Board of Education Delights in Bielefield Test Scores

Last night's regular Board of Education meeting opened with a somber moment of silence honoring former MHS football coach John Skubel (passed on 8/17) and Veteran and Children's Advocate Lee B. Smith (passed on 8/16).

The BOE then amended the agenda to move up a vote authorizing the Superintendent to work with the city to create a new full-time Nursing Supervisor position.  "We are seeing children with complex medical conditions and needs, and we must have someone that our nurses can come to with questions," noted Ann Perzan.  Perzan is the Director of Special Education, but the school nurse program is housed in her department.  Perzan also noted that school nurses are not currently given performance reviews because there isn't someone with greater clinical skills in the administrative chain.  Substitute nurses are also hard to find because many qualified individuals won't work if there isn't a Nurse Supervisor in place.  Superintendent Charles was authorized to work with the city to create the new position, and there will be no cost for the position as current Special Education funds will be repurposed to cover the position (the previous purpose for those funds ended in June).

Bielefield Elementary School then took center stage as the surprise star of the 2012-13 CMT test results.  Designated a "focus school" because of struggling sub-groups' performance on the 2011-12 Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT), Bielefield instituted an after-school study program during the 2012-13 school year, aimed specifically at helping Hispanic students who struggle with English.  Assistant Superintendent Enza Macri had told the BOE earlier in the year that students who have been in the U.S. for six months have to take the CMT in English, even if they are not proficient speakers.  As administrators tried to determine why the Hispanic sub-group was struggling, parents explained that it was hard to help their students with homework when they struggled with English themselves.

New Board of Ed Settles In

Last night's regular Board of Education meeting was all about process and board members settling into their roles and responsibilities. The Board voted to approve committee assignments and Adopt-a-School responsibilities. If I followed the amendments correctly, the breakdown looks like this:

• Budget Committee: Ted Raczka (chair), Ryan Kennedy, Ed McKeon
• Communication Committee: Ryan Kennedy (chair), Ted Raczka, Mitchell Wynne
• Policy Committee: Sheila Daniels (chair), Bill Grady, Ed McKeon
• Curriculum Committee: Bill Grady (chair), Sheila Daniels, Mitchell Wynne
• Transportation Committee: Bill Grady (chair), Ryan Kennedy, Mitchell Wynne
• Feasibililty Committee: Ed McKeon (chair), Cheryl McClellan
• MFT Negotiaitions: Sheila Daniels, Ava Hart
• TEMS: Cheryl McCellan
• ACES: Ava Hart

There was a bit of disagreement over whether the Feasibility Committee actually existed and what its role was supposed to be, but the objections of board members Ted Raczka and Bill Grady were overruled in the end. BOE Chairman Gene Nocera said he would plan to have the committee's responsibilities confirmed at the next BOE meeting.

In District Highlights, MHS Principal Robert Fontaine summarized the NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges) visit and the high school's accreditation process. Every ten years the high school goes through a rigorous review process lasting almost 3 years: first the school does a self-study, and then it is visited by a "team" made up of school administrators from the six New England states. Winter Storm Alfred rearranged the originally scheduled visit, so 9 of the 13 original team members were able to return on November 30th and December 1st to complete the visit. Principal Fontaine shared that he was told the NEASC team was very impressed with the reception it received at MHS: "The Committee was very impressed with our students and their behavior and their intellectual engagement...our students were well behaved and represented themselves well." The official results will be published in May, and the school will have either two years or five years to implement any recommendations the committee has for improvement.

Assistant Superintendent Barbara Senges spent a considerable amount of time explaining the 2011 CMT (Connecticut Mastery Test) results to the board. While "miraculous" results have been made in the reading scores for Middletown students, math and writing score have lagged. Senges assured the board that the administration has already taken steps to address the problem: for example, the amount of time in math in 6th grade has doubled to 80 minutes from 40 minutes to address the drop in math scores between 6th and 7th grade. "Closing the achievement gap further means being more strategic since other sub-groups are not achieving at the same rate," Senges told the board. "What it really boils down to is that we've accomplished this with no additional increase in our budget in three years, and if you want this achievement to continue, we have to provide the resources in our budget to make it happen."

Board member Mitchell Wynn asked Senges for specific examples of what the district is doing to improve the gaps in CMT scores, and Senges replied, "We pretest before we teach anything. Then teachers get together to decide what the students need to learn first before anyone continues on. We're trying to teach missed material in a new way, and give more time for students to get it. We're also differentiating between students so not everyone is learning the same thing at the same time..." [Author's note: since I have been covering the Board of Ed, there has been a systematic attempt to get rid of tracking (this is the process of dividing students into groups by ability for teaching purposes). The argument against tracking was that honor students are always going to do well, and students at the other end would benefit by being in the same group with higher achievers. I'll apologize if I'm not understanding it correctly, but now it seems like pre-testing and differentiation is exactly the same process but just a new name...]

