A few days ago there was an article in Newsday regarding the "needs improvement" list, compiled by the State Education Department related to the requirements of the 2002 No Child Left Behind Law. The article noted that in 2010 there were 28 LI public schools on the list, but in 2011 that total had jumped to 106, and the article further noted that "The new additions extend to such well-regarded school systems as Elwood, Half Hollow Hills, Massapequa, Oceanside, Plainview-Old Bethpage, Smithtown and West Islip."
While the article mentions some of the factors which could cause the SED to identify a particular school, in a particular district, it does not identify the reason why each of these "well-regarded school systems" in Nassau and Suffolk had one school, or in the case of only Oceanside and Smithtown two schools, added to the list.
The Newsday article also does not mention that each of the added schools of the "well-regarded school systems" were added in "Status 1;" you see, there are three Status designations, and a separate chart, published in the same edition of Newsday (but buried 40 pages later), did give the breakdown of the Status of any school, in any district, and, in a box on the side, this chart also gave the definition for each Status designation, as follows:
1 BASIC, in which "one student group, most commonly students in special education, did not meet academic targets."
2 FOCUSED, which "indicates that more than one student group fell short."
3 COMPREHENSIVE, which "indicates that all student groups fell short."
The Newsday article also failed to point out, although the accompanying chart made this clear, that none of these "well-regarded school systems" have any comprehensive deficiency causing any of them to be added to the list of 8 districts in Nassau, and 9 districts in Suffolk, which are on the State's "District List;" indeed, the one and only district of the eight districts in the Town of Huntington on that list is the Huntington School District.
So, once again, Newsday does a shoddy job of reporting, and then provides a useful chart but buries it forty pages in back of the deficient article.
Now, that has not stopped at least one community member from already trying to use the article for political purposes related to the Board of Education.
Well, we've come to expect trash talk from some people, but not everyone takes the time to actually analyze what Newsday is reporting in any story, and they could be duped by potential malicious comments twisting the facts for self-serving purposes.
Of greater interest to me was the authoritative statement posted to our District's website on Friday, and that is pasted, in full, below:
[begin pasted text]
District Responds to State Education Department Report
In a report released on November 10 by the New York State Education Department, the Elwood Union Free School District was informed that James H. Boyd Intermediate School was identified as a “School in Need of Improvement.” This designation was based on the special education subgroup not achieving adequate yearly progress, as determined by the new state scoring system.
It is important to note that the District, as a whole, was reported as being in “Good Standing.” As always, the Elwood Board of Education and administration remain committed to improving academic achievement among all subgroups of our student population. We will continue to work together to ensure that our students are provided with the programs and services needed to meet not only state benchmarks, but the high standards set forth by the Elwood community.
[end pasted text]
Therefore, (a) we have one school, Boyd, which (b) has been identified by SED based on one set of scores for Special Education students (Note: as a general statement, Special Education students often have overall abilities and disabilities which can vary dramatically from year to year as some move in and others move out), and (c) has been further affected by changes made by the State in its own measurements; in other words, this is a very narrow factor for our own District, and you have to therefore wonder about the other Districts in the "well-regarded school systems" grouping
As the parents of an autistic son, now 22, my wife and I have a lifetime of experience in Special Education issues, and my wife knows more about the breadth of these disabilities because she served, for over ten years, as a very active volunteer Parent Member in CSE's and CPSE's for our District.
It would be nice to see Newsday actually do some true journalism on the issue of Special Education and its impact on various districts, as well as on parents.
By the way, Half Hollow Hills, historically, has one of the best Special Education programs in Suffolk County, and Elwood began improving with its own population about fourteen years ago. It would be interesting to know how many of the Districts got dinged for only Special Education measurements, and how many for deficiencies in their general education populations.
But, I guess I won't hold my breath waiting for such good journalism out of Newsday.
