GILROY
– Glen View Elementary School was released from a federal
school-improvement program after the state granted an appeal to
reevaluate last year’s standardized test scores.
By Lori Stuenkel
GILROY – Glen View Elementary School was released from a federal school-improvement program after the state granted an appeal to reevaluate last year’s standardized test scores. Glen View was the only school in Gilroy Unified School District identified for Program Improvement, based on low test scores two years in a row.
To exit Program Improvement – a timeline for revising schools established by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 – a school must show Adequate Yearly Progress for two years in a row. A school showing Adequate Yearly Progress for 2002-03 had to test 95 percent of all students and student subgroups, and a certain percentage of those tested had to pass state and federal standardized tests.
The district submitted an appeal earlier this month to overturn the state’s decision that a sufficient number of disabled students at Glen View had not received a passing score. The state this week granted that appeal and after some recalculations determined that the required 13.6 percent of disabled students had, in fact, received the necessary score of “proficient” or “advanced.”
Glen View, which was in the fourth year of the seven-year Program Improvement, will enter a so-called “safe harbor” phase this year. It will no longer be required to undergo corrective action, such as replacing school staff or implementing new curriculum, which would be involved in the next phase of the improvement process.
The school also will not have to give parents the option of sending their children to a different school, which it was required to do last year. While in Program Improvement, Glen View has received extra Title I funds to provide supplemental services to students and has been required to use 10 percent of school funds for staff professional development.
Superintendent Edwin Diaz said that Glen View has improved greatly since starting Program Improvement.
“I see them as having all the components in place to be a distinguished school,” Diaz said. “I am anticipating that the school will continue to improve every year.”
On a state standards-based test last school year, 24 percent of Glen View students scored at the proficient level or above in English-language arts and 31 percent in math. That was an improvement of 3 percentage points over the previous year.
The school has implemented a pre-kindergarten academy for students and parents to prepare English learners for kindergarten. An intervention program for students performing below grade level ran during the summer and will be continued in after-school programs this year.