When a few board members asked if she was consulting other districts with problems similar to our own, Senges got very defensive: "I want to say this with all due respect: we're doing better than any other district our size with similar achievement gaps. Our teachers know what they have to do and they are doing it. Other districts are coming to us to see what to do, we don't need to go to them."

Not many individuals spoke at either of the public sessions, but significant among those who did were the Mayor, Dan Drew, and Common Council member Grady Faulkner. Mayor Drew commended the BOE for the positive working relationship between the two entities so far, noting that "we've resolved a potential dispute and I'm sure we can continue to make progress and work together to resolve any remaining issues." Drew went on to comment that he had an open door policy and that he appreciated the open communication that was starting to form between the BOE and the city. Councilman Faulkner asked the board to consider more visible events during Black History Month in February: "There's a large black population in Middletown and it's been kind of quiet for the last few years during Black History Month. I'd really like to see something more done."

Finally, it's December, and that means budget time. Superintendent Michael Frechette will present his budget to the Board of Ed at the December 20th meeting, with the first look coming at the December 19th Budget Committee meeting. Members of the public are welcome to attend the Budget Committee meeting, and I would encourage you to pay particular attention to how this new board works together in the coming months. It's one thing to play nice in the two-meeting honeymoon after the elections are over, but it's something entirely different to produce a budget! Stay tuned!

Board of Ed Frustrated With State "Embargo" of CMT Results

At last night's Board of Education regular meeting, Superintendent Michael Frechette was still unable to discuss Middletown's 2011 CMT scores. Frechette told BOE members that the State Board of Education had released the embargo on 9/1, but then "re-embargoed" the scores on 9/6. At a Superintendents' Group meeting, Frechette said three reasons were offered for this continuing embargo:

• The State doesn't have the capacity to finish processing the scores
• A school in Waterbury was caught cheating and the whole District has to retake the test, so the final state results can't be processed without the retake results
• Other states are starting to "not participate" in No Child Left Behind because of disagreement over benchmark levels. CT has asked for a change in the regulations because now 81% of the districts in CT are on the NCLB list because the federal benchmarks were increased. If left at 80% proficiency (meaning 80% of kids are at or above proficiency on the test), all Middletown schools would be off the list.

Several interesting threads came out of this "I can't talk about scores" stance. First, on top of being identified as a school needing improvement, Bielefield Elementary School also has an overcrowding issue in its two Kindergarten classes. Principal Jeff Fournier was asked to describe to the board how this situation is being handled, and he described the 6 certified teachers, 2 intervention teachers and 2 paras who have been brought in to assist the two classes. (More on this subject in a separate story - still waiting for some additional information.)

Second, during the (first) public session, MacDonough parent (and BOE Candidate) Ed McKeon told the BOE that he had called the Freedom of Information Agency and was told there was no such thing as an "embargo" of public information. Once information is in the hands of a State Agency, it becomes public information and has to be released. McKeon also questioned how only Title I families could be offered the choice to attend a new school (since 2 Middletown schools have to offer choice after not meeting adequate yearly progress two years in a row) when the policy states choice has to be offered to Title I schools. This would mean that ALL the families at a particular school would have to be offered choice, not just singled out families. McKeon had a list of questions for BOE members and he chided them for not being more concerned about policies being made in the Superintendent's office without BOE oversight (since the scores can't be talked about...).

Finally, several BOE members repeatedly questioned Superintendent Frechette about what would happen if Middletown "violated" the embargo, and if Frechette knew when the embargo would be lifted. "I don't know, and I'm frustrated too...you have as much information as I do," commented Frechette to BOE member Sheila Daniels. BOE member Corinne Gill couldn't see how principals and parents being offered school choice could know what was going on if the scores were embargoed, and Frechette replied that he was allowed to give info to those two groups but no one else. "I find this unacceptable, " Gill finished. Frechette just shrugged and replied it wasn't his rule. BOE member Ryan Kennedy asked BOE Chairman Ted Raczka to send a letter to the State Board of Ed, asking why there was an embargo, what the penalty for violating the embargo would be, and when it would end. Raczka agreed, but also commented, "If you aggravate the State Board of Ed, they can find any number of subtle ways to remind you of the proper relationship and the children will suffer..."

After this comment, BOE member Sally Boske told the board that she knows other districts have sent letters, but haven't had any luck with responses. "I don't think we're going to get a response, but we should be on record anyway." Boske went on to comment, "Don't forget we're also in between Commissioners, so there's no help going that route either." Corinne Gill then asked where the embargo is authorized in state statutes, and stated that "It really scares me that we are allowing ourselves to be held hostage by the State BOE." Boske replied, "I have confidence that Michael Frechette is going what he's supposed to do."

