(Vol. 4, No. 1 - Spring 2000)

Taking Direction from the
Leader of the "Band"

Superintendent Steve Daeschner uses test scores and socioeconomic information to single out high- and low-performing middle schools for praise and criticism. "This year," Daeschner says, "I said, 'It's time for me to tell you what the expectations are, and you're below them.'"


By Holly Holland

Since 1993, when he became superintendent of the Jefferson County Public Schools, Steve Daeschner says he has been encouraging educators and members of the community to "look at the data" to see if their concerns about various programs and policies are on target. He believes statistics can help people focus on rational, instead of emotional, arguments.

So, it's not surprising that Daeschner turns to the numbers when he wants to determine which middle schools are making strong performance gains and which are falling behind. He puts schools with similar profiles together in clusters and studies their achievement scores. This "band" chart, Daeschner says, reveals both schools that have moved beyond the performance levels typical of their group and schools that have failed to perform even at the level of their peers.

Daeschner's calculations don't just focus on a school's average test scores, or what he calls "output variables." He also considers outside factors that he believes create different kinds of challenge for different schools. Three factors or "input variables" are used to create a "need index" for each school: the percentage of students receiving free- and reduced-price lunches (a key indication of family poverty); the percentage of students receiving special-education services; and the percentage of students transferring in and out of school during the year (the mobility rate). The index is then used to sort "similar" middle schools into groups for the band analysis (see the chart on page 14).

In deciding which schools to single out for praise or criticism, Daeschner said he also considers several other factors, including a comparison of each school's achievement gain from its final score on the KIRIS test (discontinued after 1998) to its first KCCT score. Daeschner also considers whether the school has programs with selective admissions requirements, and looks at the percentage of students in a school who are from high-poverty neighborhoods.

"This is the first year I've formalized (the process), but I've been doing it since I got here," he said. "Last year I sent letters to the schools that were high performers, but I didn't talk to the low performers. This year I said, 'It's time for me to tell you what the expectations are, and you're below them.'"

Daeschner said he asked the principals of three below-the-line middle schools, which he declined to name, to come in for a conference. He wanted to know what they were doing to "turn things around." He also sent letters of commendation to the principals of Barret, Meyzeek, and Western middle schools for posting gains beyond what their "band" profiles suggested they would do. (For some commentary on the "band analysis" approach, see the editorial on page 2.)

Although Western's average test scores are the lowest of Jefferson County's middle schools -- and among the lowest in Kentucky -- Daeschner said the school deserves praise for doubling its academic index score (the average score of seven subjects tested) on the state tests from 1998 to 1999. (The Kentucky Department of Education does not compare these scores for accountability purposes, since the tests are different, but Daeschner believes large gains are worth noting.)

Doing a few important things better

"It was unexpected, but it was nice to get that type of commendation from the superintendent," said Western Principal Dean Hite. "It kind of reinforced that this is a tough job, but he was watching and looking at us, and he knew that a small gain is a real big gain in some schools. I really appreciated the letter."

Hite attributes Western's higher test scores to focusing on a few problems instead of trying to tackle everything at once. Last school year, she said, the staff started emphasizing two main instructional strategies: teaching reading skills in every subject and making sure all lessons were aligned with the state's core content.

"I felt there were too many initiatives going on" before, Hite said. "They were good, but the math teachers were working on one thing and the science teachers on another, and all of them were great, but they were never coming together."

Using grant money, Western hired William Bintz, a literacy specialist from the University of Kentucky, to train teachers in every subject area how to help students become more fluent readers. Hite said Bintz told the teachers that they couldn't rely on textbooks to get their lessons across because so many of Western's students have poor reading skills. While the school works to strengthen its reading programs, teachers can use picture books to discuss literature themes or experiments to demonstrate scientific terms.

Daeschner believes all of the district's middle schools should make similar adjustments in their instruction to boost student achievement. He said three key factors will lead to improvements: a well-developed consolidated plan (required by JCPS and KERA) that targets achievement gaps identified by test scores, professional development that shows the staff how to make necessary changes in the classroom, and a faculty that is committed to meeting its goals.

"Make sure you've got a curriculum that's basic in reading, writing, and language, that's closely tied (together)," he said. "You know what your sixth-graders are doing and what your eighth-graders are doing all the way up and down the line. Your curriculum is narrow and focused. All of your (professional development) goal days are specifically focused, and you're spending incredible amounts of time disaggregating data. You're focusing on kids who are not achieving. Those are the things that are making a difference. We know that."

At Meyzeek, data confirmed a wide performance gap

Asked whether her staff was making the changes Daeschner recommended, Meyzeek Principal Debbie Baker said she thought all of the district's middle schools were trying to. When pressed for details about Meyzeek's specific responses, Baker described instructional changes that indicated very targeted and intentional actions.

For example, after reviewing the school's math scores in depth, the staff confirmed a wide performance gap that many suspected was there but that was nonetheless a stark reminder of the challenge schools face when they have a diverse student body. The staff confirmed that students in the math/science magnet program tended to score at the proficient and distinguished levels and students from the low-income neighborhoods surrounding the school usually scored in the novice, or bottom, category.

Perhaps the most disturbing finding was that few Meyzeek students landed in the middle on math performance -- raising questions about the amount of "value added" by the school's non-magnet mathematics programs.

The sobering facts revealed by the staff's data analysis prompted Baker and her staff to take action, and Meyzeek began offering a daily enrichment class that many teams use to reinforce math skills, particularly for students who do not qualify for the Advance Program.

"We've been looking at where the kids are when they come to us," Baker said. "If we think they're likely to do poorly, we look at what they might need in the form of intervention. What they might need is more time. So, we've tried to build more math instruction time into the day.

"Before we had this academic enrichment time, one group of kids might be getting reading, then the next six weeks they were juggling or doing needlework. All of those things are fine and important, but we realized that if they can't read, write, and compute, they need to stop doing needlework."

In addition, this year Meyzeek identified 80 sixth-graders whose elementary test scores were low and placed them in a literacy immersion program led by a team of three teachers who spend all day focusing on reading, writing, and math. Lessons in science and social studies are blended into the language arts and math classes.

Working within departments, teachers at all grade levels have been trying to identify gaps in the curriculum where they might not have paid enough attention to certain academic standards or where they might not have reinforced students' skills sufficiently. For example, eighth-grade math teachers developed more units on measurement and geometry, and science teachers incorporated some practical living/health topics into their classes.

Baker believes another reason for Meyzeek's higher test scores is the staff's increasingly consistent expectations for students. Because almost all of the educators in the building now teach "all kinds of kids" -- not just those in the Advance Program or just those eligible for federal Title 1 services -- they no longer set different standards for different groups of students.

"If all you teach is low-achievement kids all day, pretty soon you lose sight of what good sixth-grade work looks like," Baker said. "We've tried to be more methodical or intentional or focused in what we're doing."


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