Parents Confront Dobbs Ferry School Board, Administration about Plan to Improve Test Scores

"What happened? and What will you do about it?" were the prevailing questions asked by the more than 25 parents who attended last Thursday's Board of Education meeting in Dobbs Ferry. 

Since New York districts' overall scores on May's standardized exams were released in July, Dobbs Ferry parents have wondered, "Why did our kids' scores drop further than those of students in nearby school systems?"

After tests had already been administered in May, the New York State Education Department decided to raise the bar, making the "cut scores" higher for students to be considered "proficient" in English/ language arts and math.

While all districts received fewer high scores on last year's exams than in previous years, parents in Dobbs Ferry feel that their district's performance dropped disproportionately to the changed scoring rubric.

"At the last board meeting I called attention to the fact that the 8^th grade ELA and math scores appeared to have fallen to a greater extent than those in other districts," said Israel Lowy, a parent of a current high school student and a recent graduate. "I would like to see a review and analysis of our district compared to others around us, and I would like to see the results discussed in a public forum."

District superintendent Debra Kaplan announced that individual students' personal results would be released to the district this week, with scores mailed to parents shortly after.

"We have scheduled two meetings, one for parents of students in grades 3 through 8 at Springhurst and the other for parents of high school students in the Middle School/High School," she said. 

The meetings are slated for October 5 and 6 at 7 pm.

The board clearly anticipated a large number of parents attending Thursday's meeting, because in addition to handouts laying out the meetings' agenda and previous meetings' minutes, they provided copies of a notice adopted on October 6, 2008 delineating the ground rules for "public comment."

"The Board of Education recognizes the right of community members to register individual or group concerns regarding instruction, district programs, materials, operations, and/or staff members," it read.

"All matters referred to the Superintendent and/ or the Board shall be in writing. Concerns registered directly to the Board as a whole or to an individual Board member shall be referred to as soon as is reasonable possible to the appropriate personnel…for investigation, report and/or resolution."

During the public comment section of the meeting, parents were allowed three minutes each to express individual concerns and suggestions.

"If you are looking at data every year, are you seeing positive or negative trends?" asked parent Robert Reiser, who has a child in 9^th grade at Dobbs Ferry High School. "What conclusions have you drawn?"

Board president Jeffrey O'Donnell responded in defense of the district's practices, explaining that they "receive data throughout the summer and teachers spend time dis-aggregating that detail."

O'Donnell continued: "Not only do we look at each course and each unit within each course, but we also analyze individual questions and how material can be taught differently so that students will answer them correctly. We are doing more with data than almost any other district around."

But, according to Lowy, the data he has seen shows a negative trend for Dobbs Ferry.

"I compiled data trends for 8^th grade ELA and math scores based on numbers released by the New York State Education Department," Lowy said. "People had identified some issues with students entering high school unprepared, and I believe the numbers help explain students' struggles."

Based on statistics published July 28 on the New York Department of Education's public website, 81.6 percent of Dobbs Ferry 8^th-graders received scores of 3 or 4—meaning proficiency or higher—on the state ELA exam. In 2010, only 57.9 percent received those scores, representing a percent change of –23.7. 

To provide a comparison, Westchester's percent change on 8^th grade ELA scores from 2009 to 2010 was –15.4; Irvington's scores declined by 19.8 percent, Ardsley's by 9.8 percent and Hastings' by only 6.5 percent.

In math, 26.7 percent fewer Dobbs Ferry 8^th graders achieved scores of 3 or 4 in 2010 than in 2009. Hastings' percentage of students achieving above proficiency scores declined by 14.9 percent, Ardsley's by 9.5 percent and Irvington's by 8.0 percent.

Lowy noted, however, that he did not believe the numbers were as bleak for grades 3 through 7—"But the data was not available at the time to analyze," he said.

Many parents who spoke at Thursday's meeting have children who recently finished the newly implemented Algebra II/Trigonometry Regents exam, which an unprecedented number of students failed.

O'Donnell described the exam as "the perfect storm," saying that steps had been taken since by the district to correct the shortcomings in last year's curriculum; but many parents wanted to know what type of damage-control plan the district would implement for students who were failed by the curriculum last year.

"High-stakes testing unfortunately is something we have to live with," said parent Leslie Gibson. "Analyzing data is brilliant in terms of finding holes, but during the process, you lose the people. By the time these improvements are implemented, our kids will be gone."

Valarie Kagan echoed Gibson's sentiment. "We were told someone would visit the math classes of every student who took the Algebra II/Trig test last year—yet nobody visited my daughter's class."

Other parents nodded in agreement.

Kagan added that by introducing extra test prep and instruction, "The kids feel like they're being punished because they didn't get the preparation they were entitled to."

Like parents who spoke before her, Kagan also implored the board members and administrators to engage in more public discussion.

"We are certainly working to be more personal and less autocratic," O'Donnell said.

Both school officials and parents are eager to receive individual score reports this week and hopefully open the floor for dialogue on how the district's academic program—and performance on standardized tests—can begin to see an upward trend.

Board member Jeanne Cronin Ceccolini ended the discussion commenting: "This is a small community in which everybody knows everybody out there. The honest way to handle this situation is to come together and work together to make Dobbs Ferry a better school district."