ANNUAL REPORT TO DISTRICT PATRONS

NORRIS PUBLIC SCHOOLS

2001-02

The State Board of Education drafted an Accountability Reporting Policy on October 1, 1998 based upon the belief that reporting public school performance to the residents of the local district is critical to improving the quality of education in Nebraska. It was the boards’ belief that sharing this information with the public would help to:

ü Make the school more accountable to the patrons of the district,

ü Assist the board of education and administration in focusing programs and resources, and

ü Increase support for improved services and programs to students.

Although the design of the report was left to the discretion of the local school district, the policy encouraged school districts to include the information contained within the text of this report.

Norris Public School is proud of its programs and services. The accomplishments of its students attest to the quality of educational opportunities and experiences available. The information shared on the following pages is intended to illustrate some of these accomplishments. However, the staff at Norris realizes that there is always room for improvement. Consequently, they will continually strive to provide all students with the most meaningful educational opportunities and experiences possible.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Student Progress toward State Mathematics Standards......................................................... 3

Achievement Test Score ....................................................................................................... 3

Student Progress in Grades 1-3............................................................................................ 4

Student Progress in Reading ................................................................................................. 4

ACT Scores ........................................................................................................................ 5

Statewide Writing Assessment. ............................................................................................ 5

Student Enrollment Figures.................................................................................................... 6

Enrollment by race for 2001-02 school Year ........................................................................ 6

Student-Teacher Ratios......................................................................................................... 6

Average Class Sizes............................................................................................................. 7

Average Daily Student Membership and Attendance.............................................................. 7

Dropouts and Expulsions...................................................................................................... 7

Graduation Rate................................................................................................................... 8

Student Mobility Rates.......................................................................................................... 8

Student Poverty Rates.......................................................................................................... 8

Special Education Population .............................................................................................. 9

Title I Program and Population ............................................................................................ 9

Limited English-Speaking Students ....................................................................................... 9

High Ability Learner Program .............................................................................................. 9

Advanced Placement Classes............................................................................................... 10

Number of Student Days.................................................................................................... 10

Number of Staff Development and In-Service Days ............................................................ 10

Average Teacher Salary ..................................................................................................... 10

Number of Teachers and Experience at Norris .................................................................... 11

Number of Other Personnel ............................................................................................... 11

Number of Administrative Staff ........................................................................................... 11

Professional Preparation of Staff ........................................................................................ 11

Expenditure by Program ..................................................................................................... 12

Revenue by Source ............................................................................................................. 12

Assessed Valuation and Property Value per Student ............................................................ 13

Transportation Budget ........................................................................................................ 13

Student Transportation ....................................................................................................... 13

High School Courses .......................................................................................................... 14

Graduation Requirements ................................................................................................... 15

Follow-up Study of Graduates ........................................................................................... 15

Building Needs and Plans .................................................................................................... 15

Age of Buildings.................................................................................................................. 16

Americans with Disabilities Act ........................................................................................... 16

Distance Learning ............................................................................................................... 16

Internet Access ................................................................................................................... 16

Local Area Network ......................................................................................................... 17

School Improvement Goals and Progress ............................................................................ 17

Student Progress toward State Mathematics Standards

The chart below indicates the performance of Norris students in grades 4, 8, and 11 with respect to state mathematics standards. The numbers of the standards are listed in the left column. The percent of students who are considered beginning, progressing, mastery, and advanced with respect to each standard are indicated in the appropriate column. This includes regular education, special education, and ESL students.

