Test results are in: Homewood test scores show growth at elementary, middle schools; high school test scores decline

by JON ANDERSON

August 31, 2023

1:21 AM

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Photo by Erin Nelson.

Julia Elizabeth Peterson works on a vocabulary assignment in Mallory Creel’s fifth grade class at Edgewood Elementary School.

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Photo by Erin Nelson.

Students in Mallory Creel’s fifth grade class discuss vocabulary words at Edgewood Elementary School.

Students in Homewood public schools showed growth in English, math and science test scores in the spring of 2023 and continue to rank among the highest-performing students in the state, according to results released by the Alabama Department of Education in August.

Seventy-seven percent of Homewood students showed proficiency in English, which was up from 74% in 2021 and 75% in 2022. Meanwhile, 71% of Homewood students were deemed proficient in science, up from 68% the previous two years, and 63% were proficient in math, up from 55% in 2021 and 59% in 2022.

The biggest gains over the past two years were in math, with an 8-percentage-point jump, while scores in English and science both increased by 3 percentage points, state data shows.

Statewide, Homewood students ranked third best in math and science, behind only Mountain Brook and Vestavia Hills, and Homewood students ranked fourth best in English, behind Mountain Brook, Vestavia Hills and Saraland, state data shows.

“I felt really good about our scores,” said Cristy York, Homewood’s director of instruction. “We have gone up in every content area from 2021 until this year.”

It’s natural to make comparisons with neighboring school districts, but Homewood officials try to focus most on their own community and its own unique challenges, York said.

“There’s obviously great school systems around us. The over-the-mountain districts all are very strong,” she said. “We all have some things in common, but we also have some unique characteristics.

“We’re really proud of our students’ achievement, and we’re really proud of our teachers’ hard work and try not to get too bogged down in the comparison piece because we are different, and our students are doing very well,” York said. “We’re very proud of where our students are and everything our teachers do and our community does to support that achievement.”

York said one of the most meaningful pieces of data to her is the longitudinal data that shows how the same group of students do from year to year, and that data is encouraging as well, she said.

As groups, all the current Homewood students in grades 5-9 increased their English proficiency levels between 2022 and 2023, York said. For example, 80% of Homewood’s fourth graders in 2022 were deemed proficient in English at that time, but 85% of that same group of students were deemed proficient when they were fifth graders this past spring, she said.

Several groups increased the percentage of students proficient in math and science as well, she said.

Additionally, several subgroups in Homewood schools (students from various races, ethnic groups and genders, economically disadvantaged students, students learning English as an additional language and special education students) had increases in proficiency percentages, she said.

For example, the percentage of Hispanic students proficient in science grew from 46% to 50%, York said. Also, the percentage of students learning English as another language who were proficient in math grew from 13% to 16%, and the percentage of students with disabilities who were proficient in math increased from 8% to 15%, York said. The percentage of students with disabilities who were proficient in English grew from 46% to 50%, she said.

One of the biggest takeaways York had from the spring 2023 test results is that Homewood schools are closing the achievement gap between subgroups, she said.

For example, in 2021, there was a 41-percentage-point gap in math proficiency between white and Hispanic students, but in 2023, that gap had shrunk to 37 percentage points, York said. Also, in 2021 there was a 43-percentage-point gap in science proficiency between white and Black students, but in 2023, that gap was down to 39 percentage points, she said.

The subgroups of minority students had higher growth in 2023 than majority students, York said. “While there’s still a decent gap we need to close, we’re moving in the right direction in closing that gap,” she said.

Almost every Homewood elementary school and the middle school showed proficiency gains this past year in all three subjects measured — English, math and science, state data shows. The only place where that wasn’t true was at Hall-Kent Elementary, where science proficiency scores dropped by 8 percentage points.

However, the biggest gains across the district were in science. Students at Shades Cahaba Elementary had their science proficiency scores increase by 25 percentage points, and science scores at Edgewood Elementary rose by 16 percentage points.

The only Homewood school that did not show growth in proficiency scores this past year was Homewood High School, where math scores dropped by 6 percentage points, English scores dropped by 5 percentage points and science scores stayed the same at 66% proficient, state data shows.

