Denver Public Schools administrators misreported student data to state education officials, a move that will artificially depress the school ratings for at least six schools on this December’s School Accountability Reports, state officials said Monday.
The lower ratings could deter parents from enrolling their children in a school, according to principal Vicki Cyr of McKinley-Thatcher Elementary, one of the affected schools.
DPS officials inaccurately reported that only one new student entered the district after Oct. 1, 2005 – when probably hundreds did.
The number of “new students” coming in after the Oct. 1 student count day is important because state officials exclude their CSAP scores when calculating the SAR ratings for individual schools, reasoning that those “new” students are not fully prepared for the test. Because only one student was characterized as new, the state excluded the Colorado Student Assessment Program scores of only that student, and left the scores of all the other newcomers in the calculation.
Though DPS made the mistake districtwide, officials believe it affected only six schools whose ratings were right on the edge of something lower.
“It was a mistake that shouldn’t have happened,” said DPS Superintendent Michael Bennet. “I think it is highly unlikely that it will be repeated.”
These reports, released every December, give schools an excellent, high, average, low or unsatisfactory “ranking” based on several factors.
The rankings are sent to parents, published in media reports, and widely used among academics and education experts to gauge student achievement statewide.
At McKinley-Thatcher Elementary, the school will be ranked “average” this year because of the mistake. It really should be ranked “high,” Cyr said.
McKinley-Thatcher has space for about 90 more students. Cyr worries that parents moving into a new development going up near her school will be turned off by the lower ranking. “It does matter for parents,” Cyr said. “People have come here because we’re ranked high.”
It’s too late now, state officials say.
Once CSAP data is released in July, scores are “locked” and SAR ratings are configured based on what districts had reported to state officials up until then.
DPS had several opportunities to correct their mistake last year, said Dianne Lefly, supervisor of measurement at the Colorado Department of Education. State officials collect data about students at four points during the school year.
“We have bent over backwards to notify them and to work with them,” Lefly said. “It didn’t work out, sadly.”
Lefly and her staff warned DPS officials in February that SAR ratings could be affected if they didn’t get an accurate count of how many new students came to the district.
DPS officials can attach an addendum to the SAR ratings for those schools in December, explaining to parents the mistake, Lefly said.
DPS plans to go even further than that, Bennet said. There could be community meetings, parent meetings, “whatever it takes to get people to understand where their school is,” he said.
