Health & Fitness
La Mesa Middle School Gets an F in My Book
Average academic proficiency rates are around 50% — and only 65% of the school day is spent on academic instruction. It's time for a change in how our kids are educated.
F for FAILURE. When I went to school, anything below 70% was failing. The fact that scores below 70 are considered passing at La Mesa Middle School is purely grade inflation. So, even a “passing” grade is suspect. Even by their standard of what constitutes a passing grade, they’re failing to properly educate our children.
Let’s take a look at how La Mesa Middle School scores for student proficiency. My statistics are from greatschools.org.
California rates student achievement a couple of different ways. Perhaps most comprehensive are the California Standards Tests. (aka STAR) The goal is for ALL students to be rated at “Proficient” or above.
Since my son was the impetus for this, and he just finished eighth grade, that’s what I’m going to highlight. Eighth grade scores, listed for 2010 on www.greatschools.org.
General Mathematics: 29% proficient or above.
Science: 70% proficient or above.
English Language Arts: 57% proficient or above.
History: 47% proficient or above
Algebra 1: 46% proficient or above.
If we combine General Mathematics and Algebra, and take an average, that leaves us with 52.8%.
This is failure by any measure.
How is it that students who are deemed by the state to be “not proficient” have passing grades? Are half of our students poor test takers? Is the District holding our kids to a lower standard than the state?
I can hear it now - “But about half of the schools in the state don’t do any better.” That makes it acceptable? This only means that other districts have the same problems - not that we shouldn’t do anything about it. We should be striving to be the best.
Another measure of success or failure is the Academic Performance Index (API). Largely used to measure year over year progress compared to similar schools. When you’re not making the grade, the state wants to see progress towards the goal.
La Mesa Middle School did NOT meet its 2010 API growth target. For comparison, 78% of the state’s Middle Schools DID meet their targets.
Proficiency rates average about 50% and the school is not improving at an “acceptable” rate. Nobody has a problem with this?
Only about 65% of students’ time is spent undergoing academic instruction. This doesn’t even take into account time missed for testing, field trips, assemblies, etc. If our students are not proficient, they should be spending a greater part of their day on academics. This should not be difficult to comprehend. If an individual is struggling, they must devote more time to studying, get extra help, and spend less time with video games and cell phones. If your students as a whole are FAILING, they should be getting more academic instruction.
How are we currently addressing this problem? The District is reducing the school year from 180 to 175 days. Five fewer days of instruction. Perhaps we should expect a corresponding 2% drop in scores to go with the reduction of days?
You can blame the budget. The State. The Republicans or the Democrats. The fact remains that we’re still failing to reach a reasonable level of proficiency, and nobody seems overly concerned.
It’s time the District and school leadership accepted the fiscal issues we’re facing, and start talking about real changes to the way our children are educated. We need new initiatives, new solutions, and a team that is dedicated to being the best, not maintaining the status quo.
