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Hazelwood Students Show Growth in 13 of 16 MAP Scores
By Jeremy Thomas
The recent Hazelwood School Board meeting had a small turn out of community residents at the meeting that featured several key issues and procedures occurring around the Hazelwood community. One of the key topics on the agenda was the update on the 2013 MAP/EOC data summary. Supt. Grayling Tobias provided a presentation that described growth in 13 of the 16 MAP score areas, which showed he largest gain coming in Science and smallest in Social Studies.
The 20 area elementary school MAP scores had all showed some type of growth in the major school subjects. The breakdown: 14 elementary schools showed growth in English language arts, 16 showed growth in Math, and 16 showed growth in Science. Of the six area middle schools, five showed growth in English Language Arts, five showed growth in Math, and five showed growth in Science. Of the three Hazelwood high schools, two of them showed growth in Math, while all three showed growth in Science.
The Missouri School Improvement Program (MSIP) has Performance Accreditation Levels, which range from 70 points for unaccredited, 70-97 points for provisional, 98-125 points for accredited and 126-140 points for accredited with distinction. The HSD is currently at 119.5 points.
“The board and I are certainly happy about the academic standing of our area schools, but are eager to see the progress that is still to come,” Tobias said.
Following this presentation Eric Arbetter, assistant superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction provided a curriculum update. In the presentation he mentioned how Hazelwood West Middle School hosted an AP summer institute workshop on July 15- 19. The workshop was geared towards providing teachers with the support and training needed to teach AP courses and to utilize Pre-AP teaching strategies. There were a total of 10 courses provided by Southeast Missouri State University and the College Board.
Along with this Dr. Arbetter also mentioned a new Textbook Inventory system known as “Destiny”.
“The program will provides districts with a more efficient way to bring textbook costs under control, circulate and track instructional materials, and ensure every student has the materials they need to succeed,” Arbetter said.
There were a few things Arbetter mentioned in the presentation on plans for the 2013-2014 school year. Weekly walkthroughs, more student support, administrative training, and curriculum revisions were just some of the key things highlighted.
The last thing on the agenda was a report on Culture Competence. One of the topics in the presentation talked about race and equity, particular HSD modeling certain programs after Glenn Singleton author of Courageous Conversation. The book breaks down race and education and how to successfully implement it into schools.
The presentation also mentioned that there are achievement gaps that exist throughout HSD schools, which include African-American students, students with a disability, students with limited proficiency in English, and students receiving special education services.
“The Cultural Competence goal is to increase student achievement and close the achievement gap for culturally and ethnically diverse students by implementing culturally responsive teaching strategies in all classrooms by 2015 – 2016,” Arbetter said.
