WPCNR SCHOOL DAYS. By John F. Bailey. October 31, 2006 UPDATED NOVEMBER 1, 2006. 1:30 PM EST: For ten years the White Plains City School District has said their data processing department does not have the ability to track students by grade longitudinally or provide test results profiles. Within two weeks that handicap to progress will be swept away. 

The processes using the BOCES Data Warehouse piloted by Ridgeway School last year were credited Wednesday by Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors for increasing Ridgeway performance on the 4th Grade ELA tests in 2006 from 63% passing in 2005 to 76% passing in 2006.

WPCNR asked the Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors Wednesday morning if going to the BOCES Data Warehouse program, was his decision. He shared the credit, saying "It was really a group of us, looking at the best way to make good use of data that we came to a consensus that we should be working with BOCES using their Data Warehouse with ours. So it wasn't any one person, but all of us working together to do the right thing." Photo, WPCNR News Archive.

The 63% to 76% passing upgrade in one year in Ridgeway ELA 4th Grade scores is unofficially the most startling year-to-year increase in ELA Test efficiency since the city school district has been administering the state assessments. On November 7 the rest of the district schools will be given the keys to the Data Warehouse magic in meetings with the elementary schools to show principals, department heads and individual teachers how they can access BOCES tool can be used to elevate individual and group performances on the State Assessments.

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Maureen McCarthy of BOCES Lower Hudson Regional Information Center, right, presents the BOCES Data Warehouse perfomance evaluation system to the Board of Education Monday evening. Photo, WPCNR News 

The BOCES Lower Hudson Regional Information Center will be introducing elementary and middle school principals and teachers to how their faculty may access BOCES Data Warehouse. The Warehouse enables teachers to pull up test analyses of their students compared to statewide test scores. The same program enables them to isolate what questions the majority of their students are missing on assessment tests and pinpoint the skills needing improvement. The Data Warehouse system has the facility of enabling teachers to retrieve lesson plans on line and tools to develop the skill sets students need to answer the questions they  consistently have missed on state assessments

The Warehouse Data system was piloted last year at Ridgeway School in an effort to improve that school scores on the 4^th Grade ELA Tests. (In the 2004-2005 school year 65% of Ridgeway ELA students passed the ELA Statement Assessment Test, 35% failed.)  Principal Yvette Avila explained to WPCNR that she and her staff met regularly with  their elementary teachers, analyzed results of the tests, identifying the questions and the skills the questions were testing to identify skill areas  the Ridgeway faculty needed to improve to upgrade test scores. Pretests were administered. Results analyzed and lessons and test questions retrieved from the BOCES database to attack identified skill shortfalls and sharpen students' abilities on specific kinds of questions they were missing.

Avila told WPCNR that the school administration approved teacher selections of skills to concentrate on and students were taught emphasizing their areas where the most consistent shortcomings were found. Avila said they saw improvement in 2005-2006  ELA scores,  but did not reveal at the meeting how much the Ridgeway ELA score had improved from the 64% passing ELA in 2005. When asked if the system would replace curriculum coordinators, and she said, of course not, they would always need curriculum coordinators.

63% TO 76% IN ONE YEAR.

On Wednesday morning, Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors reported to WPCNR that the Ridgeway pilot program using the BOCES Data Warehouse to isolate skills needing improvement had increased Ridgeway 4th Grade ELA scores from 63% Passing the 2005 test, to 76% Passing on the 2006 Test.

McCarthy introduced Avila who presented an overview of how Ridgeway worked with the BOCES program “to identify targeted areas of instruction” based on the nature of questions Ridgeway students were answering incorrectly. She said the teachers put together tests based on the questions answered incorrectly as identified by the BOCES data, and taught the targeted skills needing improvement using lesson materials provided by the BOCES site. She said the school was able to improve scores on the 2006 test.

The “School Report Card” for 2005-2006 ELA tests is not released to the public yet, but has been released to the School Districts. The School Report Cards according to a State Education Department press release will not be available to the public until  November 22.

103,720 vs. White Plains.

McCarthy said the BOCES LHRIC Data Warehouse compares the performances of 103,720 students from the Westchester, Putnam and Rockland County areas on the State Assessment Tests question-by-question. The program enables curriculum heads, principals and individual teachers to look up their school on the www.LHRIC.org website, using password to isolate their total students’ scores average in relation to the passing levels of all the other students in the three counties taking the tests, as well as the percentage of all students passing the questions. 

Ridgeway Performance on 2005 ELA Assessment Analyzed: The online service enables teachers to see students performance by question compared to peers in this region. The Red scores indicate where the number of students passing did not match the passing rates posted by all students of the region. The skills the questions are testing for are listed in the blocks at the left. Photo , WPCNR News 

Mr. Samis then took the small gathering through the reports on the Ridgeway School, by total students, and student-by-student (with names of students blanked out, of course). Observers could see, how based on 2004-2005 results  (in red) how Ridgeway’s students did in relation to all other students answering each question. Questions are classified according to skill being tested.  Samis observed that the individual teacher can note the skill sets they need to sharpen up to improve an individual student's performance on the next assessment by seeing the questions that student failed.

2006 Results on One Portion of the 2006 Tests. Data may be compared year to year over time. Photo, WPCNR News.

Samis demonstrated that the program also provides through an auxiliary service called DataMentor, lessons to drill the underachieving students on the skill levels consistently showing needing improvement based on the number of students failing to reach the Level 3 passing level. Teachers can download the lessons and exercises to give to students collectively or on an individual basis, rapidly addressing ailing skill-sets in an academic “triage” treatment.

DataMentor a section where a principal, curriculum head or teacher can identify a skill set and download exercises to address those skill sets to create tests, drills and programs to upgrade performance in a short period of time. Photo, WPCNR News

McCarthy reported the data could be reported out from grades 3 to 8, enabling the White Plains School District to view the progress of students by grade, and individually at the flick of a keyboard. This is a service the School District data processing experts have been unable to develop though asked repeatedly for it over the last decade. The explanation previously give as to why they have not been able to do it is the district inability to convert data into existing district programs. Now, by the school turning over its data and programming it into the DATA Warehouse, it can be done.

High School Regents scores in Math and ELA are also being tracked in the same manner, McCarthy said.

Superintendent of Schools Connors noted the program would be introduced to teachers throughout the district November 7, during a staff conference day, and that it would be put into use immediately.

At the conclusion of the meeting, Peter Bassano, a member of the Board of Education observed that this program with its ability to pinpoint where curriculum instruction was failing, meant the district had "No more excuses," for future test shortcomings.