Kimberly Moritz BlogPosts

I’d like to clarify all of the reporting of data that readers see. There are two ways that we are constantly looking at data–by school year and by cohort.

As a principal, I compare how we did on our Regents exams and graduation rate by school year. That’s what I reported in my earlier post, Winding Down. In addition, we pay attention to the number of student drop outs each school year.

However, the school report card and the Business First rankings look at data by cohort. Data analysis by cohort looks at the students who entered ninth grade together, for example this year’s seniors are largely from the 2003 cohort. What does this mean? That they entered ninth grade together in 2003 and are graduating this year, in four years, in 2007.

How does this get complicated? We pay a lot of attention to our Native American sub-group because we have not had good graduation rate results with this group. Remember that our Native American students add up to about 30% of our population. For example, last year’s cohort, called the 2002 cohort, had only a 48% graduation rate for our Native American students as opposed to 85% for our other students.

That should help readers understand why I pay so much attention to all of our kids. I simply must help more of our students get to a diploma and knowing that half of our Native kids aren’t getting there is unacceptable to me.

This year, I’ve reported to our BOE and written about it here, that we have 32 of our 36 Native American seniors graduating. This just tells you that I have 32 seniors graduating. However, that doesn’t tell the cohort story. Six of those thirty-six students are of the 2002 cohort. This led me to ask, “what about the 2003 cohort?” How many students started in ninth grade in 2003 and should be graduating this year? Is it higher than the 48% of the 2002 cohort?

Short answer, Yes. In 2003, I had 48 students enter the ninth grade (the 2003 cohort). Of those 48 Native American students, six transferred to other schools and six will complete their graduation requirements this August or in 2008. Of the 42 Native American students I should have graduated this year, 27 will graduate Friday night. Eight have officially dropped out, one student has passed away. 64% of our 2003 Native American cohort is graduating, much better than the 48% who graduated in the 2002 cohort. The other piece of that puzzle is that five students from that 2002 cohort are graduating this year, having taken five years and raising the passing rate for their cohort. Unfortunately, any student who takes more than four years, who we keep and compel to return, still counts against a school district as a drop out.

I think sometimes that the different ways of looking at our results can be confusing to our community. Hopefully, this post helps to explain a piece of the reason why.

We’re winding down now with only one Regents exam left tomorrow, Physics. Our results are pouring in, seniors on the cusp are being notified about graduation, and commencement is the day after tomorrow.

After two-three manic weeks, winding down feels great. Our new hires should be approved at the BOE tonight, our summer school appointments are going up too, and we’re all enjoying the anticipation of summer. Anyone who works in industry and resents the idea of two months off for teachers and students has never seen the exhaustion of our kids at the end of a tough Regents exam. This break is badly needed and allows us to come back refreshed in September.

Personally, I look forward to two months of work without students and staff. Granted, our implementation of a summer school changes that dynamic significantly, but I still get the chance to actually start and finish a project in the same day. I can complete a thought, as simple as that sounds. Summer is truly our time of renewal and is often the source of my own professional growth and the generation of many new ideas.

The very best part about this ending to the school year is the knowledge that G-Town has had a stellar year. Our faculty, staff and students have worked very hard to improve and our Regents results show significant gains. The combined January/June Regents results for this school year, which are in to date, show the following:

• Comprehensive English   Increases to both the mastery level of 85%+ and to passing at 65% with 83%
• Math A,Increases to mastery level, showing a 7% gain at 26%, and passing, showing a 15% gain at 94%
• Math B, Increases to mastery level, showing a 3% gain, and passing, showing an 11% gain
• Global History, Increases to mastery level, showing a 3% gain at 21%, and passing, showing an 11% gain at 77%
• Comprehensive Spanish, increases to mastery level, showing a 17% gain at 56%, and 96% passing at 65

I’m not even considering our passing rate at 55% any longer, even though our students can still graduate with 1-3 of the five required Regents exams at 55%, depending on cohort. We’re operating from the standpoint that we need to help all students achieve at least a 65% on the Regents with the goal of mastery level at 85% and above.

We’re getting there G-Town. A great example of how far we’ve come is that our English passing rate of 83% that was just 68% in 2005 and of 77% in Global that was just 59% in 2005.

Thank you to every student, teacher, and staff member who helped make it happen. Thank you to the superintendent and BOE for supporting our ideas for instructional improvement. Thank you to our parents and community for pushing our kids and for supporting our budgets.