Antrim Elementary School has been taken off a list of schools across the state identified by the New Hampshire Department of Education as needing improvement and support.
Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), states are required to develop an accountability system and identify schools in need of the most support. In the fall, the Department of Education resumed school identification after a two-year hiatus caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The types of schools identified under ESSA include Comprehensive Support and Improvement Schools, Targeted Support and Improvement (TSI) and Additional Targeted Support and Improvement (ATSI). The schools identified as CSI schools are designated once every three years as schools that are showing the greatest challenges with academic achievement and student performance.
Stephanie Syre-Hager, principal of Antrim Elementary School, which has 108 students in kindergarten through fourth grade and 30 in the preschool program, said her school was placed on the CSI list in 2018 based on a student assessment of test scores from 2017. Syre-Hager explained that schools are supposed to be on the list for three years, but that COVID slowed the process.
“The staff worked together to learn and grow, and this was largely the result of grit and perseverance,” she said, adding that Antrim Elementary worked with the New Hampshire Universal Design for Learning (NH UDL), a multiyear job-embedded/school-site-based professional learning program for New Hampshire educators, as well with tech advisors and other program monitors. “Not only did our scores improve, but we satisfied progress requirements regarding changes in culture. We’re hoping that this is a validation of all the hard work we’ve done over four years as a team.”
CIS schools are the lowest-performing 5 percent of all schools in the state receiving Title I, Part A funds, as well as all high schools in the state with a four-year graduation rate less than 67 percent, regardless of Title I status. Title I schools include those in which children from low-income families make up at least 40 percent of enrollment. These schools are eligible to use Title I funds to operate school-wide programs that serve all children in the school in order to raise the achievement of the lowest-achieving students.
The ESSA requires states to calculate and release the list of public schools identified for CSI every three years. The data represents elementary and middle school performance in four key areas: academic achievement, growth, progress toward English language proficiency and equity. Key indicators for high schools include academic achievement, graduation rates, progress toward English language proficiency and college and career readiness.
“The New Hampshire Department of Education will be providing ongoing reviews, technical assistance and monitoring to support improvement efforts within each CSI school, and help aid with continued progress. These schools will develop improvement plans that ensure effective learning strategies are being implemented,” stated Frank Edelblut, the state’s education commissioner. “They will also be awarded funds to allow viable, high leverage, evidence-based practices, strategies, programs and services to be executed in a thoughtful approach, with the goal of creating sustainable systems to help students and teachers achieve at higher levels.”
In accordance with ESSA, a total of $3.44 million in federal funds was reserved by NHED from its $49.1 million Title I allocation to provide direct funding and supports for the development and implementation of school improvement programming to identified schools.
Nine schools previously identified as CSI schools in 2018, including Antrim Elementary, have since met the necessary improvement criteria to exit CSI status.