At Tuesday’s BKW Board of Education meeting, Superintendent Dr. Timothy Mundell shared good news—the district is showed steady growth on the 2017 New York State Grades 3-8 ELA and math assessments.
The following day he described his presentation.
“Because the rigor and format of the exam changes from year to year, it is impossible to gauge progress without context,” he said.
For that reason, he compared the changes in scores at BKW with the scores in other schools. It turns out that BKW’s ELA scores increased more than most other districts in the region. Math increases were similar to other districts.
“This is not to compare ourselves to other districts, it is to identify trends in scores,” he said.
“If our scores rise, but others’ scores rise more, we haven’t kept pace. But this year, we saw growth that outpaced regional trends, meaning our efforts are producing positive results.”
One particular result spoke volumes. The grade 8 ELA results for students not economically challenged showed BKW students performing the best in the region—even when compared to some of the more traditionally successful suburban school districts. BKW also ranked 30th in the state.
“We have witnessed steady gains over the last three years; BKW results are beginning to mirror the results from the region’s better schools,” Dr. Mundell said.
“This is testimony to the changes we have made in structure and culture. We have teachers with the appropriate tools who believe in their students. And we have students who believe in themselves. They are because we are.
“That does not mean we have arrived. Not all students are performing to their potentials, especially economically disadvantaged students and students with disabilities. Even there, however, we are seeing gains.”
Other data showed BKW secondary students performing well enough on New York State Regents Exams to enable 95 percent of students to graduate, well above the state average. He also showed that BKW students on average outperform students in New York and the world over five years on AP exams.
He summed up his presentation saying, “I shared where we are and how we got here, then shared our vision for where we want to be and the steps we will take to achieve those goals.”
See a PDF of his PowerPoint for details.