We’ve been contacted by a parent who had a number of questions about the academic programs at Nathan Bishop.
We’ve heard about the “word on the street”, and this post is intended to clarify, to the best of our ability, the state of academics at Nathan Bishop. Ultimately, we would strongly advocate that parents come to the building, talk to the Principal, Guidance staff, and teachers, and form their own opinions.
Nathan Bishop just graduated its first full three year class of students since reopening. To say this was a pioneering group of students is an understatement. They entered a building that had just been extensively remodeled, with a teaching and support staff that was only 33% hired, and into a program that had not existed several months earlier. Readers of this blog will note that extensive administrative and community involvement went into formulating what the “new” Nathan Bishop would be. Again, if there are questions, talk to the parents of recent graduates… Most everyone left the building on “promotion day” with wide smiles on their faces.
Providence Public Schools at this time continues to only designate Nathanael Greene as having an “Advanced Academic Program”. For years, this was the best public middle school option for parents with motivated, academically talented children. There are 104 seats per year, and your child is either “all in” or “all out” of the advanced core classrooms. Over the years discussions were held at the School Department about expanding the Advanced Academic programming to other middle schools, but entropy prevailed.
The opportunity to re-open Nathan Bishop allowed the planners of the academic programming to come up with an “a la carte” advanced programming concept. Unlike Nathanael Greene, your child might be advanced in math and average in English, and would participate in classes geared to their academic level.
There never was “tracking” at Nathan Bishop (except for a separate Math track that parallels the Math program at Nathanael Greene (7th grade algebra and 8th grade geometry)). Instead, the school administrators and guidance counselors made an effort to group students by ability, such that the teachers could differentiate instruction between the stronger and weaker students. Core concepts were taught, and enriched material or advanced goals were provided to the kids that could benefit from them. This coming year, another option for an enriched core math program is being discussed, which won’t shortchange kids by jumping ahead too quickly.
Over the past two years more and more high performing kids have been coming into the school. The administrators and faculty at Bishop see this as an opportunity to expand advanced level instruction to a larger group of students. Their goal is to meet the school department standards and mandates, and then to supplement and exceed them for appropriate students.
Nathan Bishop benefits from the involvement of a number of community organizations, including the Gamm Theater, and PASA, the Providence After School Alliance. Dedicated teachers have organized theatrical presentations (including Shakespeare), talent shows, and a Science Olympiad team. In fact, the Nathan Bishop team placed 2nd in the state-wide Science Olympiad 2 years ago, and 4th this past year… not bad for a school new to the competition!
And don’t forget the beauty of having this dedicated faculty in your own neighborhood school. While many of our children attended Nathanael Greene, and had great experiences, there was something wonderful about our kids at Bishop being able to walk or ride their bikes to school, and develop a large cadre of friends in the neighborhood, with whom they could spontaneously get together with after school, rather than having to rely on “play dates” to get back and forth across town. The value is outstanding. You have paid for it. What is private school tuition this year? $26K? More?
Every school has a few “warts”, and Bishop is no exception. The strength of any public school comes from a principal, faculty, parents, and students that are strong supporters of the academic mission, the student body, and the school culture. Nathan Bishop has this, and will benefit from further investment by East Side parents.
Many of the ESPEC steering committee members have had, have, or will have students in the building. We’re happy to answer any questions we can, but feel that the best information will come from taking a tour of the building and talking to the Principal and other faculty members. You can call the school about a tour, or attend the Open House in the Fall (see links below). You have to take that first step though. Many of your neighbors have, and with few exceptions, were happy they did.
A few pertinent links:
http://www.nathanbishoppto.org/
Harlan
bishop is on warning status under he new classification system. Any thoughts on why?
http://www.ride.ri.gov/Commissioner/2012_Classifications_Release_-_7-13-12.pdf
Harlan, your post is great. i really enjoyed reading it and have many positive thoughts as well as hopes for NB. please read this press release. NB has been labelled a “focus” school which is at the bottom 4% in the state. “Focus and Priority schools are considered the lowest-achieving schools in the state and are subject to state intervention…” This is quiet a contrast to your post today ( and as an aside i do know many families whose children are doing very well at NB…. so what gives?) i called the guy on the press release. he said it was not due to “achievement gap” but was due to an overall low proficiency rating. 9 out of 30, one of the lowest in the state. i further questioned this as the ride report card on NB didn’t seem match up, but then again, i am not a numbers gal. i think we need to demand answers from RIDE. if you are going to put out a press release labeling a school – give us the info. surely there is more? Kira Greene
I’ve also been following the breaking news on the school classifications which labels NB as a Focus school requiring intervention. From what the newspaper said today, it was a combination of low scores in proficiency AND wide achievement gaps between student groups that led to the low rating. According to RIDE’s website, NB scored 9 out of 30 points on proficiency, and 16.5 out of 30 on achievement gaps between subgroups. Includig other factors, the total score was 51.33 out of 100. (But it met 14 out of 14 targets from the previous system). Compare that to Woonsocket Middle school which received a Typical ranking with a score of 51 out of 100 and met only 11 out of 18 targets which begs the question of how they really assigned the rankings.
They can say that the rankings aren’t driven by the NECAP results, but they clearly are, as the main criteria is the % proficient results and the measurement of the results on the test between subgroups.
It is also worth remembering that the Providence School Department closed two large failing middle schools in the last two years, and those students ended up at other schools, including Bishop.
Thanks Karen. Good thoughts. It is surprising and curious to me that RIDE does not realize parents are paying attention and care. Data should come with detail as to how it was formed and how it is being interpreted. This labeling has consequences – intervention – and from what i understand, RIDE does not provide the funding. So where does the money come from?
All,
Nathan Bishop met 14/14 required targets on the previous reporting system, and increased our percentage of students proficient in English and Math by 11 and 12%, while decreasing the percentage of students in the lowest category by 9%. For the new reporting system, (based on the same data) – the achievement gap between different subgroups of our population, and their growth weighted heavily on our ranking. Although we made progress, it appears that it was not substantial enough to change our ranking in this new system. I will soon be meeting with all staff and the district to begin to develop and implement additional strategies to increase the academic achievement of all of our students and decrease the existing gap.
We look to involve parents in these efforts by participation in a more substantial School Improvement Team as well as clear and consistent communication from school as to the progress of future academic interventions. As I have told staff, this is an opportunity for us to pull together and not apart as we take action to meet the needs of all our students in our diverse school community
As always, I greatly appreciate the support of the community in making Nathan Bishop Middle School the best it can be.
Mike
Michael Lazzareschi (comment above) is the Principal of Nathan Bishop Middle School.