4^th	B	P	M	A	8^th	B	P	M	A	11^th	B	P	M	A
4.1.1	9	14	18	22	8.1.1	34	12	32	43	12.1.1	30	17	35	43
4.1.2	11	12	27	63	8.1.2	15	22	28	54	12.1.2	27	16	33	48
4.1.3	13	24	18	59	8.1.3	16	20	31	54	12.2.1	22	13	42	49
4.1.4	19	7	15	73	8.1.4	14	21	23	61	12.2.2	30	17	17	60
4.1.5	16	9	17	71	8.2.1	8	16	29	72	12.2.3	18	11	29	67
4.2.1	10	12	15	76	8.2.2	14	22	34	53	12.3.1	17	18	34	55
4.2.2	5	18	35	57	8.2.3	8	18	41	56	12.3.2	32	17	17	58
4.2.3	14	16	16	68	8.2.4	16	17	24	62	12.4.1	14	6	37	66
4.3.1	8	24	28	54	8.2.5	11	18	27	67	12.4.2	18	15	24	64
4.3.2	10	16	31	58	8.3.1	20	19	24	58	12.4.3	31	18	23	50
4.3.3	20	10	10	74	8.3.2	24	23	30	42	12.4.4	23	26	21	53
4.3.4	19	5	11	79	8.4.1	7	15	37	64	12.4.5	58	6	12	45
4.4.1	20	27	34	33	8.4.2	13	23	24	57	12.4.6	25	19	27	52
4.4.2	15	29	17	53	8.4.3	24	8	42	46	12.4.7	14	18	1	89
4.4.3	31	13	26	43	8.4.4	32	14	37	39	12.5.1	NA	NA	NA	NA
4.5.1	5	18	35	57	8.4.5	12	11	60	38	12.5.2	NA	NA	NA	NA
4.6.1	18	7	31	59	8.4.6	12	15	21	73	12.5.3	NA	NA	NA	NA
4.6.2	3	11	47	53	8.5.1	12	7	12	91	12.5.4	NA	NA	NA	NA
					8.5.2	17	23	26	56	12.5.5	NA	NA	NA	NA
					8.5.3	7	15	21	80	12.5.6	NA	NA	NA	NA
					8.5.4	16	16	32	57	12.6.1	28	9	23	62
					8.6.1	16	14	30	63	12.6.2	24	15	42	42
					8.6.2	13	31	28	51	12.6.3	39	10	14	58
					8.6.3	14	17	39	53	12.6.4	52	18	24	29

Achievement Test Scores

The scores below are from the CAT 6 Test given to students in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 11 this spring. These scores represent how the median (middle) Norris student did when compared with students from across the country that makes up the norm group for the particular test. For instance the median or middle 3^rd grade student from Norris scored better than % of the students in the norm group in reading vocabulary on this test.

Grade	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	11
Reading	73	71	77	71	72	77	74	66
Reading Vocabulary	62	66	68	71	71	68	69	65
Reading Composite	69	69	73	73	73	73	72	66
Language	73	72	69	70	75	69	74	64
Language Mechanics	75	76	63	70	73	63	58	61
Language Composite	72	77	66	71	75	66	69	66
Mathematics	73	73	72	64	73	72	74	70
Math Computation	57	77	70	59	71	70	76	69
Math Composite	69	76	69	64	74	69	77	72
Total Score	76	74	75	71	73	75	75	69
Science	80	71	64	69	66	64	79	72
Social Studies	70	63	69	71	69	69	69	71
Spelling	68	68	67	60	75	67	65	61
Word Analysis	72	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS	NS

Student Progress in Grades 1 – 3

Significant progress was shown in the areas of reading comprehension, vocabulary and phonetic decoding in first grade this year. The number of students reading at or above grade level increased from 69 to 93 percent according to Individual Reading Inventories. Writing assessments indicated substantial growth in writing competencies as students developed skills in writing sentences and simple stories. In mathematics, students demonstrated understanding of the concepts of addition and subtraction to 20. Students also progressed significantly in the skill areas of measurement, time and money, place value and estimation.

According to the Gates McGinitie Reading test this past spring, 86% of second grade students were reading at or above grade level. In writing, second grade students not only practiced the mechanics of writing, but practiced developing ideas and content. By the end of the year, a majority of second grade students were able to consistently use capital letters and punctuation marks in their writing. In addition to reading and writing, 73% of the second grade students scored at 80% or above on the objectives of the new mathematics series in second grade. This series is closely aligned with the NCTM and Nebraska mathematics standards.

