Canton Public School District
Despite Financial woes, the Canton Public School District is still working to improve student achievement
School leaders in the Canton Public School District have been working hard to move the district forward. While last year the district was excited to show significant growth by moving three of four of its schools out of school improvement status, that move cost the district a tremendous amount in federal dollars to provide critical remediation strategies to help struggling students. The District lost more than $879,000.00 dollars to aid students at Canton Elementary, McNeal, Canton High, and Nichols Middle. This year it will only receive approximately $232,000.00 for Nichols Middle School, the only school that remains in School Improvement. The District also struggled to provide needed services to improve academic performance district wide, after it lost $1.2 million dollars in State budget cuts. Those cuts resulted in the loss of Curriculum/Instructional Specialists, Intervention Specialists, Behavior Specialists, Tutors, and a number of educational programs aimed at increasing academic performance.
The Canton Public School District, like many districts, had to try to adjust to fewer financial resources while trying to sustain its student’s academic performance.
Despite the financial woes, the district has revamped its curriculum department and devised a plan of action to shore up areas of weakness and continue efforts to improve its students’ academic achievement. Superintendent Dwight Luckett says, “After assessing the test score results, there are areas in which we obviously need to improve, but there are also areas where there has been growth and achievement like in some of our elementary schools where we scored better than the state average.”
Third graders at Canton Elementary once again scored above the state average in percent proficient in Language Arts and & Math. CES’ fourth graders also scored higher than the state average in percent proficient in Language Arts & Math. CES also had an increase in the number of fourth and fifth grade students that are proficient and above in Language Arts & Math. Superintendent Luckett says, “We are looking at the data in our weak areas and putting forth all our efforts in providing quality personnel and other resources needed to improve in these areas. When I look at the district over the last several years, we’ve shown growth in many areas, and we are working continuously to improve.”
|
· We have strategically placed teachers with a track record of performance in critical areas |
|
· We are using federal dollars appropriately to make sure teachers have requested supplies that are critical to teaching and learning |
|
· We are bringing in teacher coaches to Canton High, Nichols Middle, and Canton School of Arts and Sciences to work throughout the year to identify and shore up teacher weaknesses |
|
· We will continue to give best remediation and extra help to students who have scored minimal and basic |
|
· We are asking for more parental involvement to assist us in the educational process to increase our student achievement |
TEST SCORE ANALYSIS BY:
Cassandra Williams, Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction
The district has continued to show improvement in student achievement at Canton Elementary.
Third graders once again scored above the state average in percent proficient in Language Arts and & Math. CES’ fourth graders also scored higher than the state average in percent proficient in Language Arts & Math. CES had a 14.5 % increase in the number of fourth grade students that are proficient and above in Language Arts. CES had a 26% increase in the number of fourth graders that are proficient and above in Math. CES had a 17.8% increase in the number of fifth grade students that are proficient and above in Language Arts. CES had a 9% increase in the number of students that are proficient and above in Math.
District wide 51% of Third Graders were proficient and advanced in Language Arts -that dropped 9%
District wide 55% of Third Graders were proficient and advanced in Math
-that dropped 5%
That is not a significant drop. Of the 5% and 9% decrease, those students were only 1 or 2 points from being proficient
Canton Elementary 2009-10
|
2009-10 |
Language Arts % Proficient |
Math %Proficient |
|
Canton Elementary |
61% |
60% |
|
State Average |
49% |
58% |
Canton Elementary 2009-10 3rd Grade
|
Language Arts Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
67% |
61% |
|
|
Math Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
68% |
60% |
|
|
|
|
|
Canton Elementary 2009-10 4th Grade
|
Language Arts Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
39.5% |
54% |
|
|
(14.5 % increase over last year) |
|
|
|
Math Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
38% |
64% |
|
|
State Average 59%
(26% increase over last year) |
|
|
|
|
Canton Elementary 2009-10 5th Grade
|
Language Arts Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
35% |
44% |
|
|
17.8% increase over last year) |
|
Math Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
35% |
44% |
|
|
9% increase over last year) |
|
|
|
|
Canton School of Arts & Sciences
CSAS Fifth Graders had a significant increase, 17%, in the number of students scoring proficient and above in Language Arts. CSAS Fifth Graders also increased by 4.3% in the number of students scoring advanced in Math.
