Regents: Some Level 2s don’t need AIS

On Board Online • September 23, 2013

By Cathy Woodruff
Senior writer

School boards face an important decision regarding which students will be assigned to academic intervention services (AIS) this fall.

Historically, the state has required schools to provide AIS to any student in grades 3-8 who scored below proficiency on math or English language arts (ELA).

But the Regents decided Sept. 16 to grant school districts greater leeway in determining which students with scores in Level 2 or below should receive remedial help and what form that should take. Districts must have policies in place by Nov. 1.

Level 2 is considered below proficiency, but the Regents approved “threshold” scores, which vary from exam to exam, that will reduce the number of students in grades 3-8 who are required to receive AIS. Threshold scores for grade 5 and grade 7 math are in Level 1, so some Level 1 students are not required to receive AIS. The number of students who must receive AIS this year will be about the same as last year – roughly one third of students.

Under the one-year regulatory reprieve, local districts will have discretion to decide whether to also provide extra help for Level 2 and Level 1 students who scored above the threshold for mandated AIS. SED spokesman Tom Dunn said he could not provide the number of students who were not proficient but not required to receive AIS.

One factor in the Regents’ decision was a sharp rise in the number of students who scored below standards this year as tests were revised to reflect the Common Core. Only 31 percent of students in grades 3-8 met the proficiency standards for English language arts (ELA) and math this year, compared with 55 percent last year for ELA and close to 65 percent last year for math. Leaders in many districts expressed concern to state officials that the cost to ramp up AIS to accommodate a flood of new students would far exceed their budgets.

There also are educational arguments for offering leeway in the AIS mandate, Deputy Commissioner of Education Kenneth Slentz told On Board. It may be more desirable to give a student extra attention in regular classes than to assign him or her to a separate AIS program, he said.

For that reason, the state will continue a two-year-old policy that offers a flexible definition of what constitutes AIS, Slentz said. For students whom teachers decide are on track to meet standards, he said, AIS could be some form of “watchful waiting.”  That might involve regular progress checks, further assessments, and teachers holding regular meetings to plan adjustments in the student’s instruction.

“If you have a good, strong remediation program that focuses on keeping kids in the classroom with differentiated instruction, that’s better than pulling them out for AIS,” Slentz said. “We’re going to make a sizeable bet that these kids are going to improve with improved instruction…. When students are pulled out of social studies and science and other classes now aligned with Common Core standards, they may lose context that also could benefit them in reading and math.”

Local approaches are expected to vary. The 11,000-student Utica City School District plans to use both AIS classes and short-term, temporary tactics known as Response to Intervention (RTI) to minimize the time that students are out of their regular classrooms.

“We are taking it on a case-by-case basis,” Lori Eccleston, Utica’s director of curriculum and instruction, told On Board.

She said students who normally perform well but had an off day when they took the state test or who haven’t quite mastered a particular skill or concept are good candidates for RTI.

Besides, funding is tight. She noted that because of federal budget cuts, the district has sustained a half-million-dollar cut in the Title I funding that helps to fund AIS staff.

School leaders in Rochester also expect to provide more extra help that they describe as RTI, along with AIS. They say the district’s expansion of the school day this year will help.

But in Watkins Glen, a 1,150-student district in Schuyler County, Superintendent Tom Phillips said district leaders are scrambling to provide AIS to any student whose scores were below proficient, even if it’s not required.

“We went from providing AIS for 15 to 20 percent of the kids to, now, close to 70 percent of our kids,” Phillips said. “Those kids need that support. They deserve that support, regardless of the relief (from the AIS mandate) the state is giving us.”

He said the number of students in 7th and 8th grades receiving AIS will likely grow to 150 this year, more than triple last year’s 40 to 45 students.  For elementary students in grades 3-6, AIS programs will swell to include 280 to 300 students, compared with about 100 last year, he estimated.

Phillips said he worries that if students don’t receive AIS, they will slip even farther below the new standard, and the district is redesigning its schedules to carve out more time for AIS.

“If these children did not meet the proficiency standard, it’s our responsibility to provide them the support they need in order to not fall farther behind,” said Phillips.