Students and teachers at Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy have something to celebrate. For this public school in Alexandria, Virginia—also a Core Knowledge School of Distinction—the latest State Report Card results put the school ahead of all other elementary schools in its district and overall ahead of the state as well.
The Report Card provides test score data at three levels: state, district (school-division), and school. On the 2015-2016 Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL) tests, 95% of Lyles-Crouch students passed in Reading, compared to 73% in the district and 80% across the state. In Mathematics, 92% of Lyles-Crouch students passed, compared to 68% in the district and 80% across the state. The “passing” percentage includes students who scored at the Proficient or Advanced levels on the SOL tests. (For results by grade level, see Tables 1 and 2.)
2015-2016 VA SOL: District, State, School Comparison (All Students)
From 2014-2015 to 2015-2016, the passing percentage for Lyles-Crouch students overall is up six percentage points in both Reading and Mathematics. (See Table 3.) Lyles-Crouch students also outperformed both the district and state in the SOL tests of History and Science, administered in grade 5. (See Table 4.)
Lyles-Crouch Elementary currently enrolls 438 students, with 26% eligible for free or reduced-price lunch, 10% receiving Special Education services, and 10% English Language Learners. One hundred percent of Lyles-Crouch students participated in the 2015-2016 SOL testing. Dr. Patricia Zissios, principal of Lyles-Crouch, reports that “we saw the largest gains with the Special Education students in Language Arts—from 53% [passing] in 2014-2015 to 81% in 2015-2016. We met all of our benchmarks and are again fully accredited.”
For Economically Disadvantaged students (defined by the state as eligible for free or reduced-price lunch or Medicaid), the data show Lyles-Crouch significantly outperforming both the district and the state. The Virginia Department of Education also disaggregates performance data for three student subgroups categorized as Proficiency Gap Groups. In all three Gap Groups, Lyles-Crouch students have higher passing percentages than both the district and state in Reading and Mathematics. (See Table 5.)
Congratulations to everyone at Lyles-Crouch for the hard work and outstanding performance!
Research has proven time and time again that social and economic factors play a role as barriers to prevent high academic achievement, especially on standardized testing. This is not the case for students at Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy. Even with circumstances beyond their control, they were still able to close the achievement gap from the 2014-2015 to the 2015-2016 school year. Students from Lyles-Crouch who are economically disadvantaged, English Language learners, or receive special education services, prove that their conditions do not hinder their ability to learn and perform well at school and on tests. It is important to highlight the students’ improvement as well as quality teachers and effective leadership.
Research shows that a teacher’s beliefs about her students’ ability to do well and setting expectations high impact student achievement. Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy obviously sets high expectations for all students and provides them with the instruction to meet and exceed those expectations. Given their stellar test scores it seems safe to say the teachers at this school hold a strong belief that all students can learn. Because of this belief, the students rise to the expectation and achieve.
Having worked in a higher income school and a lower income school, it does play a big role in the student’s overall performance. Not their own economic status but the school’s. if the school has more money to spend on learning tools and other items that can help the student learn then they will do better. I would be interested to know what changed in the school to help boost the scores from 2014-2015.
Just reading this now so sorry for the delay in responding. Some changes were: The students had been using CKLA for two years showing significant literacy gains; we instituted an “all hands on deck” support system (i.e., any free slots in an ENCORE/Resource staff members’ schedule were used for small group or one-on-one tutoring); incorporating more hands-on, experiential learning across the curriculum; integrating more technology-based learning into class lessons; AND maintaining consistency in staff (i.e., low/no staff turnover) committed to Core Knowledge.
I am very proud of all the hard work this school has done. I feel a small personal connection to this blog because I worked in Virginia and taught two SOL testing grades for over ten years. I now work in CT and have to teach Common Core for the first time in my 13 year career. The schools I worked at in Virginia were in Norfolk and two of the three were very successful. If anyone knows anything about Norfolk, then they know its a low performing school district with many economically disadvantaged students. Through the hard work and dedication of the many teachers, staff, and students these two schools were also able to achieve great success. One was name a distinguished title one school both years I was teaching there. I am proud to be a former member of the Virginia teaching community.