Canton School of Arts & Sciences 3rd Grade
|
Language Arts Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
59% |
35% |
|
|
Math Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
69% |
44% |
|
|
|
|
|
Canton School of Arts & Sciences 4th Grade
|
Language Arts Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
67.7% |
33% |
|
|
Math Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
66.6% |
39% |
|
|
|
|
|
Canton School of Arts & Sciences 5th Grade
|
Language Arts Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
38% |
55% |
|
|
17% increase over last year) |
|
Math Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
47% |
52% |
|
|
4.3% increase over last year) |
|
|
|
|
Nichols Middle School
Although we would have preferred more growth, we are encouraged to see continued incremental growth. Nichols had an 8% increase in the number of Seventh Graders proficient and above in Language Arts and a 6.8% increase in the number of students proficient and above in Math.
The school also had a 2% increase in the number of Eighth Grade students proficient and above in Math. Nichols also had a 1.2% increase in the number of Eighth Grade students Proficient and Advanced in Language Arts.
Nichols Middle School 6th Grade
|
Language Arts Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
23.7% |
20% |
|
|
Math Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
21% |
17% |
|
|
|
|
|
Nichols Middle School 7th Grade
|
Language Arts Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
26% |
34% |
|
|
8% increase over last year) |
|
Math Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
45.2% |
52% |
|
|
6.8% increase over last year) |
|
|
|
|
Nichols Middle School 8th Grade
|
Language Arts Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
26.8% |
28% |
|
|
1.2% increase over last year) |
|
Math Percentage Proficient & Advanced |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
43% |
45% |
|
|
2% increase over last year) |
|
|
|
|
Canton High School
|
Algebra Percentage Passing |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
50.6% |
37% |
|
|
|
|
US History Percentage Passing |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
93% |
81% |
|
|
|
|
Biology I Percentage Passing |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
76% |
51% |
|
|
|
|
English II Multiple Choice Percentage Passing |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
55% |
37% |
|
|
|
|
English II Writing Percentage Passing |
|
|
2008-09 |
2009-10 |
|
|
|
55% |
37% |
|
|
|
|
|
The Canton Public School District is / has:
- Improved the culture and climate at all schools making them a more conducive environment for learning
- Tremendously reduced the number of fights or other disturbances at all schools
- Increased safety at all schools by adding a Security Department
- Increased daily average attendance at all schools
- Graduating more students
- decreasing dropout rate
- Moved 3 schools out of school improvement status
- 95% of our certified teachers are highly qualified. Eighty-eight(88) teachers have advanced degrees
- Teachers participate in ongoing, rigorous professional development
- Offering students more individualized tutoring
- Implemented a speaker series to get professionals to talk to students about career choices
- Increased mentors
- Offering Saturday school
- Offering afterschool tutorial
- Improved Curriculum alignment
- Developed district test to track students’ progress
- Revamped curriculum and state and federal programs offices
- Restructured schools and added new leadership
Cassandra Williams, Executive Director of Curriculum and Instruction says, "By focusing on both student and teacher performance with a data-driven approach, we expect to see consistent gains in student performance. We will continue our efforts by targeting best instructional practices for teaching and learning.”
Here’s what we are doing to improve overall student performance:
Implemented the District Data Analysis Process
o District-wide focus to jump start this focus was held on August 6th Professional Development Day
o Ongoing focus throughout the school year
Updated District Assessment Procedures
o Added Benchmark Common Midterm Assessments
o Continued with End-of- Term and End-of-Semester Assessments
Revised Pacing Guides and Curriculum Documents
o Implemented tighter timelines for implementing the curriculum
o Revised pacing guides allow for ease of monitoring of the instructional process
Updated the District-Wide Lesson Planning Protocol
Updated the District Professional Development Plan
o Data- driven focus for professional development
o Includes District-Level Professional Development
o Includes School-Level Professional Development
Intensify the District-wide focus on Intervention Processes
o Streamline resources used for student intervention
o Refined intervention classes at the high and middle school level
What is being done to boost 3rd grade achievement?
Updated the District-Wide Lesson Planning Protocol
o Including common lesson planning
o Revised lesson planning format explicitly addresses instructional delivery
Updated District Assessment Procedures
o Added Benchmark Common Midterm Assessments
o Continued with End-of- Term and End-of-Semester Assessments
Focused and Data-Driven Professional Development in Reading/Language Arts and Mathematics
Ongoing focus on the essential components of reading instruction with a strong emphasis on reading comprehension.
Canton High--- What is being done to improve Subject Area Test Scores?
Intensify the District-wide focus on Intervention Processes
o Streamline resources used for student intervention
o Refined intervention classes at the high school level
Implementation of an 8th Period Intervention Block
Revised Assessment Procedures to include ongoing benchmark assessments in SATP courses and intervention courses
o Added Benchmark Common Midterm Assessments
o Continued with End-of- Term and End-of-Semester Assessments
Focused and Data-Driven Professional Development in all SATP areas