The meeting then turned to other subjects, like how long it would take to start a rehab of Keigwin Middle School. Director of Facilities Ken Jackson said it's about a 4 year process to have a feasibility study, to get the grant from the state, and to set up a building committee. BOE member Ryan Kennedy asked whether there was going to be a Facilities Committee established (as part of one of the recommendations from the re-districting process) to create a 20 - 25 year facilities plan. BOE Chairman Raczka said yes, but that nothing would be done until after the election in November.

None of the committees (Budget, Communications, Curriculum, Policy) have met, and most alluded to not meeting until after the election. BOE Member Sheila Daniels commented, "It's not OK that committees aren't meeting just because there's an election coming up. School has started regardless of elections, and there's work to be done."

The only happy news of the whole evening was that none of the Middletown school properties sustained any direct damage from Hurricane Irene. Several branches or trees come down, but nothing that damaged a building. There were other minor leaks or cases of minor flooding, but nothing significant.

Commentary:

I didn't think that politics were supposed to play an overt role in how education operates in a town, but that was clearly the case last night. First, there was the drama between BOE Candidate Ed McKeon and BOE Chairman Ted Raczka. Members of the public have 3 minutes to address the board, and McKeon clearly wasn't finished speaking when Raczka informed him time was up. McKeon kept talking, saying he was almost finished, and Raczka quickly called the meeting into recess and then jumped up and turned the TV feed off. In all the BOE meetings I've seen, I've never seen the TV turned off when someone tries to keep talking past the time limit. Raczka usually bangs his gavel and tells the person he or she is out of order, but I've never seen such a quick move from "Your time's up" to an immediate recess, and the TV has never been off. In fact, BOE member Corinne Gill questioned Raczka's actions later in the meeting, saying, "When did we decide it was our policy to turn the TV off if someone exceeds their time?" Raczka could have told McKeon he was free to continue his comments for another 3 minutes at the 2nd public session, but he didn't mention that at all.

Secondly, to hear that no committee work is going on because there's an election in two months and the membership of the board is changing or might change is just insanity. Add to that the fact that the Superintendent is making changes, based on CMT scores, to how the system is running, but he can't tell the board what he's doing or why. There is an overwhelming force being brought to bear on the 2 overcrowded kindergartens at Bielefield, yet it is unclear that the same approach is being done for the overcrowded 4th grade at Moody. Furthermore, BOE Chairman Raczka commented that he wanted to make sure that "Bielefield was up to the level of quality at all of our other schools, " and this left me pondering some math and its implications: two teachers require the assistance of 10 other individuals for about 50 kids...

Don't get me wrong - I'm not suggesting that our kids aren't worth it. I'm suggesting, and I fully admit I don't have the class size numbers in front of me yet, that the effort seems out of proportion to the resources available to every other class in town. This puzzles me, and either there's an answer that will be revealed once the mysterious embargo is released, or I've got some digging to do.

In the end, this is supposed to be about doing our best for our kids, and it seems like there's a mix of "enforced" non-supervision and election "hide-and-seek" going on (BOE members are hiding from their responsibilities while voters are seeking answers and results). Even if the state did succeed in lowering the CMT benchmark, that's just a paper result. It doesn't change the fact that we should be working toward EVERY child meeting the benchmark, and this effort has to continue whether there are elections or not.

State Embargoes School Scores until 8/31

The Middletown Eye learned today that the State has embargoed the results of Middletown's CMT scores as compared against federal benchmarks until next Wednesday, August 31st. Rumor has it that two Middletown schools failed to met AYP or Adequate Yearly Progress, but when asked, Superintendent Michael Frechette stated he couldn't talk about anything because the State told him he couldn't discuss it. "It's not my rules, but I can't talk about it, " Frechette said in a phone interview.

Frechette also couldn't comment on which Middletown school would have to offer parents "free choice" of any school in the district as a result of schools failing to meet AYP.

It should be noted that all Middletown schools passed State benchmarks, but the Federal benchmark is calculated differently and includes different information than the State's. I've been told this calculation is incredibly complex and impossible to explain, and I haven't found anyone who actually knows anything about the process.

That said, there should be more information available next week.

Middletown Meets State Benchmarks on 2011 CMTs

Middletown Superintendent Michael Frechette confirmed today that Middletown public school students exceeded all State benchmarks on the 2011 Connecticut Mastery Tests (CMTs). "These results show the focus and hard work of our teachers, students and administrators for the last six years," Frechette commented.

The Hartford Courant has an online searchable database that gives the testing proficiency by year, grade and subject. Click here to go to the database.

