All four area high schools see lower scores with new test formula

By FULLER ROYAL

One-third or more of high schoolers in the city and county schools are not working at levels of proficiency.

All four of the high schools in the Columbus County and Whiteville City systems saw drops in their student proficiency rates, which left Whiteville High School at the top of the heap and East Columbus High School replacing West Columbus High school as the lowest performing high school in the county for 2005-06.

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the State Board of Education released its annual ABC’s of Education Report earlier this month.

After spending two years with proficiency scores in the mid-60s, ECHS dropped with only 53.3 percent of its students passing their end-of-course tests.

After enjoying proficiency rates in the low 70s, SCHS suffered a drop to 64.6 percent from its all-time high of 73.9 percent last year.

Despite the plummet, SCHS met both the expected and high growth mandates by the state. Each teacher at the school will receive a $1,500 bonus this year. Certified staff members will receive $500.

WCHS, already on a list of schools in danger of a takeover by the state, dropped from 59.9 percent proficient to 54.5 percent proficient.

WCHS has been unable to pull itself into the 60s. In August, the N.C. Department of Public Instruction assigned a consultant to work with the school in a joint effort with the state to pull proficiency scores above the 60 mark.

WCHS could still face an assistance team next year.

WHS experienced the least change, dropping from 69.4 percent to 68.1 percent proficient.

While unable to crack the 70s, WHS has been the most consistent of the four high schools, maintaining a proficiency of 67 percent or better since 2001.

Columbus County Schools Superintendent Dan Strickland said that the schools had identified barriers to growth as early as last spring and that the schools have already addressed several issues.

This past summer, the county schools held professional development classes for teachers in the areas of science, mathematics and English/language arts – especially writing.

Whiteville City Schools Superintendent Danny McPherson told his board during their October meeting last week that he wishes WHS could have moved up. He was grateful they had no more decline than they did.

“It’s an indication of the hard work the school has done,” McPherson said. “It’s difficult to really compare scores from one year to the next because the measurements and the items measured change so much.”

He told the board that there are clearly opportunities for improvement and challenges that the system would need to meet `to raise the high school’s proficiency rate.

The seriousness of average and low-performing high schools has prompted Gov. Mike Easley and State Board Chairman Howard Lee to order a statewide audit of all 115 school districts to ensure the smart, targeted use of all resources in the state’s high schools.

The state wants to learn how funds are spent in the highest-performing high schools and then apply those practices to the lowest-performing high schools.

This year, no area high school made Adequate Yearly Progress with the No Child Left Behind Act. WHS almost made AYP but several 10th graders last year failed to take their algebra end-of-grade tests.