031505 Work Session attachment 2

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Despite the fact that the two OCS middle schools have larger student populations than the four CHCCS middle schools, there are fewer specialists available to work with OCS students, and class size is larger. These distinctions have some import, because it is also at this juncture that the achievement scores of OCS students begin to dip below those of CHCCS students. Whereas reading achievement was somewhat even between the two districts at the elementary level, in middle schools the district scores diverge. Achievement Although reading and mathematics scores for 6th graders dip, they rebound in literacy, though less in OCS than CHCCS. In mathematics where CHCC5 stays constant, OCS scores continue to decline in middle school. Both districts register 95% of their grade 5 students at or above grade level on mathematics EOG tests. CHCC5 students level off in the sixth grade at about 93 %, a level sustained through middle school, while OCS students decline steadily in middle school, meeting the statewide level of 85% at the end of eighth grade. These differences are extended into high school with CHCCS getting higher scores on End of Course (EOC) tests in Geometry, Chemistry, Biology, ELPS, History and English. SAT scores for high school students in CHCCS are markedly higher than for OCS; participation rates are substantially higher for CHCC5 as well. Even though high schools in CHCCS have larger populations than in OCS (1740 and 1546 to OCS populations of 899 and 948), the ratios of counselors to students in CHCC5, 1:250 and 1 :258 are lower than they are in OCS, where they are 1:300 and 1:316. CHCC5 report 35 counselors in total, and 005 report 17. It. is important to note that in many schools counselors assume the responsibility for the scheduling, oversight, and implementation of testing, administrative tasks that take up time that they might be spending with students. This might partially explain why dropout figures reported in 2002- 2003 for 9th -12th graders show 5.81% for OCS and .99 for CHCCS. Across the state the percentage is 4.78. NC and CHCCS dropout percentages have been diminishing for the past few years; whereas the 005 rate fluctuates: 5.2% in 2001 -02, 4.22% in 2002 -03, and 5.81% in 2003 -04. Both CHCCS and 005 usually out perform the state on EOG achievement test scores across important educational sub - groups (i.e., Male, Female, White, Black, Hispanic, American Indian, Asian /Pacific Islander, Multi- racial, Economically Disadvantaged, Not Economically Disadvantaged, Limited English Proficient, and Students with Disabilities). Both districts have exhibited marked improvement in the EOG scores of their Black and Economically Disadvantaged students at rates greater than the NC rate from 2002 -0303 to 2003 -2004. One of the greatest differences between the school districts is the percentage of their students who are categorized as exceptional because of a learning disability, or an emotional or behavioral problem. Although the total student population of OCS is 40% fewer than CHCC5, its population of students with disabilities is 12% larger: 1,138 (or 17.6%