Dakota STEP Scores Disappoint and Confuse

Rapid City teachers and administrators received disappointing news from the South Dakota Department of Education today. Results from this spring’s Dakota STEP tests did not meet the District’s goals. The District has fallen to Level 3 school improvement in reading and remains on Level 3 school improvement in math which means the District will be forced to take steps to improve instruction. Eleven schools failed to earn passing grades from the state. Despite the disappointments, however, there were some hints of good news in the District’s report card, especially with regard to math and reading scores for American Indian high school students.

At the District level, the scores for all students who took the tests were essentially flat in math, with 69 percent scoring proficient or better, including 13 percent who rated as “advanced.” In reading, the overall percentage of students who met the mark dropped from 81 percent last year to 72 percent. Although this meant that those who scored basic or below basic increased from 19 to 28 percent, the number of students rated advanced also increased from 18 to 22.

Looking more closely at the performance of students in particular age groups and schools, the test scores offer a mixed picture of student achievement in Rapid City. Elementary students in grades 3-5 exceeded the district’s goal in math, but the number of students who scored proficient or advanced fell from 73 percent last year to 72 percent in 2009. Again there was good news in the slight increase in the percentage of students in the advanced category, as this group rose from 13 to 15 percent of all students. Meanwhile, reading scores dropped dramatically as the District fell from 85 percent scoring proficient or better in 2008 to 74 percent in 2009. Here also, the percentage of students in the advanced category rose from 20 to 26 percent.

The District’s focus on math education at the middle school level in the last several years is still not showing big gains on the Dakota STEP. Sixty-eight percent of students in grades 6-8 were rated proficient or better on the exam, exactly the same as last year. In this group, however, the percentage of advanced students declined slightly from 13 to 11 percent. Meanwhile, in reading, middle school performance dropped from 78 percent scoring proficient or better to 71 percent.

At the high school level, the District narrowly missed meeting its goals in math and reading. Sixty-one percent of 11^th graders scored proficient or better. This was two percentage points below the goal and four percent below last year’s results. In reading, the number of students who were proficient or better fell just short of the District’s 72 percent goal and last year’s mark, reaching 71 percent. The good news in these numbers was that the percentage of students who scored advanced rose from 9 to 20 percent.

Progress for American Indian High School Students

While the failure to make overall progress on the Dakota STEP is frustrating, District officials and the community can take heart in data that shows that Native American students in Rapid City are holding their own, or, in the case of high school, making real gains. At the elementary level, reading and math scores for native students were essentially unchanged from last year. At middle school math scores were also unchanged, while reading scores declined sharply from 56 percent proficient or better in 2008 to 45 percent in 2009. In the 11^th grade, however, there was a substantial gain in math scores among native students, with 41 percent scoring proficient or better compared to 30 percent in 2008. Reading scores also improved, with 54 percent of native 11^th graders scoring proficient or better compared to 36 percent in 2008. Improvements in scores were also matched by a significant jump in graduation rates among native students – from 41.3 percent in 2008 to 57.3 percent in 2009.

At the school level, the Dakota STEP scores are likely to feed frustrations. Eleven schools failed to meet the mark and will be listed as in need of improvement in 2009-2010. This is the same number of schools as last year. The list is also basically the same as last year. It includes all of the North Rapid elementary schools, as well as North Middle School and Central High School. In addition, Robbinsdale, Grandview and Valley View Elementary schools along with Dakota, South and West Middle School were dinged for failing to get students in all categories over the state’s cut scores. Jefferson Academy made it off the list this year while Grandview found its way onto the list.

In releasing the Dakota STEP data, the South Dakota Department of Education noted the percentage of school districts making adequate yearly progress in 2009 was exactly the same as 2008 – 94 percent. Secretary of Education Tom Oster noted that under the rubric of No Child Left Behind, “Every year, it gets a little bit tougher to inch forward.” Statewide, the percentage of students scoring proficient or better in math dropped slightly, by one percentage point. Reading, however, was a major problem for many students and districts. “New reading standards were in effect,” said Oster, and the test featured more challenging questions that addressed higher-order thinking skills.

Rapid City was also not alone among urban districts in struggling to make progress this year. Sioux Falls is also on Level 3 district improvement for both math and reading. In Sioux Falls and Rapid City, native students, students with disabilities, and economically disadvantaged students failed to make the state’s cut-off.  Sioux Falls also fell below the mark for African-American and Hispanic students, as well as students with limited English proficiency. With 17 schools on school improvement, Sioux Falls also faces substantial challenges at the building level. 

For parents and teachers, the biggest challenge with the test scores is in understanding what, if anything, they communicate about the quality of education that a student receives in a particular classroom, school or district. Changes in the basic test suggests that comparing scores from year to year is problematic at best. A system that tends to measure this year’s class against last year’s class, as opposed to measuring what students have actually learned over the course of a year (called a “growth” model by educators) seems to be open to all sorts of variations based on student population or other factors.

Finally, the greatest paradox in the whole testing system may be that one of NCLB’s goals was to create some transparency that made it easy for parents to know when their neighborhood schools were succeeding or failing. Today, the archane system with its acronyms and “safe harbor” calculations makes it almost impossible for the average citizen to understand the data. As a result, the tests help teachers and administrators learn more about how to strengthen the curriculum, but they paint a mostly confusing picture for parents and the community.

To view the scores from individual schools and the District, visit the South Dakota Department of Education’s 2009 report card. For administrative comments on the Dakota STEP results, read Kayla Gahagan’s story in the Rapid City Journal.