Third grade has aligned their district objectives to the Nebraska State Standards. Half of the third grade students met at least 90% of the objectives in both reading and mathematics. 84% of the entire third grade met 75% of the mathematics objectives and 74% of the students met 75% of the reading objectives. On the CAT6/Terra Nova Achievement Test, the median Norris third grade students scored better than 69% of the third grade student across the nation on the same test. According to the spring STAR reading scores, 87% of the third grade students are reading at or above grade level.

Student Progress in Reading

A core belief in the Norris Schools is that reading is the key to the universe, and that it is within our power to have at least 90% of students at each grade level reading at or above grade level. Approximately 8% of the population has legitimate learning disabilities or handicapping conditions that will hamper the ability to read. During the past four years, the staff has worked hard on standards and assessments in reading. Improved curriculum materials have been purchased at several grade levels, and summer reading “academies” have been in place in the Elementary four years.

Research indicates that it is critical for boys and girls to get off on a good start in reading. There are developmental tasks that if not mastered by the end of second grade make it difficult to catch up. Our experience would support that research evidence. Our focus on reading improvement has resulted in the most gains at the Elementary level. The percentages of students who are at or above grade level at the end of the 2000-01 school year are shown in the table below. Evaluation of students was conducted with the STAR Reading Assessment in all grades and also the Individual Reading Inventory grades 1-5.

Grade	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11
IRI (fall)	69	81	91	77	93
IRI (Spring)	93	91	95	84	94
STAR (fall)		77	82	81	84	71	56	58	71	71	82
STAR (Spring)			87	76	75	66	65	59	70	63	67

ACT Scores

74 seniors (approximately 60%) of the 2001 graduating class took the ACT test and scored as follows compared to state and national averages. Core results are for students who completed 4 years of English and three or more years of mathematics, science, and social studies. Non-core results are for students who completed less than this number of courses.

	Norris	State	National
English-Core	22.4	22.1	21.5
English-Non Core	19.9	19.0	18.8
English Average	21.7	21.1	20.5
Math-Core	23.8	22.3	21.7
Math–Non Core	20.4	19.3	19.0
Math Average	22.7	21.4	20.7
Reading-Core	22.9	22.6	22.2
Reading-Non Core	20.6	19.8	19.8
Reading Average	22.3	21.7	21.3
Science-Core	23.4	22.6	21.8
Science-Non Core	21.3	20.2	19.8
Science Average	22.7	21.8	21.0
Composite-Core	23.2	22.5	21.9
Composite-Non Core	20.7	19.7	19.8
Composite Average	22.5	21.6	21.0

Statewide Writing Assessment

The table below illustrates how 4^th grade students at Norris scored on the Statewide Writing Assessment. Statewide averages for the 2001-02 school year were not available at the time of this publication, but 78% of the state’s 4^th graders score above the cut score during the 2000-01 school year, while 22% score below the cut score. The cut score is the score at which a student’s performance is considered proficient.

	Percent of Students
Percent of Norris 4th grade students above the state cut score	84
Percent of Norris 4th grade students below the state cut score	16

Student Enrollment Figures

The enrollment figures below were compiled on the last Friday in the month of September for

each of the given years including the 2001-02 year just completed. Note that the 1997-98 year was the first for the pre-school program and the 1999-00 year was the first for the Midlands Group Home.

	92-93	93-94	94-95	95-96	96-97	97-98	98-99	99-00	00-01	01-02
Pre-School						16	17	16	13	18
K	96	91	88	91	110	89	100	99	88	108
1	94	102	93	86	100	115	92	97	105	90
2	95	94	104	100	96	104	115	99	98	120
3	104	99	100	101	91	89	102	110	103	99
4	100	109	98	96	103	94	90	105	123	115
5	108	101	120	109	97	109	99	93	112	127
6	127	114	103	122	108	96	119	106	102	120
7	120	133	124	118	135	111	99	123	123	116
8	113	120	136	130	126	132	118	102	127	125
9	96	119	124	134	129	129	136	116	106	133
10	98	101	121	120	134	134	122	136	118	122
11	70	95	99	110	117	130	133	119	132	119
12	98	72	95	94	95	112	126	123	108	125
Firth Home								25	15	10
Total	1319	1350	1405	1411	1441	1460	1468	1469	1473	1537
Contracted	4	2	2	2	3	2	3	3	3	2

