# Presentation: 899468

## Archived InformationCLOSING THE ACHIEVEMENT GAPStudy Overview

## Purpose of the Study

- To identify high schools in selected states that have shown success, over a period of years, in closing the achievement gap between minority and non-minority students.

## State Selection Criteria

**Standards-based or norm-referenced assessment in mathematics or English/language arts/reading in grade 10, 11, or 12**** **
**Data available for at least 4 years **
**The assessment had not changed over that period**
**Assessment results disaggregated by race/ethnicity at the school level**

**Publicly available school-level state assessment data was collected from states meeting all of the following:**

## States Meeting Criteria

-  Arkansas
-  California
- DC
- Delaware
- Kentucky
- Indiana

-  Missouri
- Oregon
- South Carolina
-  Texas
- Wisconsin

## Defining the Gap

**“****Gap”**

- Difference between school-level percent passing rate and state-level percent passing rate

## Gap Example:  Mathematics Assessment

## Defining a Gap-Closing School

- A school with consistently diminished achievement gaps between white and minority students during each of four years.

## GGap Measures

*(School Minority Scores–State White Scores)*

- Schools with 4 years of data in either reading or math

*African-American**Gap*
**READING**

*Hispanic**Gap*
**READING**

*African-American Gap*
**MATH **

*Hispanic**Gap*
**MATH**

**G****Gap Measures**

## Number of Schools by States

**g Cr**
**  ****California  173**
** ****Indiana      10**
** ****Texas         189**** **

## Closing the Achievement Gap Focus Group Meeting

- With the CTAG state lists serving as a starting point, the following criteria was applied to identify the most promising candidates:

-   Closed gap or achieved a gap decrease of at least **ten percentage** points in two gap measures:
-   African American Reading
-   African American Math
-   Hispanic Reading
-   Hispanic Math
**For example**:
-   **El Camino** narrowed the gap for Hispanic students in both math and reading.
-   **Florin** narrowed the gap for Africa American and Hispanic students in reading.

## Closing the Achievement Gap Focus Group Meeting

-  Enrollment size of at least **750 students**;
-  Minority enrollment of at least **30 percent** of total enrollment; and
-  Holding power of at least **60 percent**.

## Schools Selected

- School characteristics are for 2001-2002, the latest year for which data is available from Common Core of Data (CCD)

## www.schooldata.org

**The** ***National Longitudinal School Level ***
***State Assessment Score Database***
**NLSLSASD, is an effort funded by the US**
**Department of Education to collect data**
**from state testing programs across the **
**country, and contains assessment scores **
**for approximately 80,000 public **
**schools in the U.S. for years up to **
**2002-2003.**

## Closing the Achievement GapEl Camino High School

**Creating a College Bound Culture**
**Twenty years of change and growth**

## Impetus for Change

- Parent Involvement
- Limited  Enrollment
- Gatekeeper Philosophy

## The Change Process

- Growth of AP Program
- Open Access Policy in Core Departments
- California State Frameworks 1987
- Revised course outlines
- Collaboration in departments
- Shared vision
- Reform initiated by teachers

## Curricular & Instructional Strategies

- Change necessitated professional growth and staff development
- Expansion of teaching strategies to deal with varied student abilities
- Creation of vertical teams
- Emergence of “next step” thinking

## Evidence

## Next Steps

- Continue funding tests for students
- AP
- SAT
- PSAT
- Continue teacher initiation and collaboration
- Explore ways to streamline mandated testing process

## North Central High School

- Opened in 1956-57
- Located on north side of Indianapolis
- First ring urban/suburban school
- First USDOE Excellence in Education School in Indiana – 1982
- _Redbook_	Best of State	1994
- _Newsweek_	Top 2.4% of all schools in 2002
- Double digit National Merit Semi-Finalists

- 23 AP courses
- Hundreds of AP exams taken and passed each year
- International Baccalaureate Program since 1988
- 164 diplomas (92% success rate)
- Maintain its legacy
- Demographic changes

## 2004-2005 Racial Distribution Total District

## 2004-2005 Racial Distribution 9-12

## 2004-2005 Racial Distribution K-8

## Ethnicity 1996-2004Entire District

## Ethnicity 1996-2004North Central High School

## North Central Socio-Economic Status (SES) 1996-2004

- Significant disparity in student achievement as measured by the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress (ISTEP)
- Lack of minority enrollment in honors classes (9 percent)
- Scholars need to be cultivated

