Walnut Creek Sees Big Test Score Gains, But Well Below County Average

Much anxiety has surrounded the destiny of Wake County’s newest high-poverty school, Walnut Creek Elementary. But it seems innovative programs and a booster shot of an additional $1 million lead to significant gains in student performance.

Preliminary test results show 62.9 percent of children passed the End of Grade tests for both reading and math. That’s a 7 percent improvement from last year, but it’s almost 20 percent below this year’s district average of 82.1 percent for elementary school students.

Walnut Creek only opened this year, but school system administrators were able to track the improvement by laboriously pulling each student’s test grades from the year before at his or her previous school.

The results are based on children who were enrolled at Walnut Creek in December of this year, so they are not exact. In fact, the number of economically disadvantaged children, who historically do not perform well on tests, rose by more than 4 percent between December and May.

“We worked extremely hard,” said principal Corey Moore. “I wasn’t necessarily shocked because I monitor the progress of students and faculty. I knew we were moving in the right direction.”

“Looking at the demographics and the extra resources, I’m pleased to see the results,” said school board member Keith Sutton, who represents Walnut Creek’s district.

The school started the year with 67 percent of children receiving free-and-reduced lunch. That number has increased significantly during the school year and administrators predict that next year the school will have 82 percent F&R students.

Sutton said he believes the board will seek to change those demographics over time, but he doesn’t believe it will happen right away.

“It’s definitely not the ideal environment for maximum learning,” Sutton said.

School board member John Tedesco said he’s also very pleased with the gains at Walnut Creek, but he is suspicious of trying to change the demographics there.

“I don’t think it’s the most effective solution to tell those kids they have to leave that school,” Tedesco said. “We’ve had that in the past and it didn’t produce nearly the amount of gains that it is now.”

The school system’s literature acknowledges that “high poverty schools… have difficulty recruiting and retaining teachers” and that such schools “require more resources over time.” The Record reported recently that the number of such schools was increasing under the controlled-choice plan.

Teacher Demographics
The Record requested teacher demographic information on Walnut Creek back in December of 2011. This request was filled simultaneously, last Thursday, with our request for the preliminary test scores.

The demographic information shows that Walnut Creek has a significantly higher portion of young teachers than most elementary schools in Wake County.

Veteran teachers often have a higher success rate teaching economically disadvantaged students than new teachers, but the phenomenon didn’t seem to affect Walnut Creek.

“With the necessary amount of support, young teachers can be just as effective as veteran teachers,” Moore said. “I have some beginning teachers … that got phenomenal growth out of students. It’s not years teaching, but commitment to seeing students achieve.”

Another noticeable statistic in Walnut Creek’s makeup involves Hispanic and Latino students and teachers.

Hispanic students make up 26 percent of Walnut Creek’s student body, but the school is home to just one Hispanic teacher.

Also at Walnut Creek, white teachers make up 44 percent of the faculty demographic, while white children make up just 3 percent student population.

Official test results will be released Thursday.

Follow Will Huntsberry on twitter @willhuntsberry or #wakeschoolboard