CLAIM

Our diverse student population continues to exceed state achievement levels in English language arts and math by at least 10 percentage points on the Partnership for Assessment of Reading for College and Career (PARCC).

Since credentialing in 2014, Two Rivers 4th Street has continued to show strong achievement in the PARCC assessment. Specifically, our students’ overall proficiency over time, disaggregated groups’ proficiencies over time, and the Class of 2021 proficiency over time have all demonstrated higher achievement than their peers in other schools in Washington, DC. In addition, our 8th Grade Algebra I students also demonstrate higher levels of proficiency in comparison to both their peers but also high school Algebra I students. This achievement has been supported by the work of our teachers in annual orientations, cycles of professional development throughout the year, and coaching in which we have focused on thinking routines and management in the active classroom.

OVERALL PARCC PROFICIENCY

In the tables below, illustrating the four years of PARCC administration in Washington, DC, Two Rivers students outperformed the city by an average of 13% in ELA and 12.75% in math. Specifically, Two Rivers has out-performed the state in percent of students proficient in both reading and math by at least 10% every year.

With the implementation of PARCC and the Common Core State Standards, Two Rivers looked critically at how our students analyzed texts and reasoned with mathematics. We used our instructional focus to drive this work in 2015-2016 and 2016-2017, namely through our Data - Analysis - Strategy Loop (DAS Loop), which is a series of professional development sessions held on Wednesday afternoons. In these sessions, instructional staff look at data, analyze it, and work on new strategies to address the data.

In 2015-2016, our staff wrestled with the question, “How can we ensure that all students synthesize ideas that lead to in-depth understanding by creating experiences with rich resources?” We drew from EL Education’s core practice 13, “Teaching Reading across the Disciplines,” in our DAS Loop. Staff focused on effectively choosing complex texts and tasks, effectively planning tasks that require students to build critical literacy skills and deeper content, and facilitation of those tasks (CP13.A.1, “Teachers plan literary-rich projects, case studies, and learning expeditions around compelling topics”). On the 2016 PARCC test, 43% of students were proficient in English Language Arts at Two Rivers, compared with 27% in Washington, DC.
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In 2016-2017, our staff dove into a focus on data, using checks for understanding to assess student mastery in mathematics, focusing specifically on problem-based tasks. In this work, we drew on core practice 15 on Teaching Mathematics which states“Teachers identify both formative and summative assessments that measure progress toward learning targets. These may include class work, mathematics journals, mathematics discussions, and exit tickets in addition to traditional exams and quizzes.” Through this work, our teachers identified places to collect data on a weekly basis around not only students’ development of understanding, but also their problem solving abilities. This focus on collecting and analyzing data around both content understanding and problem solving skills allowed our students to achieve at a rate greater than their peers. In 2016-2017, 40% of Two Rivers students were proficient on PARCC mathematics, compared to 27% in Washington, DC.

DISAGGREGATED DATA

At Two Rivers, we explicitly value the growth and achievement of our diverse group of students. Consequently, we look to disaggregated data to understand the performance of our population of students that are historically marginalized in our society. Specifically, while we recognize that we have a way to go in closing the achievement gap between our African-American students and white students and between our students with disabilities and those not identified, we our proud that our students in both of these subgroups continue to outperform their peers across the city.

​As illustrated in the tables below, our students with disabilities (as defined by having an Individualized Education Plan), outperform Washington, DC by an average of 8% in ELA and 10% in math.

In addition, African American or Black students continue to outperform their peer group in Washington, DC by an average of 8% in ELA and 7% in math. This is illustrated in the tables below.

While these achievements speak to the high performance of our students over the last several years, the achievements of both of these subgroups of students continues to be an area of focus for us as we seek to close the achievement and opportunity gaps.

Specifically, we are troubled that our school's data continues to reflect the state and national trends in which our African-American students continue to perform below their white peers. To address these gaps we are currently focused on an effort to develop our staff's racial awareness, address biases head on, develop a sense of belonging in all of our classes, and identify and provide academic support for our students of color.

For our students with IEPs, we have recognized a gap in the instructional support of our special education team. To address this gap, we have created a director of specialized instruction role to oversee the supervision and professional development of this team. With this new leadership, we are able to target the growth and development of our special educators to better serve all of our students. In addition, we have shifted a number of our classes to have co-teachers in which special educators and general educators work collaboratively side-by-side to provide regular specialized instruction to all of the students in the class and better meet individual students' needs.

COHORT DATA

One of the strongest indicators that Two Rivers program is making improvements in our students achievement in mastery of skills and knowledge is our cohort of students who have been at our school for multiple years. As illustrated in the tables below, students who have been at Two Rivers for three or more years outperform their peers who have come to us in the last two years on PARCC. To illustrate this, we focus in on the 2018 administration of PARCC. In this year, all veteran students (students attending Two Rivers for three or more years) outperformed their new peers (students attending Two Rivers for one or two years) by 29% in ELA and 31% in math. For the African American or Black subgroup, Two Rivers veteran students outperformed new students by 22% in both ELA and math. When analyzing the subgroup of students who are identified as economically disadvantaged (students who have qualified for free and reduced lunch) Two Rivers veteran students outperform new peers by 20% in ELA and 37% in math.

Following a single group of students at Two Rivers is particularly illustrative in highlighting how multiple years at Two Rivers impacts student performance. The tables below illustrate one cohort of students’ scores over time. These students took PARCC in 3rd (15-16), 4th (16-17), and 5th grade (17-18). This subgroup accurately illustrates our students' success, since this is the same group of students taking PARCC in subsequent years, compared with their grade-level peers throughout Washington, DC. The Two Rivers students outperformed their peers city-wide in every test, except one, over these three years. On average, our students outperformed their peers in ELA by an average of 31%, and in math by an average of 11%.

​EIGHTH GRADE ALGEBRA DATA

Two Rivers is proud to be able to offer algebra I as an option for our 8th grade students. By taking algebra I in 8th grade, our students go to high school with a credit in math and ready to take geometry or algebra II in their freshman year, which puts them on a path to college level courses in high school. This is a direct way we ensure rich and varied options for our students. The performance of our eighth grade algebra students on the high school level PARCC is a particular area of note because based on this assessment our middle school students are compared to high school students. Table 6 illustrates Two Rivers’ 8th graders success with the algebra I PARCC Assessment. Students at Two Rivers have outscored peers who took algebra I by at least 18%, but with an average of 38%.

CONCLUSION

As demonstrated in the data above, Two Rivers’ students continue to exceed state achievement levels in English language arts and math by at least 10 percentage points on PARCC in both ELA and Math. The work teachers accomplished in our professional development cycles around complex text and around check for understanding in particular have bolstered this continued achievement. We recognize that we still have space for improvement across this dimension. Specifically, we are working on focusing our instructional improvements to address the opportunity and achievement gaps for our students of color. However, even with this recognition of places to grow, our diverse student body continues to demonstrate greater achievement than their peers across the city.