The Montezuma-Cortez school district is a mere “four points away” from moving into a higher accreditation rating with the state, Superintendent Alex Carter reported this week.
“It is not the ratings we want, but they are fair because we did not make the gains that we wanted,” he told the Re-1 school board on Tuesday.
Overall, Re-1 district schools were preliminarily rated as “accredited with priority improvement plan” for 2014, the fifth year in a row at that level. The rating means the district is accredited, but hasn’t met state expectations for academic performance. They are required to implement an improvement plan.
Carter said the district did improve overall, going from a rating of 42 percent last year to 47.8 percent this year.
A score of 52 percent upgrades Re-1’s status to “accredited with improvement plan” a level that still doesn’t meet state performance expectations.
The next two levels are “accredited” and “accredited with distinction” both of which meet or exceed state academic standards.
“Next year, we will make the necessary gains to increase our ratings,” Carter said.
Between 2013 and 2014, two Re-1 schools showed improvement in the ratings, three dropped a level, and two stayed the same. Southwest Open Charter School results are pending.
For 2014, Cortez Middle School is the only school reported to be in the “accredited” category, meaning that it meets state expectations on academic performance indicators. CMS upgraded from “accredited with improvement” in 2013.
“I could not be more pleased with the performance of our staff and students,” said CMS principal Jamie Haukeness. “They worked incredibly hard and deserve a lot of credit.”
Mesa Elementary battled its way out of the accreditation basement of “turnaround” status, moving up to “priority improvement.”
Kemper Elementary went the wrong way, dropping from “priority improvement” to “turnaround” status.
Lewis and Pleasant View elementaries also slipped, going from “accredited” in 2013 to “improvement” status for 2014.
Manaugh Elementary remained in the “turnaround” category, and Battlerock Charter School kept its “improvement” rating.
To combat the overall low scores, the Re-1 district is implementing 90-day correction plans for each school that are more focused, Carter said.
School officials said last year that they tried to do too much, and there was not enough followup.
“We tried to cook it all at once and got burned,” Carter said. “Instead of a 22-month plan, we shortened it to three-month plans followed up by reviews.”
Additional teacher training to bridge the academic gap is part of the new plan. Teacher teams will identify specific “leverage points” for improving student performance within the three-month period instead of a year so it is more manageable.
“Our focus is to go beyond just plans,” said assistant superintendent Lori Haukeness. “There is a huge gap of where we are and where we want to be.”
Staff turnover has hampered progress, but it has stabilized, officials said.
“Having the same team and the same principals should help us,” said board member Pete Montano.
The district is getting some free help from a University of Virginia program that specializes in improving academic performance for struggling schools.
The Virginia turnaround program will focus on bringing up achievement at Kemper, Mesa and Manaugh. The unique program pairs business and education experts with school systems to institute new practices that lead to increased student success.
The Colorado Department of Education is funding the district’s $225,000 price tag to enroll in the UVA school turnaround program.
Under SB-163, districts and schools may not remain on priority improvement or turnaround plans for more than five consecutive years, said Megan McDermott, assistant director of communications for the CDE.
“Those that do face significant action from CDE,” she said. “Some potential actions are removal of accreditation, public or private management, or conversion to a charter school.”
jmimiaga@cortezjournal.com