March 28, 2024

Half of Iowa’s schools in need of assistance, including some in Newton

The Iowa Department of Education released the statewide Annual Yearly Progress report Tuesday, and more than 50 percent of the state’s 1,356 public schools made the School in Need of Assistance or SINA list, including several in the Newton Community School District.

Although these results represent the 2014-2015 school year, they are based on testing from the 2013-2014 school year.

The IDE uses its annual report to measure school and school districts ability to meet the standards set by the No Child Left Behind Act, which last year required all students to be 100 percent proficient in math and reading.

A number of education officials have spoken out against NCLB and have labeled the 100 percent mark a “statistical improbability.”

“(NCLB) has outlived its usefulness as a lever for improving student achievement in our country. We need some different solutions. In Iowa, we embrace high expectations and accountability, but we must have an approach that dignifies growth and progress as much as proficiency on a test,” said IDE Director Brad Buck.

While Buck and other officials advocate for change, the results themselves show there is still work to be done within the schools.

Results

Schools performances in the annual report are graded via several annual measurable objectives, which score children in math and reading, who are in the third through eighth or 11th grades.

As a district, Newton was removed from the District in Need of Assistance or DINA list in reading. In order for a district to removed from one category, it must hit its trajectories two years in a row.

The Newton district is, however, considered a DINA-4 district in math. Non-test related factors such as when a district does not meet the goals for district level K-8 average daily attendance rates and high school graduation rates for two consecutive years, it can be identified as DINA.

Newton Senior High School is considered a SINA-4 school in math and is on the watch list for reading. By being on the watch list, it means a school didn’t hit the trajectory for only one year.

During the previous school year, NHS was SINA-3 in math and had been removed from the SINA list in reading.

Basics and Beyond Alternative School was delay-3 in math, meaning the school has gone back and forth in hitting and missing trajectories, and was removed from the SINA list in reading.

Last year, Berg Middle School implemented a new online math curriculum named “digits” and early results seem promising as BMS received a delay-7 in math after being labeled SINA-7 in SY 14. BMS, however, did go from SINA-8 in reading to SINA-9.

Results at the upper elementary level varied.

Aurora Heights Elementary School, which along with Woodrow Wilson Elementary School houses the district’s 4-6 students, was labeled SINA-2 in both math and reading. The school was previously delay-1 in both categories.

Woodrow Wilson is on the watch list for math and delay-1 in reading, after being removed from the SINA list in math last year and being SINA-1 in reading.

At the lower elementary buildings — Berg and Thomas Jefferson elementary schools, which house the district’s K-3 students — results also came back mixed.

Thomas Jefferson met trajectory in math but was named SINA-1 in reading. This was the second year in a row Thomas Jefferson met math trajectories and it was on the watch list for reading.

Berg was placed on the watch list in math and is delay-1 in reading. The school met its math trajectory last year and was SINA-1 in reading.

Representatives for the district weren’t immediately available for comment.

Contact Senior Staff Writer Ty Rushing at (641) 792-3121 ext. 6532 or at trushing@newtondailynews.com.