Enrollment by Race for 2001-02

	White	Asian	Hispanic	Indian	Black
Pre-School	18	0	0	0	0
Kindergarten	102	2	2	0	2
1	87	1	2	0	0
2	114	1	5	0	0
3	98	1	0	0	0
4	112	0	2	0	1
5	122	1	3	0	1
6	120	0	0	0	0
7	113	2	1	0	0
8	119	1	1	1	3
9	128	1	2	1	1
10	117	0	1	2	2
11	117	0	0	0	2
12	120	0	1	1	3

Student-Teacher Ratios

	Ratio
General Education	1 teacher per 16 students
Special Education	1 teacher per 18 students
Title I	1 teacher per 47 students

Average Class Sizes

The average class sizes for the 2001-02 school year in the table below were computed by dividing the total number of students enrolled in that grade by the number of teachers assigned to that grade. At the secondary level (grades 6-12), the average class sizes were computed for reading, English, mathematics, science, and social studies classes only.

Pre-School	9
K	21-22
1	18
2	23-24
3	19-20
4	22-23
5	20-21
6	24
7	23-24
8	24-25
9	22-23
10	20-21
11	19-20
12	20-21

Average Daily Membership and Attendance

The following table illustrates the average number of children enrolled in given grade levels during the 2001-02 school year (ADM) and the average number of children in attendance each day school was in session (ADA).

	Average Daily Membership	Average Daily Attendance
K	106.15	104.47
1	92.56	89.23
2	119.57	115.38
3	98.73	95.85
4	114.43	111.06
5	127.06	123.05
6	122.93	118.65
7	119.8	114.91
8	131.39	126.44
9	139.70	136.27
10	125.25	121.66
11	129.45	125.30
12	120.29	114.27

Dropouts and Expulsions

The table below shows the number of dropouts and number of expulsions during the 2001-02 school year with the rate or percent in parenthesis after the number:

	Grade 9	Grade 10	Grade 11	Grade 12
Number of Dropouts	0	0	1	2
Number of Expulsions	0	0	2	1

Graduation Rate

Number of 12^th grade students who graduated at mid-term	9
Number of 12^th grade students who dropped out prior to graduation	2
Number of 12^th grade students who did not meet graduation requirements	5
Number of 12^th grade students who graduated during spring commencement exercises	120

Student Mobility Rates

The table below lists the total number of students by building who moved into or out of the school district from the beginning until the end of the 2001-02 school year.

	In	Out
Elementary School	31	17
Middle School	15	12
High School	57	22

The table below lists the total number of students who, at one time or another, optioned into the Norris School District from another school district this past school year and the total number of students who reside in the Norris School District and optioned to another school district during the 2001-02 year.

Optioned Into Norris	Optioned Out Of Norris
142	105

Student Poverty Rates

The table below indicates the number of children in each building who come from families whose income and number of family members meets federal guidelines for poverty levels.

	Elementary	Middle School	High School
Number of Children Qualifying for Free Meals	29	13	39
Number of Children Qualifying for Reduced Price Meals	35	17	15
Percent Whose Income Meets Poverty Guidelines	10	8	11

Special Education Populations

The following charts show the number of special education students per grade level and the number of students by handicapping condition for the 2001-02 school year. The majority of these students have only one handicapping condition, although some have more than one. The most common handicapping condition is SLD (specific learning disability) and is usually associated with reading and/or writing ability. Speech and Language Impaired students receive services from the school district’s speech pathologists.

Autism	2
Behavioral Disorder	15
Developmental Delay	5
Hearing Impairments	3
Mildly Mentally Handicapped	15
Multiple Impairments	4
Orthopedic Impairments	10
Other Health Impairments	21
Specific Learning Disabilities	108
Specific Language Impairments	53
Traumatic Brain Injury	2
Visual Impairments	2