Ashland High School State Report Card 2013-2014
Hair Raising results By Scary Skylar Zundel
Ashland High School (AHS) has been a Silver Medal School (U.S. News & World Report) for five years and is known for both its rigor and demands in academics. The State of Oregon every year hands out a report card to each public school evaluating their performance. As a public high school we routinely surpass expectations which bring praise from the state for our good work, rewarded with a 4 or 5 (scale rating: 1-5). This year was an exception. For the first time in years, the Oregon Department of Education handed back a 3 signifying that Ashland High School is “below average” and did not meet state standards. This came as a shock to our consistently high achieving school. So the question is, how could this happen? On state tests each AHS class has outperformed the one before it; the 2013-2014 year being best. In this school year, more students took the SAT and scored higher on standardized tests than in previous year. For grading purposes, the information gathered by the ODE came from the following categories: Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (OAKS) test scores for Reading, Writing, Math, and Science, Graduation Rates, and 9th Graders on Track to Graduate. For AHS, each one of these categories improved. By looking at “like
schools” or “comparison schools”, schools that have similar populations and economic advantages as AHS, it’s clear to see that we’re performing at a higher level than they are according to their averages. AHS, according to the state, met overall student participation in reading for the OAKS test. However, we did not meet for participation of “economically disadvantaged students” (a smaller sub-category) on the reading test. Because 0.4% didn’t technically participate the school didn’t pass that category. To make up the essential skill these students participated in a reading lab and submitted work samples. Since they did not, however, retake and pass the actual OAKS test, it’s not recorded. The federal government is inflexible on this standpoint, and automatically dropped AHS down a level when 100% participation was not met. The school has since gone through an appeal process with the Oregon Department of Education. However, the ODE was unbudgeable on this technicality. Two key points of irony are: 1. Next year (2015) the OAKS test will be replaced by a new test; the Smarter Balanced Assessment (SBA). 2. Having received a rank that is artificially low, AHS next year will likely be ranked higher, showing “growth”. This kind of trend is common when schools receive a lower score than normal and then receive a higher score the following year.
Percentage of Ashland students who passed the OAKS test
Level
3
greater than
95%
the rating AHS was given by the State of Oregon
Oregon Department of Educatrion Oregon Department of Education (ODE)