list and notes that there will be many more reports to come throughout the learning process.
In late March, school officials will notify the parents, students and general public of the status of the district.
The district will then move forward with the state required Diagnostic Tool for School and District Effectiveness review process and will then submit the District Comprehensive Improvement Plan and the School Comprehensive Education Plan before notifying parents of the public school choice options.
While FCSD has three schools designated as LAP schools, Conners says there are more pieces in place when considered a focus district, but the district will be able to use LAP as a template.
Conners also presented a clear message, that students within the district are growing and there is no reason to lose sight of that.
“Our students have shown growth in 3-8 math, but not as much at the high school. Likewise, we struggle with 3-8 ELA but do great with the Regents in high school. We aren’t on the list at all for graduation rates, so let’s not lose sight of the great things that are happening,” Conners said.
The Board of Education agreed that the district is showing growth and BOE member Robert Briggs said, “Let’s remember, that’s just one score. Not everything hangs over what an eight or nine year old does in 3 days of testing.”
Officials plan to move forward and take a proactive approach at targeting the necessary students to intervene and increase performance.
“We will deal with this. We will get some extra money and we will do some creative things,” said Conners.
Superintendent Lynch looks forward optimistically as well, saying, “We are going to look in depth at where these students are since there are enough Hispanic subgroup population to hold us accountable as a district, but not in any one school. We are going to look at these students and target intervention and take action to improve their performance. We already have plans in action at schools for this particular subgroup and we will use this as a basis of how we are approaching this.”
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