By KAREN CIMINO WILSON
DavidsonNews.net
CHARLOTTE – Davidson IB Middle School does not currently meet all three of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education’s expectations for magnet schools, according to the school district. That assessment emerged Tuesday from the latest in a series of Charlotte-Mecklenburg school board work sessions, this one focusing on improving magnet and home schools.
Last week, school officials suggested closing or consolidating the Davidson IB program as school leaders look for ways to save money.
The district had to make about $79 million worth of budget cuts over the summer and more are expected in fiscal year 2012 when federal stimulus funding for school ends. The federal funding had helped bridge a gap in funding created when states began slashing their budgets in response to the recession.
At Tuesday’s session, the school board listed these expectations for magnet programs:
- Consistent high student achievement.
- A track record of narrowing achievement gaps at a faster rate than home schools.
- And at least one of several traits that include: academic distinctiveness, demonstrated innovation and diversity in the student population.
Davidson IB Middle School falls short in narrowing the achievement gaps at a faster rate than home schools, according to school officials. It also falls short in growth. The school made growth last year, but the district looked at three years worth of data to come to its conclusions.
Also, Davidson IB has a 98.7 percent proficiency rate, which is one of the highest in the district. The school was named the top middle school magnet program in the nation by the Magnet Schools of America last school year.
Davidson IB supporters disagreed with the school system’s assessment.
“The conclusion that we need to ‘increase growth’ doesn’t take into consideration the difficulty of increasing the level of growth in already very high performing students,” said Ruth Pilsbury, president of Davidson IB’s Parent Teacher Student Association.
“Plus, it seems tough to compare growth rates at schools with a much broader population of achievement, but a lower overall proficiency, to a school that is at the top of the proficiency charts every year, and achieves solid academic growth,” Ms Pilsbury said. “More importantly, what really makes (Davidson IB) so wonderful and successful goes way beyond the numbers. This is definitely a school worth emulating, not closing.”
Davidson IB also may have been targeted because it is more expensive to operate than other schools in CMS. Davidson IB has 241 students in the 6th through the 8th grades. The school costs $8,565 per student annually to operate, making it the most expensive middle-school magnet program in the district.
School officials said nine of the district’s 41 schools meet their standards. They are: Chantilly Montessori, Collinswood Language Academy, Idlewild Elementary, John M. Morehead STEM Academy, Statesville Road Elementary, Piedmont IB Middle, Smith Academy of International Languages, South Mecklenburg High, and West Charlotte High meet those standards.
Davidson Mayor John Woods said last week that closing Davidson IB would have a profound affect on the community and urged school officials to consider other options.
Among other things, a closure would throw into question a proposed $7.6 million project to renovate Davidson IB Middle and construct a community recreation center on the South Street site. Voters approved school and parks & rec bonds to help pay for the joint CMS and town project in 2007.
Davidson IB Principal Jo Karney said it’s too soon to know what will happen to the school, but encourages parents to attend upcoming meetings to get more information.
CMS has 11 themed programs offered at 41 magnet schools. Among the programs offered are International Baccalaureate and Learning Immersion and Talent Development, as well as Montessori, Paideia and Traditional.
The board discussed the achievement gap and other issues at individual schools but took no action. (Download Tuesday’s work session presentation that reviewed the full list of magnet schools, (PDF) CLICK HERE>.
School officials also discussed options for improving home schools across the district.
Superintendent Peter Gorman outlined the initiatives being taken by the district to strengthen neighborhood schools.
“We have specifically targeted and tried to bring innovation to home schools,” Mr. Gorman told the board. “We are focused on improving home schools.”
The board will meet for another work session on Sept. 28, when staff will bring recommendations for some of the schools.
As much as I love having DIB in Davidson, I am not confident that I know for sure that keeping the school open in the current location is the best choice for CMS. That said, the school summary in the CMS PowerPoint is shamefully weak.
DIB has about 240 students. A 98.7% proficiency rate means 3 students were not “proficient” on test day. Perhaps this year there will be only two students who score below “proficiency,” in which case CMS will declare the school “improved.” Or maybe four will score below, in which case the school will have “deteriorated.” These judgments are absurd. The numbers are too small to draw any inference at all. Even CMS would agree, I think, that a school with 100% proficiency cannot be expected to “improve.” But statistically speaking, in a population of 240, 99% is the same as 100%. Variation at that level, with such a small population, is meaningless.
I’m also struck by the declaration that a school that is 67% white, 33% non-white (including 20% African-American) is not “distinctly diverse.” Have these people never been to Davidson? Bailey Middle School is 77% white (10% African-American). Davidson Elementary is 86% white; Cornelius Elementary is 72% white. In the context of Davidson and Cornelius, DIB is not only distinctly diverse, it is extraordinarily diverse.
There may be good arguments for moving the program, but the CMS PowerPoint is not making them.
I agree on the “distinctly diverse” grade, I would think this grade could be relative to other area schools, but I guess not. As odd as that grade is, it looks like the only grade keeping DIB from meeting CMS magnet expectations is the gap/rate score of Yes/No. The third requirement looks for at least one of the three criteria met, which DIB does.
As it relates to the gap/rate grade, I would agree that DIB is hamstrung by the small sample size and consistent excellence, neither of which seem a good reason to close DIB. Will the CMS message be you must be big and mediocre (but improving) to be adequate? The logic escapes me…