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While Homewood school officials are excited about the overall trajectory of growth in recent years and how their students compare statewide, there’s always room to grow and improve, York said.

District leaders will be working with principals, assistant principals and teachers to dive deep into the data to identify strengths and weaknesses of groups and individual students, she said.

But the particular tests that are used to determine students’ proficiency — the Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program for students in grades 3-8 and the ACT college entrance exam for 11th graders — are just one of many tools that Homewood officials use to determine instructional strategies, York said.

“We never have really been a district that solely focused on our students’ test scores,” she said. “We’re very aware that this is just a snapshot in one day in our students’ entire experience. … This will be a piece of information we look at to determine if there’s anything we need to tweak or adjust, but no, we’re not planning to make any sweeping changes based on these test scores.”

Lindsay Galafassi, an assistant principal at Shades Cahaba Elementary School, said administrators, curriculum leaders and teachers use a variety of tools to assess students’ learning, including daily classroom activities.

The Homewood school district is very big on differentiated instruction, looking at where individual students are and targeting instruction toward areas that need improvement and pushing high-achievers even further, Galafassi said.

That said, the wheel doesn’t have to be reinvented each year, she said. “We know the things we did last year already are working.”

1. Mountain Brook: 86.7%

2. Vestavia Hills: 83.4%

3. Saraland: 78.2%

4. Homewood: 77%

5. Cullman: 75.6%

6. Trussville: 75.4%

7. Madison: 74.6%

8. Hoover: 73.4%

9. Hartselle: 71.7%

10. Arab: 71.1%

1. Mountain Brook: 78.6%

2. Vestavia Hills: 68.1%

3. Homewood: 62.9%

4. Cullman: 62.3%

5. Saraland: 61.8%

6. Orange Beach: 60.8%

7. Arab: 60.5%

8. Hoover: 59.4%

9. Muscle Shoals: 58.9%

10. Trussville: 58.7%

1. Mountain Brook: 82.6%

2. Vestavia Hills: 78.6%

3. Homewood: 71.3%

4. Trussville: 67.9%

5. Cullman: 66.4%

6. Hartselle: 65.5%

7. Saraland: 64.2%

8. Oneonta: 63.0%

9. Madison: 61.6%

10. Hoover: 61.0%

SOURCE: Alabama Department of Education

There’s also a lot of collaboration among teachers in the same grade level to help all children succeed, Galafassi added.

Every day, a collaborative planning time is scheduled for teachers in the same grade level to get together, share ideas and help one another, York said. It’s 30 minutes for elementary teachers and 45 minutes for middle and high school teachers, she said.

York, who originally is from Georgia, said Homewood has put an emphasis on literacy and numeracy since the mid-1990s, long before she came. The district commits a lot of extra staff and resources to assist classroom teachers and students, she said.

Each Homewood elementary school has a reading coach and a math coach, and there is an elementary literacy specialist who rotates between all three elementary schools to work with students who have learning disabilities such as dyslexia, York said.

The coaches work primarily with teachers to analyze individual students’ data, develop specialized education plans and make adjustments in teaching strategies as necessary, she said. New teachers are assigned instructional partners to help them get adjusted and to mentor them, she said.

The district also has about 20 tutors among its five schools, working directly with students who need extra assistance.

Each elementary school has a full-time teacher working with students learning English as another language, and the middle and high school each have two such teachers, York said.

“Our goal is always to focus on the individual needs of the student, and when we have more staff and support in place, it makes that possible,” she said. “Our schools have problem-solving teams that work really hard to look at individual kids’ deficiencies. We don’t do a one-size-fits-all program.”

If a student is not reading on grade level, there may be a number of different reasons for that, York said.

“We’re going to try to find an intervention or program or a support to address that special need, as opposed to just saying anyone who is below a grade level in reading is going to do this program,” she said.

Also, Homewood schools don’t just emphasize academics, instead focusing on the entire well-being of students, York said. “We’ve invested a good bit in mental health and student assistance counselors to address all of our students’ needs, so that they’re set up to learn. I think that makes a big difference, too. If students have other things going on that we’re not addressing, it makes it hard to learn.”

by JON ANDERSON

August 31, 2023

1:21 AM