School principals asked to provide individual improvement plans

MAT-SU -- Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District chief of administration Bob Doyle has requested that all principals in the district create a school improvement plan by the end of September, regardless of whether or not the school met the 2002-2003 Adequate Yearly Progress criteria.

"We want to take specific actions during the course of the school year to address some of the gaps," said public information specialist Kim Floyd.

The Alaska State Board of Education requires schools that did not meet AYP to prepare and implement a school plan. Floyd said the district wants to take that a step further to make sure all schools are on a path of improvement, even if the school met AYP.

Each school had to test 95 percent of all its students in all categories and have a proficiency score of 64.03 percent or better in language arts and 54.86 percent in math in all categories to meet AYP. The following provides details on each school's AYP report (Burchell High School, Palmer High School and Tanaina Elementary's AYP scores are listed in more detail in the accompanying article.)

Palmer Junior Middle

Palmer Junior Middle did not meet AYP. It did not meet the criteria in two areas, proficiency in language arts (29 percent) and math (19 percent) in the students with disabilities category. For the school as a whole, the proficiency score for language arts was 79 percent and the percent proficiency for math was 71 percent.

Glacier View School

Glacier View met AYP. For the school as a whole, the proficiency score for language arts was 85 percent, math was also 85 percent.

Iditarod Elementary

Iditarod met AYP. For the school as a whole, the proficiency score for language arts was 80 percent, math was 76 percent.

Sherrod Elementary

Sherrod did not meet AYP. It did not meet the criteria in one area, proficiency in language arts in the students with disabilities category (45 percent). For the school as a whole, the proficiency score for language arts was 79 percent, for math 74 percent.

Susitna Valley High

Susitna met AYP. For the school as a whole, the proficiency score for language arts was 89 percent, math was 79 percent.

Wasilla High

Wasilla did not meet AYP criteria in two areas, proficiency in language arts (27 percent) and math (18 percent) in the students with disabilities category. For the school as a whole, the proficiency score for language arts was 78 percent, math was 71 percent.

Wasilla Middle

Wasilla did not meet AYP criteria in three areas, it did not test enough students in the students with disabilities category (125 of 136), and did not reach adequate proficiency scores in that category for language arts (40 percent) or math (28 percent). For the school as a whole, the proficiency score for language arts was 77 percent, the score for math was 68 percent.

Snowshoe Elementary

Snowshoe met AYP. For the school as a whole, the proficiency score for language arts was 79 percent, for math the score was 75 percent.

Houston High School

Houston met AYP. For the school as a whole, the proficiency score for language arts was 80 percent, for math the score was 66 percent.

Colony Middle

Colony Middle did not meet AYP in two areas. The school did not met AYP in the students with disabilities category for language arts (40 percent) or math (24 percent). The school as a whole scored a 84 percent in language arts, the math score was 76 percent.

Colony High

Colony High met AYP. The school as a whole scored a 91 percent in language arts and an 84 percent in math.

Cottonwood Creek Elementary

Cottonwood did not meet AYP in one area, its proficiency score in language arts for students with disabilities was 35 percent. The school as a whole scored a 85 percent proficiency score in language arts and a 83 percent in math.

Goose Bay Elementary

Goose Bay did not meet AYP in two areas, language arts (41 percent) and math (32 percent) in the students with disabilities category. As a whole, the school's language arts proficiency score was 73 percent, math was 55 percent.

Big Lake Elementary

Big Lake did not meet AYP in two areas in the student with disabilities category. The language arts score for that category was 47 percent, math was 29 percent. For the school as a whole, the proficiency score for language arts was 77 percent, math was 63 percent.

Beryozava School

Beryozava met AYP. Its overall proficiency score for language arts was 75 percent, math was 67 percent.

Sutton Elementary

Sutton met AYP. For the school as a whole, the proficiency score for language arts was 76 percent, math was 73 percent.

Butte Elementary

Butte did not meet AYP in two areas, language arts (30 percent) and math (26 percent) in the students with disabilities category. As a whole, the school scored a 81 percent in language arts and a 76 percent in math.

Talkeetna Elementary

Talkeetna met AYP. Its overall proficiency score in language art was 78 percent, math was 73 percent.

Trapper Creek Elementary

Trapper Creek met AYP. Its overall proficiency score in language arts was 88 percent, in math it was 75 percent.

Willow Elementary

Willow met AYP; its overall score for language arts was 78 percent, in math, 72 percent.

Pioneer Peak Elementary

Pioneer Peak met AYP. For the school as a whole, the proficiency score in language arts was 89 percent, in math the score was 82 percent.

Finger Lake Elementary

Finger Lake met AYP. Its overall proficiency score in language arts was 86 percent, its math score was 81 percent.

Midnight Sun Family Learning Center

Midnight Sun met AYP. Its overall score in language arts was 91 percent, math was 82 percent.

Academy Charter

Academy met AYP. The schools overall proficiency score for language arts was 94 percent, math was 90 percent. These were the highest scores in the district.

Correspondence Study

The district's Correspondence school did not meet AYP in three categories, it did not test enough students in the school as a whole category (228 of 323), in the Caucasian category (197 of 281) and the economically disadvantaged category (83 of 120). The schools overall proficiency score in language arts was 84 percent, the math score was 70 percent.

Mid-Valley High

Mid-Valley met AYP. The school as a whole did not have enough students (58) in order to release the proficiency scores. This is done to protect the identity of the students.

Mat-Su Youth Facility

This school site did not meet AYP in one area. There were not enough students tested in the school as a whole category (eight of 14). There were not enough students enrolled in the school to release the proficiency scores.

Valley Pathways

Pathways did not meet AYP in three areas, not enough students were tested in the school as a whole (144 of 165), in the Caucasian category (121 of 139) and the economically disadvantaged category (60 of 69). The overall school proficiency score for language arts was 73 percent, for math it was 51 percent. The school still met AYP in that math category due to the confidence interval, which allows for standard error.

Houston Middle

Houston did not meet AYP in three areas, it did not test enough students with disabilities (43 of 46) and the proficiency scores in that category (33 percent in language arts and 14 percent in math) did not met AYP criteria. The school as a whole had a proficiency score of 73 percent in language arts and a 62 percent in math.

Teeland Middle

Teeland did not meet AYP in one area. In the students with disabilities category, the language arts proficiency score (42 percent) did not meet AYP criteria. The school as a whole received a 78 percent proficiency score in language arts, and a 75 percent proficiency score in math.

Larson Elementary

Larson met AYP. For the school as a whole, the language arts proficiency score was 80 percent, for math it was 67 percent.

Meadow Lakes Elementary

Meadow Lakes did not met AYP in two areas. It received a 17 percent proficiency score in language arts and a 14 percent proficiency score in math in the students with disabilities category. As a whole, the school scored a 69 percent in language arts and a 63 percent in math.