Starkville school board officials met over lunch Monday to hammer out two goals for the school district and to ask Superintendent Judy Couey to add items to the proposed list.
Their first goal was one they had already agreed on, and that is for the school district to be a high performing district by 2012. This is defined as 65 percent or more of the students scoring at proficient or above on state tests. Their second proposed goal is to move the graduation rate to 75 percent, up from the current official level of 60.4 percent.
The board, with Eddie Myles absent, took up six proposed goals in a work session, narrowing them down to two primary goals with strategies to meet them. They finished out the meeting by asking Couey to come back with other goals the administration would like to proposed for the district.
“Our list of goals we have now leaves quite a bit of what we do untouched,” said board member Keith Coble.
He and others acknowledged that the primary emphasis of the goals has been to fix what needs improved, rather than make stronger the district”s good qualities, such as arts, sports, music and vo-tech programs. Another item they asked Couey to consider was a financial goal for the school district.
The board began with six items they had begun discussion of at an earlier board retreat. The first goal was the high performing status for the district, followed by an increased district ACT average to exceed the national average by 2012. The third item was to offer more flexible learning opportunities, and four on the list was to increase the readiness opportunities for pre-kindergarten students.
The fifth goal was to increase the graduation rate, and the last item was aimed at increasing the number of high performing students who graduate with a Mississippi Scholars designation or honors diploma.
The board took each item individually, looking at how to implement and measure the proposal”s success, and whether the item was a strategy to meet a goal or an actual, district-wide goal.
Most of the time was spent on flexible learning opportunities. The board eventually decided these were strategies to be used to meet what became their proposed second goal, to improve the graduation rate to 75 percent.
Couey explained flexible learning opportunities include options to bring up low-performing students and challenge and keep high performing students interested and enrolled.
Dual credit/Dual enrollment is an option for high performing students to enroll in high school and a college or university to get credit for a class from both institutions An accelerated schedule can help an advanced student graduate early, and can offer a student who may be bored with school a way to graduate early and head to college rather than dropping out, taking the GED and then going to college.
The accelerated schedule also can help a student who has fallen considerably behind in school. A student who is two years behind when entering ninth grade may find the idea of four years of high school at their age too much of a hurdle. These students are much more likely to drop out rather than graduate.
Two online course opportunities exist to allow students to make up failed classes or to take classes not offered within the school district.
Pickett Wilson asked how these opportunities would held the school district, especially as it would mean some students would leave the district earlier. Districts get money from the state based on the average daily attendance, or ADA, and drop-outs and early graduation does not improve the district”s ADA.
“I think having maximum opportunities for students at all levels will increase our graduation rate,” Couey said.
The board also discussed readiness opportunities for students before they reach kindergarten. Pre-kindergarten readiness opportunities include offering pre-K classes, but these would require funding, and none is available now from the state.
Board members were concerned about how to measure the success of this concept as a goal, and decided it was more accurately seen as a strategy to meet the district”s primary goal of proficiency.
The ACT scores were discussed but not turned into official proposed goals. The board expressed frustration about the district”s official graduation rate of 60.4 percent, which is based on 2-year-old data. Couey said that number will increase significantly with the next calculation, in part because the district two years ago cleaned up its data management.
Previously, the district did not do a good job tracking what happened to students who person left the district. Some moved to other states or other school districts, and some dropped out of school, but good records were not kept, so all were counted as drop-outs.
“This is an attainable goal,” Couey said of the graduation rate.
Lee Brand was concerned that the district set that goal at just a 75 percent graduation rate. This rate is the bottom end of the range allowed by a high performing school, and Brand was concerned that the district is reached for just this minimum standard.
“If you set (the goal) at 75 percent and we fight to get right there and come up at 74 percent, you fell short,” Brand said.
The board intends to review these goals again and consider the goals Couey proposes at their next board meeting. The next meeting is set for 6 p.m. Nov. 2 in the Greensboro Center.
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