NWEA Visit

A "thank you" to the Exeter Region Cooperative School Board for approving a longitudinal analysis of CMS's NWEA results.  Dr. John Cronin's analysis and subsequent visit to CMS provided valuable insight into the performance of CMS students compared to similar middle school students around the country.  NWEA's ability to compare our students to their "virtual comparison groups" provided the types of controls we are unable to produce in house.  The faculty of CMS appreciated Dr. Cronin's blended analysis as both an assessment expert and a former high school educator.  In short, Dr. Cronin understood not only what the data was indicating, but also the day to day operation of a middle school and the change process associated with school improvement.  The discussions, while rooted in statistical analysis, were also "real" in that CMS's faculty not only understood his conclusions, but realized the power to make meaningful change was in our hands.

The following is an excerpt from an email I sent to Dr. Cronin two days later:

"On a personal note, I told many people after the board meeting on Tuesday evening that I thought Tuesday was the single greatest day I have had in education - and it wasn't because we received an over abundance of good news.  Many of the items you brought to light on Tuesday did confirm some of my thoughts, however, it was more than that.  You challenged us (and me) to take a hard look at the data - something that is never easy to do - and develop a strategic plan to address what the data is telling us. You, frankly, have given me a greater sense of purpose and as I said to [Mr. O'Malley - Principal] after the meeting, I know what my job description is for the rest of the year.  Further, John, not just anyone could have done that.  If you had come out and presented the data, without challenging us, with speaking candidly about your finding, it would not have made the same impact.  Your contributions were invaluable and should have a lasting impact on CMS.  Many people remarked on Wednesday that they wished you were able to stay another day."

If you wish to read Dr. Cronin's report, a copy can be found here.  In summary, Dr. Cronin made the following conclusions:

1.  In general, the seventh grade program made greater growth than the programs at the other two grades.

2.  Reading and Language Usage results were generally near or slightly better than their control groups.  Mathematics results were the weakest of the three subjects tested.

3.  The grouping arrangements in place today work substantively better for high achieving students than low achievers.

4.  Grouping per se may not have much to do with the results.  CMS employs flexible grouping for reading and groups by achievement in mathematics.  Both arrangements appear to work relatively well for high performers and both work very poorly for low performers.  "Simply making a change in grouping arrangements, whether toward or away from ability grouping, is unlikely to make much difference." (pg. 10)

5.  The "largest concern" is that the program at CMS increases the achievement differences between high and low achievers at CMS.  The high achieving students generally outperform their control group, while low performing students generally underperform their control group.  In essence, the instructional program at CMS is widening the achievement gap.  Further, as Dr. Cronin pointed out to our faculty, the "middle" group may be being ignored.  Their results were less decisive as they would beat their control group in some measures, meet their control group in others and underperform relative to their control group in yet others.

6.  There was an overall decrease in scores from the 05-06 school year to the 06-07 school year.

7. Boys at CMS underperformed relative to girls at CMS.  While nationwide statistics show that boys are lagging behind girls in a variety of assessment measures, most alarming to Dr. Cronin was that boys at CMS are growing at a slower rate than girls.  

Per Dr. Cronin's direction, CMS has begun the process of self evaluation and improvement.  I look forward to using this blog to as an avenue in which we can update the community of our progress.