Mineola Superintendent of Schools Michael Nagler said last week that district students had not performed well in recent standardized tests for English Language Arts, but school officials were working to ensure better results in the future.
“Quite frankly, we didn’t do well in ELA,” Nagler said of English Language Test results presented at a school board meeting last week.
The meeting featured presentation by principals in the district’s kindergarten, three elementary schools, and middle school focused on students’ performance on the results of the new Northwest Evaluation Association test system, which provides sequential snapshots of students’ progress. The system replaced the bi-annual standardized New York State tests.
At the Willis Avenue School, ELA tests taken this fall showed 70 percent of kindergarten students scoring below the statewide median ELA score with 30 percent scoring above the median.
“We’re pretty sure we’ll have a different picture in January just based on computer literacy alone,” said Willis Avenue principal Sue Caryl Fleishman.
She said the students will be having weekly training sessions with the school’s literacy coach.
At the Hampton Street School, 45 percent of first graders’ scores were below the media ELA test score, with 55 percent of scores above it. Among second graders, 65 percent scored below the median and 325 percent were above it. Among fourth graders, 68 percent scored below the media, with 32 percent above it.
“We want to see that any student is moving forward, wherever they’re starting at,” Hampton Street principal Debra Small said. She said the “neediest” readers are taking two small-group reading lessons daily.
At the Meadow Drive School, 41 percent of first graders scored below the ELA median, while 58 percent registered scores above it.
Meadow Drive principal Deborah Shaw said teachers are working with fourth graders with longer books “building their stamina” for the 70-minute standardized tests they will take at the school year’s end.
In the Jackson Avenue School, 47 percent of second and third graders’ score fell below the ELA median measure, with 53 percent above it. Among fourth graders, 47 percent scored below the media, while 56 percent exceeded it.
“I see almost every literacy and ESL teacher every day,” said Pat Molloy, Jackson Avenue School principal.
At the Mineola Middle School, among fifth graders, 38 percent scored below the ELA median, with 62 percent topping it. Sixth graders showed nearly the same split, with 41 percent below the median and 59 percent above it. Seventh grade scores looked the best, with 67 percent above the ELA media and 33 percent below it.
Nagler said the tests are helping teachers make adjustments in instruction.
“You measure whether the teachers met their goals by measuring whether how the students met their goals,” Nagler said.
Test results are “artifacts” that evidence students’ progress and principals can implement “action plans” to augment similar plans the teachers share with the principals, Nagler said.
Nagler said the test results in the district indicated the need for making adjustments to the new national common core standards being implemented in schools across the country.
“What we know as learning, we’re being asked to do it differently,” he said.
School board member John McGrath said it would be an “understatement” to say he was “disappointed” with the scores, “especially considering what we spend on these Pre-K programs.”
Nagler seconded McGrath’s reaction, saying, “It’s very alarming. And it just shows we have a lot of work to do.”
“For us, development of work sheets to develop individual goals is a powerful tool,” said middle school principal Mark Barth, who noted that conferences between teachers are also helpful.
“We talk about issues, we talk about kids,” he said.
In other developments:
• Three of the construction contracts for the expansion of the Hampton Street School were approved by the board of education, including a $68,300 contract for Conelly Plumbing, a $275,000 contract for LED Electric and $277,000 to JNS Heating for heating and air conditioning services. New bids are being sought for the general construction contract, which will comprise the largest segment of the $2.1 project to build a new library at the school.
