GILROY
– A year after educators began monitoring Brownell Academy
Middle School because its test scores weren’t improving enough, the
school has completed, or made significant progress on, nearly all
of its corrective actions.
GILROY – A year after educators began monitoring Brownell Academy Middle School because its test scores weren’t improving enough, the school has completed, or made significant progress on, nearly all of its corrective actions.
A team of state-approved educators performed its final quarterly audit of the school last month as part of an intervention program triggered in fall 2002 when Brownell’s test scores fell two years in a row. During the visit, Brownell was rated on 77 different corrective actions – from sharing the school’s action plan with staff to using new materials – and received a passing score on 97 percent of them.
On a scale from one to four, with one meaning “little progress” and four meaning “benchmark achieved,” Brownell got fours on 49 percent of improvements and threes on 48 percent. Only 3 percent were rated a two and none received a one.
“We would like to see all fours, but we also had to make sure as we went through … we were really solid in some things before moving forward,” Brownell Principal Suzanne Damm said in a report to the school board at its regular meeting Thursday.
There are still several areas in which the school needs to improve, she said, but she is encouraged because school staff is now capable of identifying those areas on their own.
The intervention was triggered in late 2002 when Brownell’s Academic Performance Index score, based on test scores, dropped for two consecutive years. Schools are required by the state to improve their API by a specified amount each year. In 2000-01, Brownell’s API fell 12 points and in 2001-02 it fell three points.
Last year’s API score, however, improved by 43 points. The 2003-04 score will be released in August.
“I’d just like to say for the staff at Brownell and for the students at Brownell, there was a lot of really hard work done this year and I think we did make a lot of progress,” Damm said, “and we really look forward to taking it to the next step next year.”
Damm said the school was told that the audit team’s work at the school is now done. However, the intervention process has changed since Brownell was identified for improvement, she said, so the school would tread on new ground if it once again fails to better its test scores next year.
“But really, the final say comes with our API next year, and, nobody knows what that means if we don’t make it,” Damm said. “So we’ll just have to make it.”
“A year ago, or thereabouts, we spent a lot of time in the board meetings talking about this issue and it’s a great pleasure to see that we’re not having to spend the time this year, because of what you and your staff and the parents have achieved,” Trustee Bob Kraemer said at Thursday’s board meeting. “I surely commend you on getting to where you are today.”
