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ANNUAL REVIEW OF SCHOOL PERFORMANCE 2004-05

Year of Testing: 2004-05

Preliminary Annual Review of School Performance
Worksheet
Explanatory Notes

State and federal laws require the annual review of school performance to determine academic student achievement and progress. Annual review of school and district performance required by the federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) is based on the Test Participation of all students enrolled in the school or district, the required Other Academic Indicator (graduation or attendance rate), and the proficiency rate in Reading and Mathematics. Science achievement is also considered if the Safe Harbor provision is needed (see below).

The proficiency rates are based on the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations (WKCE) and Wisconsin Alternate Assessments (for limited English proficient and students with disabilities)1 test scores of tested students enrolled for a full academic year (FAY)2. The overall goal of NCLB is for all students to attain the "Proficient" or "Advanced" levels in Reading and Mathematics by the year 2014.

To fulfill the annual review requirements for the current year, schools and districts must meet the criteria for each of the four required Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) objectives:

  1. Test Participation Objective
    At least 95% of the total number of students enrolled in the tested grades at the time of testing must participate in the Reading and Mathematics tests. This requirement may be met by the higher participation rate reading or math; current year or pooled two-year average. The All Student group and each subgroup of sufficient cell size3 must meet the 95% Test Participation objective. A district must meet AYP in at least one grade span to meet this AYP objective (elementary grades K-5, middle grades 6-8, and high school grade 9-12) for the tested grades regardless of the actual local grade configurations.

  2. Other Indicator Objective
    Schools and districts with sufficient cell size3 must meet the required criteria for the Other Indicator, or show growth from the prior year on that indicator.
    • Schools that graduate students use their high school graduation rate. Schools and districts must meet 90% of the statewide rate of 90.8%, which is 82%, or show growth over the prior year.

    • Schools without graduation rates must meet 90% of the statewide attendance rate of 94.3%, which is 85%, or show growth over the prior year.

    • A district must meet AYP in at least one grade span to meet this AYP objective.

  3. Reading Annual Measurable Objective
    The percentage of full academic year (FAY) students tested2 who scored at or above the "Proficient" level4 in the current year must be equal to or greater than the Annual Measurable Objective for Reading (67.5% for 2005 - 2008). The All Student group plus each subgroup of sufficient cell size3 must meet the Annual Measurable Objective for Reading target or fall within the range specified by a 99% confidence interval(CI)6. A district must meet AYP in at least one grade span to meet this AYP objective.
     
  4. Mathematics Annual Measurable Objective
    The percentage of full academic year (FAY) students2 tested who scored at or above the "Proficient" level4 in the current year must be equal to or greater than the Annual Measurable Objective for Mathematics (47.5% 2005 - 2008). The All Student group plus each subgroup of sufficient cell size3 must meet the Annual Measurable Objective for Mathematics target or within the range specified by a 99% confidence interval (CI)6. A district must meet AYP in at least one grade span to meet this AYP objective.

Under NCLB, all schools must be held accountable regardless of size. For very small schools, if the minimum cell size is not met for the All Student group, then up to three years' Reading and Mathematics proficiency data may be evaluated on an individual basis. For most school and district Reading and Math calculations, the higher of two proficiency rates is used: current year rate or most recent two-year (pooled average) proficiency rate.

Subgroups smaller than 40 FAY students (or 50 for Students with Disabilities) at the school level are evaluated when sufficient cell size is met at the district and/or state for accountability purposes. For AYP purposes, schools are evaluated with a snapshot of the data from all the tested grade levels. Beginning in 2004-05, districts are evaluated at each relevant grade span on results from the tested grades (elementary grades 3-5, middle grades 6-8, and high school grade 10) regardless of the actual local grade configurations. Grade spans evaluated for the Other Indicator - Graduations and/or Attendance as relevant to the district, are elementary grades K-5, middle grades 6-8, and high school grades 9-12 (if no graduation) or the graduating cohort. A district must miss AYP at all grade spans evaluated to miss an AYP objective.