## Change Process

- Looked inward at current minority achievement
- Assessed resources
- Provided professional development for teachers
- Empowered teachers to make change
- Analyzed data from our student population
- Identified gaps in the data

- Researched Literature
- Visited a school similar to North Central that had initiated an action plan:
- Shaker Heights, Ohio
- Developed a plan to meet North Central’s needs

## Mission:  To Create a Culture of Excellence

- “High tide floats all boats”
- Keep expectations high (legacy)
- Provide support for the high expectations
- Shift from “butler” to “mother” approach
- Use Schmoker collaboration model to analyze assessment results

## Planning Strategies

- Incorporated and involved staff in development of North Central Accreditation (NCA) Improvement Plan and the Indiana Student Accountability (Public Law 221) Improvement Plan
- Developed partnerships with education foundations to provide funds for staff training and student assistance (Lumina, Washington Township Schools, Tobias)
- Developed Criterion Referenced Exams (CRT) for each course per board mandate

## Instructional Strategies

- Created well articulated curriculum (scope and sequence) that is aligned with state standards
- Eliminated all Mathematics below Algebra
- Increased graduation requirements from 2 years to 3 years of Mathematics
- Initiated “Project Seed”
- 	Mathematics for 7th graders

- Defined best practices and provided professional development
- Instituted Writing Across the Curriculum by means of 6 + 1 Writing Traits
- Required all 10th and 11th graders to take PSAT
- Required all 9th graders to take PLAN

## New Programs Created

- Cohort Program in 2002
- Provided support for minority students to take honors classes
- Scheduled “critical mass” in classes
- Increased professional development for “cohort” teachers (selected honors teachers)
- Worked with 8th grade counselors to identify cohort candidates
- Met with parents to enlist their support

- Implemented 3 strands:
**Alpha****	****Class of 2006****	****27 students**
**Beta****	****	****Class of 2007****	****39 students**
**Gamma****	****Class of 2008****	****56 students**
- Involved 25 teachers
- PantherQuest – one day summer orientation program for all incoming freshman (usually 70% attend)

- Free all day tutoring (Learning Center) until 7:00 p.m. (M-TH)
- Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID)
- ISTEP remediation in Mathematics and English

## Obstacles to Consider

- Human nature
- Resistance to change
- Lack of good data
- Disaggregated
- Lack of critical mass of minority scholars
- Serving too many “masters”
- Federal
- State
- Local

## Evidence of Success North CentralISTEP-English

## Evidence of SuccessPercentage of North Central Students Passing Language ArtsISTEP

## Evidence of SuccessNorth CentralISTEP-Mathematics

## Evidence of Success Percentage of North Central Students Passing MathISTEP

## Evidence of Success North Central GPAby Race – Class of 2003

## Evidence of Success North Central GPAby Race – Class of 2004

## Evidence of Success North Central GPAby Race – Class of 2005

## Evidence of Success North Central GPAby Race – Class of 2006

## Evidence of Success Total Number of Minority Enrollments in Advanced Placement Courses

**Notes:**
431 in 02-03
673 in 03-04
No high school in the state has this many minority students enrolled in Advanced Placement courses—probably only a handful of high schools in the country can make this claim.

## Next Steps

- Increase data collection
- Identifying key factors
- Disaggregated
- Articulation with middle schools
- Increase staff training and professional development opportunities
- Institutionalize programs and expectations
- Increase participation of underrepresented students in AP and IB courses

## Create and nurture parent support
Provide additional AP and IB courses
Increase support programs
Continue to raise academic achievement
Continue to recruit minority students into cohort program
Add summer orientation day for delta cohort group in 2005 (class of 2009)
Expand  AVID (Advancement via Individual Determination) to more freshmen

- Provide additional AP and IB courses
- Increase support programs
- Continue to raise academic achievement
- Continue to recruit minority students into cohort program
- Add summer orientation day for delta cohort group in 2005 (class of 2009)
- Expand  AVID (Advancement via Individual Determination) to more freshmen

## Questions
And 
Answers

**And **
**Answers**