New standardized test results show continuing gap between Anchorage's rich and poor schools

New standardized test scores released this week highlight the persistent achievement gap between schools in rich and poor neighborhoods that has long plagued Anchorage, as well as the rest of the country.

The greatest range in the percentage of students meeting standards within the Anchorage School District exists between neighborhood elementary schools, according to data released this week by the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development.

A majority of Anchorage's elementary schools with some of the best average scores on the new state standardized test draw students from more affluent areas including South Anchorage, the Hillside, Eagle River and Girdwood.

The opposite was true in the poor neighborhoods served by the district's Title I elementary schools — the designation given to the schools with the neediest students, which are eligible for additional services and federal money. Most of those schools had some of the worst scores in math and English language arts, the two subjects on the test.

"We've been aware that there is achievement gap in our district for some time," said Anchorage School Board President Kameron Perez-Verdia. "It's certainly an area of concern."

Alaska's students in grades 3 through 10 took the new computer-based Alaska Measures of Progress test, or AMP, for the first time this past spring. It tested students on more rigorous academic standards adopted by the state in 2012.

Across Alaska, the percentage of students who met the new standards plummeted compared to how many students met the old standards. With higher expectations, that's what education officials said they expected.

Districtwide, about 39 percent of Anchorage students met English language arts standards and about 36 percent met them in math.

At Anchorage neighborhood elementary schools, where students in the upper grades took the test, the percentage of students meeting English language arts standards ranged from about 14 percent at Airport Heights Elementary School to about 74 percent at Bayshore Elementary School. In math, it ranged from 15 percent to nearly 74 percent of students meeting standards at the same schools.

Michael Webb, principal at Airport Heights Elementary, said standardized tests results can feel like a black-eye for the school where some teachers must focus their time on basic skills, like phonics, and teaching English to foreign-born students.

"Lower test scores are not new for Airport Heights. We've been working hard for many years to try to address that for our kids," he said. "If I'm going to base what we do here on the scores that are going on across town, then I'm going to lose sight of those kids that are walking through the doors here."

Over time, Airport Heights has lost neighborhood children who secured the right to attend schools elsewhere. The school's current student base is largely low-income, with about 30 percent of its students learning English, Webb said.

The students bring with them complex burdens of poverty.

Webb said Airport Heights has some students who start school and have never had a book. Some come from single-parent homes where that parent works multiple jobs and may not have time to help with homework. It can take time to get them testing to grade-level, but "the test scores are just one way to look at success," he said.

While the school puts a lot of energy into teaching students English, the students also leave elementary school speaking two languages -- a major bilingual skill not measured on the standardized test, Webb said.

Homestead Elementary School in Eagle River had scores near the top of the range. About 64 percent of students met standards in English language arts and math.

The principal, Barbara Nagengast, said the school's students generally live in established neighborhoods and stay at the school as they age through the grades. Many of their parents also went to Homestead, she said.

"We have a very highly skilled, talented teaching staff with very involved families," she said.

Perez-Verdia said the district administration is working on a "data dashboard" that will compile an array of statistics on a public website for each school, including standardized test results, suspension rates, attendance rates and credit completion.

Heidi Embley, a school district spokeswoman, said in an email that it's well documented schools in more affluent neighborhoods typically perform better. The school district reports economically disadvantaged achievement gaps to the school board, she said. However, Embley said, each school had great things to offer and are not in competition with each other.

One exception to the trend is Chinook Elementary School, a Title I school that scored above the districtwide average in language arts and math. The school has about 490 students, about 80 percent considered low-income, Principal Anita Stevens said. This year the school has roughly 85 English language learners and pulls more than 80 percent of its students from surrounding neighborhoods, she said.

Stevens added that no matter a student's home life, when he or she walks into school the focus is: "This is where we're at. What are we going to do to move forward?"

Teachers attend regular professional development and data meetings, she said. Students are separated into smaller learning groups and are sent to different classrooms for different subjects if needed. For instance, a third-grader with a high aptitude for math might go to a fourth-grade class for that subject.

"I tell the teachers, 'The district has their standards set at this bar, my standards are above that, we need to be reaching somewhere in between,'" she said.