Safe Harbor Provision
If the Annual Measurable Objective targets for Reading or Mathematics are not met, then Safe Harbor allows these objectives to be met if each of two steps are satisfied. The first step is met if the percentage of students not yet proficient5 is decreased by a rate of 10% from the prior year (step 1). In step 2, the Other Indicator for the All Students group or relevant subgroups must also be met. The Other Indicator evaluated, as discussed above, is high school graduation (for schools and districts with a grade 12), school attendance (for schools or districts without a graduation rate) used in Objective II Other Indicator (above), or Science (WI state criteria for each group or growth) for the All Students group and appropriate subgroups. The Safe Harbor criteria for each subgroup will be the state's starting point for that subgroup or growth from the prior year's proficiency rate.

Confidence Intervals around AYP Decisions
Beginning with 2004-05, a Confidence Interval (CI)6 will be used around the AYP decisions for those missing the Reading proficiency or Math proficiency (p=.99) AMO targets; or Safe Harbor Step 1 (p=.75) 10% reduction in not yet proficient students5. The CI uses the probability (p) that the observed rate falls between the upper and lower limits of the confidence interval.

Schools Designated as "Identified for Improvement"
Beginning with 2002-03 test results, schools or districts are designated as "identified for improvement" when the school or district fails to make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) for two consecutive years in the same AYP objective. Schools are evaluated with data from all the tested grade levels, districts are evaluated at each relevant grade span on the results for the tested grade (elementary grades 3-5, middle grades 6-8, and high school grade 10). Once designated as "identified for improvement," the school or district must meet the annual review criteria for two consecutive years in the same AYP objective to be removed from this designation. Instructions regarding the 30-day appeal period will accompany any preliminary notification of being "in improvement" status.


Notes
1The Wisconsin Student Assessment System (WSAS) in grades 4, 8, and 10 consists of state-enhanced standardized tests called the Wisconsin Knowledge and Concepts Examinations (WKCE) and the standards-based Wisconsin Alternate Assessments (WAA) which include: the WAA-LEP for students with limited English proficiency and the WAA-SwD for students with disabilities. Beginning in 2005-06, the customized WKCE-CRT will be administered in Reading and Mathematics at grades 3 8 and 10 for AYP purposes. In addition, WKCE-CRT includes English Language Arts, an on-demand writing prompt, Science, and Social Studies in grades 4, 8, and 10.

2A Full Academic Year (FAY) student is defined as one who at the time of testing has been continuously enrolled since the third-Friday in September enrollment count during the school year prior to testing. Beginning in 2004-05, the Reading and Math AYP calculations will be based on FAY students tested rather than all FAY students enrolled.

3The minimum cell size in Wisconsin is 40 students, except for students with disabilities where the cell size is 50. A minimum cell size is required to increase the reliability of the AYP decision.

4"Proficient" and "Advanced" percentages are combined in order to calculate percent totals. The percent of students scoring at or above "Proficient" is equal to the percent "Proficient" plus the percent "Advanced." In order to increase the reliability of the AYP decision only, students within one standard error of measurement (SEM or about 10 scale score points) have been included with the proficiency calculations for AYP.

5Students not yet proficient includes the reported groups: Pre-Skill Minimal plus Basic, LEP Minimal plus Basic, and WKCE Minimal plus Basic.

6A confidence interval (CI) is a formula that provides a range around an observed rate (% proficient and advanced; or Safe Harbor Step 1 rate of reducing Not Proficient) describing the probability that the observed value falls between the upper and lower limits of the interval. The CI should NOT be confused with the standard error of measurement (SEM) above. The CI decision evaluates a null hypothesis that the observed rate is greater than or equal to the target rate at the .01 probability level for Reading and Math or at the .25 probability level for Safe Harbor Step 1 producing a more reliable AYP "no" decision. If the observed rate falls outside the confidence interval, we can say with 99% certainty for reading and math and 75% certainty for Safe Harbor that the true rate falls below the target rate and AYP status should be "no." If the observed rate falls within the confidence interval, however, we cannot be confident, therefore the AYP decision, "Yes-CI" indicates that despite missing the AMO target, the group size was insufficient to reliably decide "no" based on the confidence interval. This process ensures more reliable AYP decisions.

*The data for graduation and attendance is currently reported in the School Performance Report. Beginning in 2005-06 (for graduation rate and attendance the following year), Wisconsin's Individual Student Enrollment System (ISES) data will be used for these other academic indicators. Science proficiency rates are used as a group or subgroup's Other Academic Indicator as needed.

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