By Jacky Gerzema
The official report will be available by early March, said Trish Hughes, spokesperson for the district.
The Report Card includes results from the 2000-2001 state exams in English Language Arts (ELA), math and science for grade four; mathematics and ELA scores for grade eight; and Regents and Advanced Placement examinations for high school, as well as other indicators of school and district success.
In grades four and eight, students are placed into four levels according to their learning ability. Level one students have serious academic deficiencies; level two students need extra help to meet the standards and ultimately pass the Regents examination; level three students meet standards, and with continued steady growth, should pass the Regents exams; and level four students exceed the standards and are moving toward high performance on Regents.
The report card compares the number of Baldwin students at each level to state-wide percentages.
Baldwin fourth graders outperformed their state counterparts in both math and ELA scores. In ELA, 82.8 percent of Baldwin students met or exceeded standards, compared to 60 percent of the state's students overall. In math, over 85 percent of Baldwin's fourth graders scored at level three or four, compared to roughly 69 percent of the state's students.
In eighth grade, student scores drop statewide, and Baldwin scores showed no exception. However, Baldwin students showed better overall results than state-wide averages.
Just under 57 percent of Baldwin students met standards on the ELA exams, compared to just under 50 percent of students state-wide. Eighth-grade math exams show the same pattern as the ELA exams. Only 42 percent of Baldwin students met or exceeded standards, while around 39 percent met or exceeded standards statewide.
Beware statistics and don't forget the positive
At Wednesday's meeting, some parents brought up the need for math and reading intervention specialists in the middle schools to ensure that students to pass their eighth-grade exams.
One parent, Eileen Petit, said the lack of specialized educators in reading at the middle school level might account for the disparity between the eighth grade and fourth grade scores.
Superintendent Dr. Kathy Weiss said that she will ask the
board to hire reading/writing and math academic intervention teachers.
Parent Charles Weidman said that academics may not be the only reason eighth graders are getting lower scores.
"These kids going into the middle school are separated from their friends from elementary, they don't know anyone at first," he said. "Not only are they thrown into the middle school but they're worried about their looks, they spend more time on the phone, they hit puberty, and all of a suddenly they're attracted to members of the opposite sex."
Jeffrey Hollman, assistant superindentant for instruction, said that the middle-school structure is based on this social change, and focuses on more developing social skills, as opposed to the junior high structure, which was modeled more as a "mini high school."
"Because the human body begins to change between the ages of 11 and 14, the body is spending a lot of time on social development," Hollman said. "The brain takes a little 'vacation' during these years."
Hollman, Weiss and others said that while eighth grade scores are lower, this is not unique to Baldwin.
"Middle school exams all over the state are lower," Hollman said. "That pattern is true at middle schools all over the state."
Hollman said that elementary and middle school exams were originally developed to determine how each student was progressing academically and what levels of help they might need to ensure they pass the Regents exams at the high school level. The exams' scores were not meant to be published in newspapers and compared to other districts, he added.
"I'm against how these scores are being used," Hollman said. "If we used these scores to help kids, fine. But the state is putting them into Newsday and The Times, and these districts don't feel they're good enough....There are districts that are spending over
$20,000 per child. It doesn't seem fair that some districts can spend more money on education and then to put these test scores side-by-side in the papers."
Positive statistics for BSHS's graduating class of 2001 showed that 91 percent of graduating seniors were accepted to college, 68 percent earned Regents diplomas and 46 students earned a Regents diploma with honors.
While the exam scores and placement levels were a bittersweet topic for the Baldwin School District, the District Report Card shows many positive indicators of success.
A majority of students took instrumental music classes and secondary elective choral music classes last year. All elementary students were enrolled in choral music and art classes. Over 1,400 athletes participated on 22 varsity, 13 junior varsity and 20 middle school teams. Ninety-one percent of the graduating class of 2001 were accepted to college, and three students went to Harvard last year, Hollman said.
"It's important to recognize and focus on the positive in our district as well as the negative," Hollman said.
