The stats are available on the STATE Dept. of Education website, even if Timberlane does not provide them to the parents who pay for their largess.
And, why would Timberlane want to boast? The results are disgusting!
Here is the link;
http://reporting.measuredprogress.org/nhprofile/reports.aspx?view=11
You can click on any school in the district, with the drop down menu.
But here is the short and not so sweet results;
Grade 11 NECAP scores;
Reading 49% Proficient
Math 24% Proficient
Writing 25% Proficient
Grade 8 NECAP scores;
Reading 56% Proficient
Math 42% Proficient
Writing 43% Proficient
Granted these are only the proficient scores, another 25-30% can perform basic adequacy, in these disciplines, but proficient is what we used to call AVERAGE! And a MAJORITY OF GRADUATING SENIORS ARE NOT PROFICIENT IN ANYTHING, THAT WE HAVE BEEN PAYING THIS DISTRICT FOR 12 YEARS TO TEACH THEM!
The School Board, the administrators, superintendent, teachers, principals, should be ashamed. You are not doing your jobs. Reasons, and excuses aside, you are not completing the job you were hired to do.
Atkinson Town Hall
The Norman Rockwellian picture of Atkinson
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17 comments:
What I notice is that the longer the kids spend in school the worse they do!
Middle school drops from elemtary, and high drops from middle.
At the school my children attend, "proficient" is 90-<97%. Distinguished is >97%.
A study of the NY State test is getting dumbed down more each year to make it easier for schools to meet the average yearly progress required by the ridiculous NCLB. Supplemental proof comes from flat SATs.
"proficient" means something different in every school district.
If "proficient means a "C" at Timberlane, and the test is an honest test, then less than 50% or less will score proficient.
Remember the grade inflation scandal at Harvard? Something like 90% of undergrads were graduating with honors.
25% proficient in some areas is too low. However, I would have serious doubts about testing protocols in a district reporting 80% that does not have entrance exams.
Except for Pollard, the elementary schools do much better. Seems like the longer kids are in the Timberlane system, the poorer they perform. I wonder if the elementary kids will perform worse as Timberlane kindergarten programs feed the schools...
While it it great that people can post their frustrations with the school ditrict here, in particular the school board, it's more effective if you go to the board meetings with your issues -- and not just one or two people -- let them see you exist... en masse. If more residents showed up on a regular basis, some of the changes that many here would like to see happen just may come to fruition.
Remember, our responsibility as residents doesn't end when we exit the voting booth. Not only do we need to keep an eye on those we elect to represent us, they need to hear directly from us also.
LibertyGal, you are naive. The school board meets a couple times a month for part of the school year. Each meeting is run according to an agenda. There is no opportunity for parents to participate -- by design.
By design, our role stops at the ballot. We can run for office, vote for candidates, and reject warrants. After that we must rely on elected officials to manage things.
Until the feds and the state started measuring the performance of our kids, the SAU and the school board spent most of their time patting each other on the back. When the results came in, they shifted into denial, since the information has hit the papers and the blogs, they are 100% damage control. At no time has either the SAU or the School Board engaged in *real* analysis of the problems or an honest attempt to improve things.
We have an opportunity this spring to impact the process AT THE BALLOT. It would be a shame to squander it.
First, and foremost, we should reject EVERY warrant that is not directly tied to performance -- especially one intended to fund a new teacher contract.
Second, we should vote against (even if there is no other candidate) EVERY member of the School Board and Budget Committee not actively supporting taxpayers and parents of the district (that's all of them, by the way).
The SAU has publicly announced that there will be no contingency plans in case of a teacher strike and the school board is giving away perks that should be bargaining chips this winter.
As for the 'niceness' of posting on a blog like this, please note that the smallest and noisiest town in the SAU engaged is a loud discussion of TRSD kindergarten and the voters voted against it. An educated public is the enemy of the SAU (which explains a lot)
Best thing parents can do is run for a school board or budget committee seat. Second best thing is to get people to read these blogs.
I have to agree. My wife and I are very involved parents. We meet with our kids teachers almost every quarter, and while the administration, and the unions love to blame disengaged parents for falling test scores, the fact is that they pepper the involved parents with platitudes, never inform them of anything, until the parents find out about something and start asking questions, at this point their objective is to shut the parents up so they will go away.
While they use parents as the excuse, they dislike parental involvement, and review.
The solution is competition! Until they have competition nothing will change.
To Anon at 6:55am:
Naive? I think not. I'm not suggesting that this specific type of involvement is a panacea to the district's problems, not in the least, but it is one that is not utilized nearly enough. My experience comes from being both a former budget committee member and former school board member, not to mention a parent.
No one comes to the budget committee meetings to listen and learn about the budget process. The district deliberative session has maybe 10 residents attend each year that are not directly connected to the SAU... that's out of all 4 towns. This is where you can have a a direct impact by ammending warrant articles.
There is a a place at each school board meeting for public comment. Can they shut a person down rather quickly? Yes. But the more people that show up, the louder the message is, even if it is unspoken.
When Everyday Math was instituted, several parents came to me with concerns about the new math curriculum, which I whole-heartedly shared. They thought it was great they had someone on the board to fight for them. But when it was brought before the board as an agenda item, do you know how many parents attended that meeting to express those concerns with the curriculum? One.
The feds, namely, the Dept of Education, should NOT have any place in the educational system. The DOE is a big piece of the problem (not to mention unconstitutional) and costs the taxpayers untold amounts of money. States and local school districts need the freedom to address the challenges that are specific to them, not a one-size-fits all solution.
