Paden School Plan 2007/08

Paden Elementary School was a K-8 school with an enrollment of 370 in 2006/07 that used Lifelong Guidelines and Lifeskills. To review Paden's state Academic Performance Index scores since 2000 click here.

Single School Plan Components

What Did You Learn from 2006/07 Cycle of Inquiry?

1. Looking at your data what general trends do you see? What does the data tell us about how the focus group did? How much progress did they make? How does this compare to growth of other subgroups? Is the student achievement gap closing?

API

• Paden School API dropped 39 points for ’06 to ’07.
• We fell from 6th place out of 10 Alameda schools in ’06 to 8th out of 10 Alameda schools in ’07. (Paden School has gone through some dramatic demographic changes in recent years. See this information in question section 4.)

Math

• When comparing scores from ’06 to ’07 the following groups showed improvement in the percentage of students scoring proficient or above: African American, Filipino, Disabled.
• When comparing scores from ’06 to ’07 the following groups declined in the percentage of students scoring proficient or above: Asian, Hispanic, White, SED, and EL.
• Overall the percentages of student groups scoring proficient and above slid back to the scores of ’05.
• However, we see growth over time, for students scoring proficient or above, when comparing scores from ’03 to present: Overall Paden math increased 16.3%, African Americans increased 39.5%, Asians increased 12.2, Hispanics increased 16.9%, Whites increased 26.1%, SED’s increased 15.5%, EL’s increased 9.7%, and Disabled increased 13.8%. Only one group decreased- Filipinos fell 7.4%.
• We also saw growth over time of closing the achievement gap from ’03 to present. The achievement gap between the highest and lowest groups in ’03 was 57.7% and in ’07 was 44.2%. This is a narrowing of the achievement gap by 13.5%.
• The highest performing group has changed from Filipino in ’03 to Asian in ’04, ’05, ’06, and ‘07.
• The lowest performing group has changed from African American in ’03 and ‘04 to Hispanic in ’05, ’06, and ‘07
• Currently, Disabled and Hispanic scores are below the Annual Measurable Objective (AMO) for next year, which are projected for 37% CST Cluster Scores (by ethnicity and grade level) Math
• Overall, African American and Hispanic students scored lower in most areas.
• Grades 3 and 4 had higher percentages of students scoring proficient and above.
• There is not just one area (i.e. geometry or statistics) that is low. It is uniform across mathematic topics.

English/Language Arts

• When comparing scores from ’06 to ‘07 the following groups showed improvement in the percentage of students scoring proficient or above: Hispanic and Disabled.
• When comparing scores from ’06 to ’07 the following groups declined in the percentage of students scoring proficient or above: African Americans, Asians, Filipino, white, SED, and EL
• Again, there is growth over time, for students scoring proficient or above, when comparing scores from ’03 to present: Overall Paden English Language Arts increased 4.0%, African Americans increased 16.1%, Asians increased 3.4%, Hispanics increased 22.3%, Whites increased 14.7%, SED’s increased 2.2%, and Disabled increased 8.9%. Two groups decreased- Filipinos fell 31.6% and EL’s fell 1.8%.
• We also saw growth over time of closing the achievement gap from ’03 to present. The achievement gap between the highest and lowest groups in ’03 was 51% and in ’07 was 36.4% difference. This is a narrowing of the achievement gap 14.6%.
• The highest performing group has changed from Filipino in ’03, to White in ’04 and ’07, to Asian in ’05 and ’06.
• The lowest performing group has consistently been African American in ’03, ’04, ’05 and ’07. Hispanics were the lowest performing group in ’06.
• Currently, on the Disabled group scores are below the Annual Measurable Objective (AMO) for next year, which are projected for 35.2% of students scoring proficient or above.

