Strategic Profiles Present Questions That May Not Have Answers

If anything the state's strategic school profile for the local district showed one thing.

That new Superintendent of Schools Mary Conway seems to be on track by wanting to give the system's data system a total makeover.

Some of the numbers did give her actual direction, but others simply made her frown because they were not only three years old in some cases, but  just all over the place because of the way they were reported.

For example, in the disciplinary offenses category, Maple Street School was showing zero for last year while Center Road was showing 12, Lake Street 18, Northeast 27 and Skinner Road 10. She narrowed the discrepancy down to different administrators using different codes for the same basic incident.

''And we want to change that,'' Conway said at Monday's Board of Education Meeting. ''We want consistency. We want to use the same codes at every school. We're working on cleaning up up the database.''

Conway has not been shy about making a data system overhaul a priority since she assumed the superintendent's post in July.

Yet she must live with and try to interpret the latest profile figures.

Another huge discrepancy  showed up in the physical fitness test table. The percentage of students reaching the health standard for the four major tests was in the high 30s or low 40s from 2005-06 to 2009-09, but jumped to 60 last year.

Conway says she will determine if the difference was program-related or another example of recording inconsistency.

Another statistic she is looking into is the eight years average experience for Maple Street School teachers when the average is 14 for the rest of the district.

During the 09-10 academic year, 43 percent of the students at Maple Street and Northeast school took advantage of free/reduced lunch eligibility. he numbers were 14 at Center Road, 9 at Lake Street, 36 at Skinner Road, 30 at the middle school and 27 at the high school.

Conway said she wants to make sure no one is embarrassed to use the program, so staff members are devising a more discreet way to enroll and eat in the program. 

Conway was not happy with a match statistic that showed just 47.1 percent of students earn four or more math credits, compared to the state average of 65.

She said the math curriculum is being redesigned to get students started earlier on a path toward high school-level and college prep classes.

On the other hand she applauded the 100 percent rating for three or more credits on science compared to the state average of 89.5 percent.