Mark is absolutely right that competition is needed. But it will only get harder and harder for the public's voices to be heard with the centralization of power that seems to be growing exponentially.
Here is one inescapable fact;
I can send my kids to Pinkerton on tuition for $8,800/yr.
St. Joes, for $3,200/yr.
Central Catholic for $6,600/yr.
All of these provide a far superior education to Timbelane, but I have to pay Timberlane $13,000/ yr. FIRST, to fail to educate my child, BEFORE I pay someone else to do the job I am paying Timberlane to do.
How would you like it if you decided the Car you wanted to buy is a Ford Explorer, but before you were ALLOWED by the Government to buy the Ford, the Government had decreed that you must pay GM $13,000?
That is exactly what happens with education.
Mark,
Again, I agree with you. For the record, I pulled my child out of Timberlane and sent him to a private school, while still on the school board, for all the reasons you have mentioned and then some. Understand though, my issues are with public education in general, not just with Timberlane.
It's a slap in the face to have to pay twice for one's child to receive a decent education. Not everyone can afford to do so... and they shouldn't have to.
Where does the figure of $13K per year come from?
Libertygal,
My issues are with the decline in the quality of public education too, but Timberlane is special to me because I graduated from there and know first hand how far it has slid.
The district has a $59,464,070.00 budget for 4,653 kids in the district!
That is $12,780/ kid!!!
I rounded it off to $13,000!
I think someone a few months ago mentioned a free market system where the schools compete for students and the parent shop for schools.
We would not have to pay the $13k to send our kids to school. In fact, Timberline would either have to get their act together and build an educational institution or fold because only a select would send their kids there while others would use their $13k as the tuition to send their kids to a much better institution; whether it be Salem, Pinkterton, Central Catholic or even home school.
Right now, THS is a monopoly in many ways. If you decide to send your kids somewhere else, THS still gets paid so it is no skin off their back. It is just let bucks in your wallet.
The NEA is way ahead of you. State and federal funding for 'public education' ensured a full trough for their clients.
Public schools belong to the public not the NEA. We need to fix the schools. First step is to work contracts that reward performance.
That's not possible with the current management team -- La Salle and his posse on the school board -- so we need...um...change.
If the public does not fund warrants, runs candidates for the school board and budget committee, and demands improvement, we will GET improvement.
Two goals for our contract negotiations should be...
1) teach 180 eight hour days
2) hire nonunion teachers
It's unfortunate facts can be bent in order to paint an unfair picture of the schools. Let's look at four things in this post and the accompanying comments.
1. The academic results on the original blog post only list the "proficient" scores of the TRHS students. If you follow the link provided, you can see that in all three cases there are also students listed as having scored in the category even higher than proficient. Should the school not get credit for those, or is it easier to slam the schools' staff with the lowest possible numbers...truth be damned?
2. macciard claims, "I can send my kids to Pinkerton on tuition for $8,800/yr." Does Pinkerton accept tuition students? Also, the number macciard quotes may be the state's listed cost per pupil for Pinkerton, but the number quoted for Timberlane doesn't match, as it is calculated on the basis of total operating budget. Quote: "The district [Timberlane] has a $59,464,070.00 budget for 4,653 kids in the district! That is $12,780/ kid!!!" To find matching data, one need only to look online at the annual report of the Derry Cooperative School District, which for '07-'08 lists a total operating budget as $73,675,000. Below that, it mentions 6,391 students. Do the (equivalent) math, and it's $11,528 per student (http://www.derry.k12.nh.us/sau/2006dsdannualreport.pdf). Let's compare apples to apples, please.
3. St. Joe's and Central Catholic are fine schools, but neither spends a nickel on special education, correct? Last time I checked, that's a pretty big chunk of any public school's budget. Public schools cannot simply refuse a student on the basis of his/her disability, as private schools routinely do. Again, this is an apples to grapes comparison, and I didn't even mention transportation, Timberlane's fee-free athletics and co-curriculars...
4. Timberlane's teachers, if they choose to be in the union (they do not have to), belong to the American Federation of Teachers, not the NEA. The district always hires nonunion teachers, as it's not a condition for employment. Most who choose to belong to the union do so as a way to gain the insurance coverage that goes along with their membership, and to magnanimously contribute to the contract negotiation process.
Let's play fair, OK?
I would guess that the reason for the proficient scores are because the article is talking about the minumum levels of achievement, not about the kids who will succeed in any environment.
Yes Pinkerton does accept tuition students, and the cost is $8,800/yr. And Pinkerton is not part of the Derry school district, the SAU does not manage it. Pinkerton has its own headmistress, it is a private academy, that serves as the high school for Derry, Hampstead, and Chester.
And yes while every school district has to accept special needs kids, Timberlane goes out of their way to code every bored, restless child in their system, I have seen this practice with my own eyes. That is why 18.6% of the district is coded!
Again a waste of the taxpayers dollars, in a substantial number of those cases.
Timberlane has the highest percentage of its population coded, it FAR EXCEEDS any other district in the state!
Lets compare apples to apples please.
Look at the statistics again please. Timberlane does not have the highest special ed. rate. Also, you need to consider that other wealthier communities can afford to send students with severe disabilities to private schools whereas Timberlane offers a multitude of services in house. Moreover, the comment about "bored" students is incorrect. Students with ADHD/ADD are often placed on 504s which is not a component of special education. Do your research.
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