CST Cluster Scores- ELA

• Overall, African American, Hispanic, and Filipino students scored lower in all areas.
• Reading Comprehension and Word Analysis/Vocabulary had fewer students scoring proficient and above.
• 4th grade students scored exceptionally high on the writing test with 87% of all 4th graders scoring proficient or above.
• School-wide scores in Writing Strategies and Written Conventions were the lowest of all categories with only 56% and 61% of students scoring proficient or above.
2. What evidence/data do you have regarding the level of implementation of the teacher/instructional practice and/or schoolwide practice that you planned in your last Cycle of Inquiry? Include information about what was not implemented as well as what was implemented.
• The Cycle of Inquiry (COI) took a long time to develop last year. As a result, only partial implementation of the plan actually occurred.
• The use of QAR questioning strategies has been implemented sporadically in the classrooms. Upper grades seem to be implementing on a more on-going basis. (This strategy is being continued as a part of this year’s action plan.)
• All teachers agree that the QAR process has helped students in identifying the essential question. Students do well at answering in complete sentences by restating key phrases from the question in their answer. Teachers believe that this continued success will translate into increase reading comprehension scores.
• The implementation of the Everyday Counts Math supplemental program was also partially implemented last year. Teachers used instructional materials, but had not yet received training from the publishers. (This strategy is being continued this year. Whole staff training occurred on Aug. 30, 2007. Many teachers are choosing this as an area of focus for their own evaluation process.)
• 4th grade teachers credit the full implementation of the Step Up To Writing program for the outstanding results (87% of all 4th graders proficient or above) in the 4th grade Writing Applications test.
3. What evidence do you have that your focus on these students has positively impacted their learning?
• The evidence is a bit unreliable due to the shifting population and losing the Academy upper grades.
• The Cycle of Inquiry took so long last year that the major areas of focus had very little time to be implemented. That is why we are looking at continuing the same focus areas this year.
• 4th grade teachers credit the full implementation of the Step Up To Writing program for the outstanding results (87% of all 4th graders proficient or above) in the 4th grade Writing Applications test.
• All teachers agree that the QAR process has helped students in identifying the essential question. Students do well at answering in complete sentences by restating key phrases from the question in their answer. Teachers believe that this continued success will translate into increase reading comprehension scores.
4. Is there anything else you learned in examining your data that will inform your revised problem statement?
• It is a commonly held belief that the population of Paden School is shifting. Since June, 2001 the African American population at Paden has risen from 2.1% of the total population to 17.5% this current school year. During the same period our Hispanic population has stayed about the same 7.3% to 8.3%, White population has fallen 8%, Filipino population has risen 4.4%, and the Asian population has risen 5.8%.
• The ELL population has stayed at around 30% for the last 3 years. But when compared to June 2001 it has risen from 17.3% of the total school population to 31% in October 2007.
• The SED population has been around 35% for the last 3 years. However, the number of students receiving reduced lunch has fallen from 13.1% in June, 2006 to 7.2% presently. As a result, the number of students receiving free lunch has risen.
• Last year was the first year of not having the academy, a 6-8th grade program.

Fall 2007

1. What are your problem statements?

Problem Statements

Student Achievement Problems

42.6% of our total school population is still not proficient on the CST ELA test. Efforts in past years have been successful in closing the achievement gap between our highest performing and lowest performing groups. However, there are 3 main ethnic groups (African American, Filipino, and Hispanic) who consistently score lower in all sub-group areas of the CST.

In the past, we have targeted both African American and Hispanic subgroups because they were the two lowest performing subgroups according to our CST data. These efforts have paid off in huge gains over the last 5 years. However, our Filipino scores have fallen during that same time period. All of our subgroups have scored above the AMO for the last 2 years and are on target for the increased AMO for the 2008 testing year.

For these reasons, we want to expand the target group to include all children scoring below proficient in ELA. This section of the population includes a large number of our African American, Hispanic, Filipino, and socio-economically disadvantaged students. We feel we can further our work towards closing the achievement gap with our targeted groups as they are disproportionally represented in the basic and below quintiles.

Over the last 4 years, we have focused our efforts on various components of the reading process through the HMR series. We worked with reading fluency and vocabulary development separately. In focusing on these reading skills in isolation, we have not seen an increase in overall reading comprehension. While we are not abandoning the teaching of these skills, our deeper conversations have led us to focus on specific questioning strategies. We hypothesize that our non-proficient students will move closer to proficiency by increasing their ability to understand and answer questions correctly both orally and in writing.

Another result of the HMR series is a discrepancy in writing scores. While students achieved proficient and above in the 4th grade writing assessment in huge numbers, the results in the CST Writing Strategies and Written Conventions sub-sections are much lower. We hypothesize that our CST non-proficient students will move closer to proficiency by increasing their opportunities for writing and utilizing student editing programs like Daily Bite and Daily Oral Language.

Teacher Practice Problems

2. What are your inquiry questions?

Student Achievement Questions

How do students’ responses to specific teacher questioning strategies demonstrate their general understanding and subsequent reading comprehension?

How do students’ with good overall writing skills demonstrate proficiency in writing strategies and written conventions?

Teacher Practice Questions

If teachers use specific questioning and writing strategies, how will this affect target student mastery levels in reading comprehension, writing strategies, and written conventions?

3. What are your measurable goals?

Ten percent more students will move from FBB, BB and B to the next level, as measured by the CST ELA test in alignment with the Annual Measurable Objectives for NCLB.

Target groups will answer HMR, literature based, and group discussion questions independently with 80% accuracy.

Target groups will self edit written work, across subject matter, with 80% accuracy.

Teachers will continue to build their skills in accessing their data in Measures and use it to inform instruction and intervention.

4. What are your major strategies?

Paden 2006/07 Single School Plan

Paden 2005/06 Single School Plan

Paden 2004/05 Single School Plan

Paden 2003/04 Single School Plan

Paden

4 Year District API Base Data

Definitions

School Mobility Percent - Represents the percentage of students attending the school for the first time.

Parent Education Average - The average of all responses where "1" represents "Not a high school graduate", "2" represents "High School Graduate", "3" represents "Some College", "4" represents "College Graduate" and "5" represents "Graduate School".

School Classification Index - A mathematically computed index using other non academic API components to create indicator of similar demographics and school environment to be used for similar school rankings.

Disclaimer: All data has been hand created. If there are questions about the validity of the data, please contact the webmaster.

Single School Plan Home

TOP

Send mail to mikemcmahonausd@yahoo.com with questions or comments about this web site.
Last modified: May 13, 2004

Disclaimer: This website is the sole responsibility of Mike McMahon. It does not represent any official opinions, statement of facts or positions of the Alameda Unified School District. Its sole purpose is to disseminate information to interested individuals in the Alameda community.