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The Federal "No Child Left Behind" Act
Superintendents Prologue
Dear Parent or Guardian:
January 8, 2002, President Bush signed the No
Child Left Behind Act of 2001 into law. The law calls for sweeping
changes in public education. Among these is a new federal requirement that all
states and school districts in receipt of Title I assistance must, by 2003,
issue annual “report cards” to parents. The purpose of the report card is to
give parents information about their child’s school in terms of academic
achievement and the professional qualifications of its teachers. In addition
to sharing good news, the report card helps parents make informed decisions
about what to do in the event that their school is determined to be “in need
of improvement,” based on annual test results, such as the Massachusetts
Comprehensive Achievement System (MCAS).
Attached on this web page are the district’s
report card and report cards for each of our 3 schools.
The information contained is divided into three
parts.
Part I: Teacher Qualifications
Part II: School Achievement in Mathematics and Reading
Part III: School Performance Ratings
Part I provides information about the
qualifications of the teachers on our faculty. The information is divided
into two parts: (1) the percentage of teachers who are certified or licensed
to teach in Massachusetts and (2) the percentage of classes taught by teachers
who are highly qualified in core academic areas such as mathematics, science,
reading, history, English language arts, etc. Both pieces of information are
intended to help you understand the backgrounds and preparation of the
teachers who are working with your child. As you will see, most if not all
teachers in the school are certified, and most, if not all, are highly
qualified. Those who are not are either working on a waiver granted by the
Massachusetts Department of Education, or are long-term or permanent
substitutes. While qualified to teach within Massachusetts,
certain teachers are now in the process of demonstrating subject matter
competency through additional coursework. No Child Left Behind requires that
all teachers be highly qualified by the end of the 2005-2006 school year, and
thus what you will see in the percentages are indications of how far our
school has to go in order to comply with this deadline.
No Child Left Behind requires that test results
for reading and mathematics be reported annually. The information contained
in Part II summarizes how we did on the last round of MCAS examinations. The
data is broken down by grade level, subject area, and the performances of
different subgroups, or learning populations in the school such as limited
English proficient students or students with disabilities. This information
is similar to what you received about your child’s MCAS scores in November.
Now these data have been added together to provide a snapshot of how the
students in our schools have performed as a whole.
Part III provides information about how well our
school is doing relative to others in the district and to its performance in
past years. The “Proficiency Index” (PI) scores for Mathematics and English
Language Arts are part of Massachusetts’
School Performance Rating system. This system has been set up to comply with
the accountability provisions of No Child Left Behind which require, among
other things, that each school make adequate yearly progress (AYP) toward
meeting a national goal of all students being “proficient” in mathematics and
English by the year 2013-2014. The Proficiency scores and AYP ratings in the
student achievement data are meant to signal whether or not our schools are on
target to meet this goal or whether they fallen behind and are “in need of
improvement.” Fortunately, due to the serious effort of our students and the
attention given by teachers and principals, I am pleased to announce that all
three levels have made appropriate annual progress toward meeting the national
goal of Math and English proficiency by the 2013 -2014 school year.
Sincerely,
Rosemary DiTullio
Superintendent
Rockport Public Schools
Click
here for NCLB Report Cards by School:
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