Friday, August 31, 2012
Eisenhower’s scores were low under the new alternative to the No Child Left Behind System.
Hopkins Public Schools saw strong growth overall in the latest reading and math scores, with Alice Smith and Gatewood elementary schools being singled out as successes, according to 2012 designations made available to the public Thursday. However, a continuing achievement gap at Eisenhower Elementary led to a score in the state’s bottom tier. Alice Smith and Gatewood both scored in the top 15 to 25 percent of schools statewide, making them two of just 211 schools eligible to apply for Celebration School status. “The trends look really, really good for the majority of our schools,” said Diane Schimelpfenig, the district’s director of teaching, learning and assessment. Ubah Medical Academy was also named celebration eligible. On the other …
Monday, June 4, 2012
A recent survey found that 50 percent of Hopkins junior high teachers agree state tests help and 50 percent disagree.
It’s no secret that standardized testing has become a lighting rod in discussions about school accountability. Dissatisfaction with the No Child Left Behind Act led several states to seek waivers from the requirements—with Minnesota just releasing results of its new accountability system last month. But results from a pending study of Hopkins’ secondary education system shows that teachers are more split on how well state testing can be used to make instructional decisions, according to preliminary findings discussed at Thursday’s School Board meeting. In a survey conducted at the end of March, half of the junior high teachers surveyed agreed that state tests can be used to make instructional decisions and half disagreed. The response rate…
44.933188
-93.412741
Hopkins Public Schools Independent School District 270
1001 Highway 7, Hopkins, MN
/articles/do-state-tests-help-teachers-make-instructional-decisions
979768
/locations/7147226
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
A look at how Hopkins schools fared under the new Multiple Measurements Rating system.
All numbers are percentages. The Multiple Measurements Rating (MMR) and Focus Rating numbers reflect the percentage of points each school earned out of the total possible. Average scores are about 50 points. In all other categories, the number reflects a school’s percentile rank compared to other schools in the same grade range, with 100 percent the best possible rank. *** Click here for an in-depth look at how scores are calculated under the new system. Click here to read local reactions to the results.
The new “Multiple Measurements Rating” system can be confusing. Patch helps you understand the details.
School officials may appreciate the added nuance the new waiver system provides, but the extra measurements have created an arrangement that’s less intuitive that the No Child Left Behind System—where schools either made adequate yearly progress or they didn’t. The new Multiple Measurements Rating (MMR) system grades schools in four categories: Schools can get a maximum of 25 points in each of those categories. The number of points a school receives is based on its percentile rank among other schools in the same grade range, with 100 percent the best percentile rank. High schools can receive a maximum 100 points and elementary schools and junior highs, which don’t receive graduation scores, can receive up to 75 points. Officials then …
Hopkins Public Schools avoided the new system’s negative classifications, and most of its schools scored above average.
Gatewood Elementary, the Main Street School of Performing Arts and Ubah Medical Academy scored in the top 15 percent of Title I schools statewide, earning a coveted “Reward School” designation under a new school accountability system that’s an alternative to the old No Child Left Behind measurements. Some Hopkins Public Schools still struggled under the new system, which plugs reading and math data the district already had from 2010 and 2011 into new formulas. But all its schools avoided the negative designations of “Priority Schools” and “Focus Schools,” according to data the Minnesota Department of Education released Tuesday. Tuesday’s release marks the first time Minnesota has graded schools under a system allowed after President Barack…
James Warden
11:35 am on Tuesday, May 22, 2012
I had a reader question how the International Spanish Language Academy on Shady Oak Road did. For anyone who's curious, here are its scores: MMR - 2010: 88.80 - 2011: 81.03 - 2010+2011: 84.92 Focus Rating: N/A Proficiency - 2010: 99.94 - 2011: 99.94 Growth - 2010: 77.66 - 2011: 62.11 Achievement gap: N/A Graduation: N/A Focused proficiency: N/A (ISLA is not a Title I school, so it is not eligible… more ›