on 02-02-2009 02:18

By DONNA KENNY KIRWAN

PAWTUCKET - What a difference a year makes. After last year's high school juniors muddled through the then-newly designed New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP), this year's crop of 11th graders have shown marked improvements at two of the city's three public high schools, and incremental gains at another.

John Haidemenos, principal of the Jacqueline M. Walsh School for the Performing and Visual Arts (JMW), had the most to boast about, as, for the second year in a row, the 11th grade students performed above the state average.
Now in its fourth year, this is the first time that the high school is being recognized by the state Department of Education as an independent entity. Last year, the scores of the 24 juniors who took the NECAP tests were lumped in with the 11th graders at neighboring Tolman High School. Once the test results for individual JMW students were extracted from the Tolman test data, it showed that the students had performed on a level with other typically high-scoring high schools such as Classical, Barrington, and East Greenwich.
This year, Haidemenos said, the 27 juniors at JMW who took the NECAP test maintained their 85 percent proficiency rate in reading, rose nine points to a 70 percent proficiency rate in writing, and gained five points for a 30 percent proficiency rate in math. "We are all pretty pleased here to see how well the school is going," he stated.
Haidemenos acknowledges that the make-up of the student body at JMW is much different from that of the city's two much larger high schools, Tolman and Shea. Students at JMW are selected by an application process, one that includes showing a portfolio of artwork or an audition.
However, the principal is quick to point out the strength of the curriculum and the dedication of the JMW teachers. "People might turn around and say, ‘Well, you're getting the cream of the crop'. And artistically-speaking, we do, but these test results also show that the instruction our students are getting is on par with those of the high-performing high schools, such as Barrington or Classical," Haidemenos said.
Haidemenos also noted that, despite its small size--an entire student population of about 100--the class sizes still number about 26 to 27 students. He said, however, that JMW has a school day that is about an hour longer than the other two high schools, in order to give the students extra time to fit in arts-related pursuits along with academics.
He also credits the fact that the small faculty, which has remained the same for the past four years, has gotten to know the individual students--a plus, he says, when it comes to providing motivation. 
See NECAP, Page A-2
Haidemenos, principal of JMW since it began four years ago, said the school's positive reputation is spreading, and that next year, there will be an average of 28 students per grade level. There were over 70 auditions this year, including one student who lives in Worcester, he noted proudly.
Another principal who is smiling about the recent NECAP test scores is Chris Lord of Shea High School. In reading, the proficiency rate for the 11th grade class jumped to 48 percent this year from 35 percent last year, writing proficiency rose to 29 percent from last year's score of 20 percent and math proficiency was at 10 percent as compared to last year's 7 percent figure.
Lord received a note of congratulations from both Assistant Deputy of Education David Abbott and Schools Supt. Hans Dellith, both lauding him and his staff on the significant gains made in reading, writing and math.
While obviously pleased, Lord is quick to spread the credit among staff, parents and the students themselves. "It is a real team effort, with dozens of committed teachers, staff and parents working hard to provide the best teaching and learning experience we can for our students," Lord said. He praised the students themselves, saying most took the test seriously and strived to do their best.
Lord noted that last year, the NECAP tests were new to all of the state's schools and the 11th graders, now seniors, were seeing the material for the first time. Since then, efforts have been made to better align the curriculum with the tests and to have the teachers be aware of what needs to be covered. "I want to say that the seniors built the runway and the juniors just took the plane off," he stated.
Lord noted however, that while pleased with the jump in test scores, "there is still a long way to go," especially in boosting the proficiency among special education and ESL (English as a Second Language) students. Among the staff's biggest challenges is dealing with a student population that has a transiency rate of about 40 percent, as well as a large ESL population.  He notes that the Shea currently has around 60 students from foreign countries who are in their first year of living in America and are taking level 1 English instruction. "It takes about seven years to learn a language, so that's a lot of kids that we're trying to ramp up," he said.
Over at Tolman, Principal Fred Silva was also expressing optimism about what he saw were some modest gains in this year's NECAP results. He noted that losing the test scores of the juniors who go to the JMW School, which were calculated with the rest of the Tolman juniors last year, skewed Tolman's test results slightly downward this year. However, he said that when test results are considered along with the JMW students scores, Tolman's proficiency ratings would have been higher than the previous year's in all three categories. The 27 JMW students represent about 10 to 11 percent of the Tolman junior class, noted Silva.
At Tolman, this year's 11th graders scored a 50 percent proficiency rate in reading, one point higher than last year's 55 percent. Silva said that when the JMW scores are figured in, the proficiency rating is over 59 percent, showing that, overall, the juniors improved more in this subject than how it appears on paper.
Math scores for the junior class dropped by one point, from 16 percent proficiency last year to 15 percent this year. However, Silva said that when the JMW students' scores are added in, the proficiency rate reaches 16.1 percent.
In writing, Tolman juniors showed a 32 percent proficiency rating, a drop of two points over last year's figure of 34 percent proficient. Once again though, when the JMW School data is considered, the score for writing proficiency would have been at 36.1 percent, a jump of four points over the past year.
As with Shea, Silva said that Tolman has put a team in place to focus on the NECAP results and to analyze what adjustments need to be made in either the curriculum or teaching methods. "We are seeing movement, although it is slower than what we would like," said Silva. "But overall, what we're seeing is positive."
Silva noted that Tolman and Shea are performing at higher levels than most of the state's urban schools. The JMW School, he added, is in a different category because of its application process, and likened it more to Providence's Classical High School. 

Silva also noted that while Shea has a large number of ESL students, Tolman, because it has an elevator for the handicapped, has more special needs students. Currently, about one out of every five students is considered as special needs, as compared to one out of every eight students at Shea. These students are also expected to meet NECAP proficiency guidelines.