NEW ULM - Several District 88 grade levels have had achievement scores either level off or regress, District 88's main testing official Bill Sprung told the Board of Education Thursday night.
Sprung, who is also the Washington Elementary School principal, reported the preliminary results of 2009 state math and reading tests administered in grades three, four, five, six, seven, eight and 11.
He also provided a three-year comparison of the scores.
"In the past," Sprung told the board, "I've said, 'we are growing steadily,' and 'we are a little bit above state averages.' You are going to hear a different kind of report tonight."
According to his report, four of the grades tested locally in math in 2009 showed lower proficiency levels that those for the state - while three of the grades had higher-than-average proficiency rates.
In reading, three of the grades tested locally showed proficiency levels lower than those for the state, while four of them displayed higher proficiency rates.
Moreover, said Sprung, in past years, New Ulm has rated among the top 15 to 20 percent of area schools - "this year, we are in middle, perhaps edging down."
With only big picture results available at this time, Sprung would not speculate about the specific cause of this trend.
More time is needed to look as the so-called "strand" data - specific curriculum elements and knowledge areas tested, he said.
Also, staff needs to be involved in the data analysis - and in the development of improvement plans.
However, Sprung noted, he believes the district has reaped as much benefit as possible from "tweaking" the curriculum - it now needs to move on to the "next, more difficult stage of the plan."
That would involve fine-tuning - some finer, closer matching of standards to the curriculum - but even more so, it calls for work on instructional organization and delivery methods and tying local assessment to standards and standard assessment models.
To quote one of his examples, "we may be teaching them to divide - teaching them the process - but is the test asking them to apply this knowledge? And that's a disconnect."
A look at test score data for 2007, 2008 and 2009 graphed by Sprung indicates that three of the grade levels have shown progress over the years in question - while four have stayed about the same or regressed, over the three-year span.
This is true for both reading and math.
Some of the fluctuation is attributable to class variation, a year-to-year look shows - what Sprung called "a fluctuation of students."
Still, as students got older, proficiency levels appear to have declined in math and essentially stayed the same in reading, according to his graphs.
A factor complicating this equation, however, is what officials call the lack of "scaling" - that is, the tests are not directly comparable year to year.
As part of the test discussion, though, school officials cited the example of Waseca - that district has significantly outscored the rest of area schools.
One thing they have done differently, said administrators, is introduce "professional learning communities" or PLCs - groups of teachers who study the newest research and best practices in teaching in specific data-driven ways.
The model, in its its third year there, is now yielding results.
Local educators have just began work on the model here, and Superintendent Harold Remme told the board he will be requesting a vacancy for a person to coordinate data analysis and PLCs, in the near future.
Soccer
The board also signed an agreement with the New Ulm Area Soccer Association to continue the high school soccer program during the next school year.
The agreement provides for the district to administer, and for the association to pay for, a competitive high school soccer program. The current agreement, along similar lines, expired at the end of the last school year.
The new agreement caps the association expenses at $15,000. The money is to pay for standard expenses - coaches, referees, tournament fees, field maintenance, etc. The only difference between the new and the previous agreement is that District 88 is waiving its administrative fee of 8 percent.
The program is open to all area public and private school students, and a varsity program is part of it.
The participation fee charged to soccer players is set at $150, and, in line with the usual school practice, it is waived for students receiving free lunches.
The original intent when the program was started a few years ago was for the soccer association to eventually bow out of it.
However, because of financial constraints, District 88 is attempting to refrain from adding school-sponsored athletic activities to its offerings - and, instead, to rely more on booster clubs.
Soccer - which commands a strong and rising interest among students - but, unlike sports like football or baseball, is not a sport traditionally sponsored by the district - is an example of this approach.
Cash flow borrowing
The board approved a resolution that allows the district, in principle, to join a statewide cash flow borrowing pool.
The idea behind the pool is to borrow money inexpensively to meet cash flow obligations, in case legislators change the metering system for state aid payments because of the strained state budget.
Local officials think the district likely has enough in reserves to not need to borrow money for this purpose. But they did not want to miss the deadline to join the borrowing pool for next year, just in case it does.
The board can opt out of the pool before June 27; and the matter will be revisited if new factors come into account by then.
On Thursday, though, the board heard about the cost of borrowing - which ranges between $7,500 to borrow $1 million for a year, to $12,000 to borrow $4 million.