Mineola Superintendent of Schools Michael Nagler reported last week that the district excelled in trigonometry, global history and physics, but faltered in earth science and English in Regents exams conducted during the 2012-2013 school year
“There are some anomalies, but for the most part when a number is bad, we didn’t do our job well and when a number is good, we did do it well,” Nagler said at last Tuesday’s board of education meeting.
Nagles said 92 percent of students passed the Algebra 2/Trigonometry exam, a course which Nagler said has strong parallels to success in college. Some 150 students sat for the exam between August 2012 and June 2013 and Nagler said he would like to see that number over 200 in the future.
“Algebra two and trigonometry, that’s the gateway exam to the advanced regents diploma. The more children we get taking and passing this exam, the higher our percentages of advanced regents diplomas will be,” Nagler said.
When he looked at the school reports in Newsday, Nagler said Mineola was in the top half of districts in terms of the percentage of advanced regents diplomas, and he would like to see that pattern continue.
He said a state-mandated change in how district’s approach math next year will be “radical departure” from the way math is currently taught districtwide in grades K 9. More emphasis, he said will be placed on showing three or four different ways to get that answer – rather than just getting the answer right.
“I think parents will be more frustrated than the students, because you will not know what they’re bringing home. When they sit down to do homework, you’re gonna say ‘What is this?’” Nagler said.
Assistant Superintendent Patricia Burns said that workshops for parents would be scheduled. Nagler suggested that parents go to engageny.org to learn more about their child’s curriculum.
The district’s highest scores in Regents exams were on the global history and geography exam with 88 percent of students passing and over half of all students achieving mastery, a score of 85 or above. The district also saw a massive improvement in physics, where 87 percent of students passed, a 38 percentage point increase from the previous year.
While the district improved in one science discipline, there was a decline in the results for earth science. Only 75 percent of students passed the exam, the district’s lowest number in the past five years.
When trustee William Hornberger asked Nagler if there were problems with specific instructors in the earth science program, Nagler said, “We have issues with specific teachers and the success their students achieve. And we will deal with that.”
Nagler said one of the ways he plans to improve the program will be moving science teacher A.J. Hepworth to the high school.
“Moving Mr. Hepworth to the high school is one of the biggest steps [towards improvement] since he is an expert in earth science and his regents results for the past few years have been stellar in that topic,” Nagler said.
In addition to earth science, the district also saw a drop in scores on the English Regents exam. There was a slight decrease in the percentage of students that passed, but nearly a 20 percent drop in the students who achieved mastery in the subject.
But Nagler cautioned the board not too read too far into the different levels of test scores.
Not only does the state frequently change the cut scores, but on a broader level the district will begin changing it’s method of evaluating students next year, he said.
“For K-6 we’re going to be speaking a different language with grades. There’s no one, two, three, four anymore, there’s no A, B,C, D anymore. It’s making progress towards standards,” he said.
Nagler said that it will be a big change for students and parents, but will help students focus on reaching end of the year standards.
He said that this transition will be made easier with the addition of the “Cube,” a data analysis tool the district will begin using next year.
The Cube allows teachers to gather tests and assessments electronically to better track students’ progress and make adjustments for any shortcomings.
“We spent the whole year investigating and tweaking and trial and error with this cube, and I have very good, optimistic feelings that next year we’ll hit the ground running even faster,” Nagler said.
