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I N N O V A T O R
News about high school innovation
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Aug. 7, 2009
Welcome to INNOVATOR, a bimonthly report on high school change in North Carolina from the North Carolina New Schools Project. INNOVATOR informs practitioners, policy makers, and friends of public education about high school innovation in North Carolina as well as success stories and research from across the nation.
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Latest ABCs results show progress for transformed campuses

Few high schools in North Carolina are facing a bigger challenge than those that have opted for a complete transformation in an all-or-nothing bid to raise the performance of all students -- many of whom were expected in the past simply to fail and drop out.

Educators had high hopes that wholesale change would result in dramatically improved student outcomes, seemingly overnight, in schools that struggled against the long odds of family poverty and ineffective teaching and learning. That hasn't happened.

Instead, the latest results of North Carolina's annual ABCs accountability measures suggest that the small schools that have been carved from several traditional high schools are beginning to make a meaningful difference for students. The three large campuses that now represent a total of 14 small schools made notable progress in 2008-09 from the previous year.

At Charlotte's Garinger campus, where only one of the five small schools there met their goals for student progress in 2007-08, all five did so last year. The passing rates on state exams for several of the schools still were barely 50 percent or less, but two of the schools each had passing rates of about 80 percent and even those that with lower rates made clear gains. In 2005-06, the year before the first of the small schools opened, the passing rate for the former comprehensive Garinger High School was just 46 percent.

A similar story is beginning to emerge at Scotland High School, in rural Laurinburg. Three of the five schools on that large campus reached their goals for student progress in 2008-09 while none did in the previous year.  One of the four small schools on the campus of East Wake High School achieved "high growth" under the state ABCs for student progress that exceeded its goal. None of the schools made expected progress in 2007-08.

The latest performance data, released Thursday by the State Board of Education, also includes evidence that high school transformation is helping to keep students on track to graduation -- a critical issue in a state where 30 percent of students don't finish high school in four years. For example, the graduation rates for all four of the East Wake schools for the class of 2009 were each at or above 80 percent, better than both Wake's countywide rate of 78.6 percent and the state's overall rate of 71.7 percent. At the Scotland campus as well, four of the five small high schools graduated more than 80 percent of the students who entered their schools.

For the state's 100 innovative schools overall, the new data reflects generally improved performance as the new schools become better established and as they better refine teaching practices geared toward strong student engagement and achievement. Of the 21 redesigned high schools that opened in 2005 and 2006, 10 of them acheived expected progress in 2008-09, compared to four of 21 that did so in 2007-08. In addition, two thirds of the first 21 redesign schools (14) saw increases of more than 5 percentage points over the previous year in their composite score, reflecting all tests taken.

Overall, the gains by NCNSP schools included these:
  • More than half of all NCNSP innovative high schools (54.4 percent) met the academic growth projected by the state, while one in five (20.2 percent) exceeded their expected growth target. In 2007-08, 41 percent of NCNSP schools met their targets, with 16.5 percent exceeding them.
  • The median performance composite, which includes the results of all state End-of-Course exams, was 76.2 percent for NCNSP schools in 2008-09, up from 72.1 percent in 2007-08 and 70.4 percent in 2006-07. The median for traditional 9-12 schools was 71.2 percent.
  • Nearly one third of innovative high schools (31.7 percent) had a performance composite greater than 80 percent, compared to 6.5 percent of comparison schools and 18 percent of all traditional 9-12 high schools.
  • Nearly three of every four innovative high schools (73.7 percent) achieved adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind law, an increase from 54 percent in 2007-08 and 47.4 percent in 2006-07.
  • Six in 10 innovative high schools that were open in 2007-08 improved their performance composites in 2008-09, and two thirds of them (66 percent) exceeded the performance composites of their comparison schools with approximately similar demographics.
  • Although about one of five innovative high schools (22 percent) had performance composite below 60 percent in 2008-09, it was an improvement over 2007-08, when more than one in three (37 percent) of the schools were under 60 percent.
  • The gains for 31 redesign high schools were among the most significant among North Carolina's innovative high schools. The percentage of schools meeting their targets for expected student gains increased from 18.2 percent in 2007-08 to 30 percent in 2008-09. The median performance composite for the 31 schools increased from 54.4 percent in 2007-08 to 62.5 percent last year. And the percentage of the schools making adequate yearly progress increased from 24 percent in 2007-08 to 38.7 percent in 2008-09.

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INNOVATOR is produced by the North Carolina New Schools Project, an initiative of the Office of the Governor and the Education Cabinet with the support of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and other businesses and foundations. For story suggestions or to opt out of receiving this e-mail report, please send an e-mail to innovator@newschoolsproject.org or call Todd Silberman at (919) 277-3760.