The declining enrollment and fortunes of Binford Middle School have been in the paper of late so I thought I’d take a look at the data. Binford is located on Floyd Ave., a block off Main St. and near the heart of the Fan district.
Turning to the SOL performance: Because of the very small white enrollment, VDOE does not report most of the white SOL pass rates (privacy reasons, they say). The data below are for black students only. We start with the statewide reading pass rates that dropped upon introduction of the new tests in 2013:
In the past, Richmond’s pass rate for black students generally ran above 90% of the State pass rate. The new tests brought the Richmond rates to 70% or less of the state average.
(We now know that Richmond failed to align its curricula with the new reading tests in 2013 and the new math tests the previous year, with the disastrous results you see here and below.)
Because of the smaller numbers of students, the Binford data scatter more but the trend looks to be headed to about the Richmond average (ca. 65% of the state average).
The statewide math pass rates dropped upon introduction of the new tests in 2012.
As with the reading tests, Richmond tanked.
Binford also tanked and the decline in the 6th grade pass rate continued to decline. The 7th and 8th grade scores, however, appear to have recovered some.
In sum, Binford is an awful school, but not quite as awful as the dismal Richmond average.
The problem at Binford is the enrollment. The bigger problem is the generally lousy quality of all the Richmond schools, especially the middle schools.
The School Board is wrestling with Binford now. This year’s scores (known to VDOE in time to schedule graduations in May but concealed from us until about Sept. 1) will begin to tell us whether the Board and our new Superintendent are making progress on the larger issue.
The turn-arund plans that I see are meant to attrract more middle class, white students from the neighborhood, as a way to improve test scores. Having a truely neighborhood school is not a bad thing. Having diversity is never a bad thing. Sure, this will look good on paper, but these plans do little or nothing to address the real reasons that the current students, the poor and black students, aren't passing. We need a real discussion about why they aren't passting, and it has to be more than the teacher or principal's responsibility. How will those students adjust to a more academically challenging school enviornment. As a RPS teacher, the public needs to know that we are working very hard, some might say doing our best. But, it isn't enough, and no one is talking abou that.
ReplyDelete