For No Child Left Behind purposes, Middletown won't know its status compared to federal benchmarks for a few more weeks. However, if Middletown reaches proficiency again this year (it did in 2010), there is a chance Middletown will be removed from the federal "Needs Improvement" list.

Superintendent Frechette stated that no matter what Middletown's federal status ends up being, "there's no turning back now," and that plans to continue to close Middletown's achievement gap will move forward.

School Choice for Bielefield, Snow, & Spencer

I wrote to Barbara Senges at the Board of Ed about the recent news that three Middletown Elementary schools will now have a choice option, due to their CMT scores over the past two years. She got right back to me with the following information, and I'm printing it verbatim so that you get all the details:

From Barbara Senges, Asst. Superintendent, Middletown Schools:

By Federal Law, No Child Left Behind, school districts are required to offer school choice to parents of students who attend Title I schools that have not made AYP – Adequate Yearly Progress, for two consecutive years and are identified as “In Need of Improvement”. Bielefield, Snow and Spencer are now so identified following the results of the 2009 CMT taken this past spring. Late last week we received a letter from the State department that we are obligated to notify the parents at these schools 14 days before the start of school (yesterday) that they are entitled to transfer to another school because of the Federal Law.

The law, however, gives us the right to choose which schools are open based on space availability. For this reason, we are offering parents at these three schools to transfer students to Wesley (Kindergarten, grades 1 and 3 – 20 students) and Farm Hill (Kindergarten grades 2, 3, 4 and 5 -36 students). The openings at different grade levels in each school vary. All parents need to notify the principal of their school (Bielefield, Snow or Spencer) by Wednesday August 26 of their decision. Each principal is having an informational meeting at his/her school on Monday August 24 at 6:00. If our requests exceed our openings, we will conduct a lottery, giving preference to low-achieving students. The decision to transfer is final and once a student transfers he/she cannot request return to his/her sending school in subsequent years. It is also possible that a parent who has younger children who are not presently in school may not be able to send these youngsters to the new school, if Bielefield, Spencer or Snow (the sending schools) are subsequently removed from the Needs Improvement list and are not eligible for school choice.

The letter also states that the district is only responsible for transportation for transfer students who are eligible for “free or reduced” lunch and are also low achieving. Anyone else who requests a transfer must supply their own transportation.


As I understand it, parents who are in those schools have already received this information by mail, but perhaps this post will be helpful to families that are checking Middletown news while on vacation.

A Place to Play, A Place to Learn

Ready. Set. Begin.

 The month of March ushers in lions or lambs or some other animals ( I forgot how that goes..) and also Connecticut Mastery Testing. CMT's are used by the state to measure how students are doing as a general population within their district, grade, and individual school. Individual's scores may also determine placement for other programs.

 I'm sure many, many colorful pie charts and graphs are created with this information to determine where funds should go to reward schools with high scores and help troubled schools. In all seriousness, these tests are very important.

Business owner/police officer and mom is offering up her business A New World Laser Tag as a venue for students to study and prepare for the CMT's free of charge and distraction-less.  

The website : http://www.testprepfun.com found on many of the individual Middletown elementary and middle schools' websites is a suggested site for practice test taking and educational games. 

In her email to me, Ms. Duffy writes: "I also wanted to let people know that we have 12 high speed computers; in preparation for the CMT tests we are allowing students to use these computers as no charge for one hour per day to go on the website Testprepfun.com. My two sons are Middletown students and I learned about this website through their schools. Evey student has a login ID and pass word given to them at school so they can practice for CMT tests. I know how important these tests are and I know that many students do no have access to computers at home, so this is a way they can practice for CMT tests."

Do you moonlight as a level 12 "Dungeon Master"?  If  the acronym MMORPG means anything to you like it does to me, you would find it helpful to know A New World Laser Tag now has a new component: Underworld Gaming to fufill all your gaming needs. Doesn't Red vs. Blue mean anything to you?

A New World Laser Tag is located on Main Street. More infor can be found on the website : http://www.newworldlasertag.com/underworldgaming.htm

Pencils down.

What's the score?

The Connecticut State Mastery Test scores came out today, giving us a snapshot of the performance of kids in grades 3 to 8. Leaving aside the debate on whether all this testing is the savior or the curse of modern education, it's now possible to find out exactly how each Middletown school is rated.

There is a website that allows you to compare the results by individual school, by grade and by year. A quick glance tells me that compared to last year, the 4th graders at Macdonough School in the North End gained in writing, were flat in reading and lost in math [Update: closer inspection shows that the third and fifth grades at Macdonough had much better performance, with an astounding 97.5% of 5th graders achieving proficiency in writing]

Let the number crunching begin.

Technical Tip: The website with the CMT data is a little confusing for laymen! Click on "State by District/School Report". Use the third category to choose "schools" rather than "districts" and then it will let you view each Middletown school.