New School Year

Wishing Students and Staff

a Successful School Year!

Central Support Services

According to an article in last Sunday’s (Aug. 15^th) Statesville Record & Landmark, the I-SS Central Office is now going to be called ‘Central Support Services.’ The article states that the change is meant to dispel any “us vs. them” mentality and to reiterate that administrators are there to work with the schools’ staff. The article also states that Mr. Johnson said that he doesn’t want staff to look at administrators as roadblocks, but instead as resourceful tools they can use in order to accomplish the goal of educating children.

Later in the article it cites Mr. Johnson as saying that with the district moving from a district of “progress” to one of “distinction” with an 80.7% performance composite for 2009-10 under ABC results, the goal moving forward is to get to 100%. Then the article quotes Mr. Johnson as saying, “You hear people talk about No Child Left Behind, but we’re serious about that.” However, there was no mention of the low AYP scores.

Of course Mr. Johnson also did not mention that one of the I-SS primary goals has been that the district was to have 97% expected ABC growth by 2010 and that another goal was that the district was to meet 96% of the AYP targets in 2010. Remember that the AYP scores are a measure of the success of the ‘No Child Left Behind’ program.

If Mr. Johnson is serious about ‘No Child Left Behind’ then he has to admit that the I-SS AYP scores dramatically decreased this past year and discuss what the district is truly going to change in order to improve both the ABC and AYP goals. I don’t think that rebranding the Central Office as Central Support Services is going to bring much real change in the way that the I-SS administration does things.

Mixed Results: ABC and AYP Scores

In a previous post I talked about the AYP (Adequate Yearly Progress) scores for the Iredell-Statesville Schools. As was reported in that post, only 54.3% of the I-SS schools met the AYP standards for the 2009–10 school year which was a drop of 25.7% from the 2008–09 school year when 80.0% of the I-SS schools met the AYP standards.

The ABC scores for the 2009–10 school year have also been published. According to a recent article in the Statesville Record & Landmark, I-SS's performance composite for the 2009-10 school year increased by 2.1% (from 78.6% in 2008-09 to 80.7%) over the previous year.

You may use the link below to access the Record and Landmark on-line article regarding the ABC scores.

Record & Landmark ABC Scores Article

This 2.1% gain in the ABC scores is small compared to the 25.7% decrease in the AYP scores. Of course I-SS is making a big deal out of the increase in ABC scores and downplaying the drop in the AYP scores. The Record & Landmark quotes Superintendent Johnson as saying “The trend is going in the right direction," and continues that Johnson said the growth is inspiring and a "morale booster" during difficult days for the district. In its article on the I-SS End-of Year Review Session the Record & Landmark reported that Chairman David Cash said that the district did well in its overall performance.

You may use the link below to access the Record and Landmark on-line article about the I-SS End-of Year Review Session.

I-SS End of Year Review Session

I congratulate I-SS on its increase in the ABC scores. However, I-SS needs to carefully examine both the ABC scores and the AYP scores to see why there is only a small gain in the ABC scores and why there is such a significant decrease in the AYP scores. I-SS continues to extol the current I-SS Model without any real proof its efficacy. When dealing with over 20,000 students anecdotal evidence is not sufficient to justify a particular approach to the education of those students.

You may click on the image below to see the 2009-10 ABC scores for I-SS.