James Madison Elementary School in Ogden on November 30, 2021.
James Madison Elementary School in Ogden on November 30, 2021.
Tim Vandenack, standard auditor
James Madison Elementary School in Ogden on November 30, 2021.
OGDEN – According to Julie Neilson, the school principal, the James Madison Elementary had stalled around this time last year.
The Utah State Board of Education put east-central Ogden School in “turnaround” status in February 2019, meaning that its students had performed poorly on state assessments, requiring dramatic action to reverse course. Specifically, James Madison’s results on standardized tests had ranked in the bottom 3% of Title 1 schools in Utah, a state designation for schools with mostly low-income students, for two consecutive years on standardized tests.
Efforts to reverse the trend, or at least establish a strategy to improve things, began in earnest in the 2019-2020 school year, supported by government education officials and others. Still, as of fall 2020, only 5% of students were deemed to be where they should get their grade in language arts, and only 10% had achieved “mastery” in math.
“So we knew we had to do something drastic,” said Neilson.
Fast forward and Neilson – who spoke about the effort at the panel meeting last Thursday before the Ogden School Board – said efforts to help the school have produced results. Currently, 75% of James Madison students have mastered the language arts and 76% of them have reached the threshold in math.
Tim Vandenack, standard auditor
James Madison Elementary School in Ogden on November 30, 2021.
“That’s huge,” she said.
Significantly, last August, the State Department of Education voted to appoint James Madison, based at 2563 Monroe Blvd. from the turnaround status. However, this does not mean that the effort is over. Neilson aims for 80 percent mastery of James Madison’s students in both subjects.
Nevertheless, it reports a clear change.
“Our students see success and are so excited to see that growth in themselves,” she said. “This desire to keep going and growing is just fantastic.”
About half of James Madison’s students, according to Neilson, are “multilingual learners,” which include families who speak Spanish or other languages at home, immigrants, immigrant children, and others. In fact, 71.8% of James Madison’s students are Hispanic, the second highest concentration among Ogden schools after the Odyssey Elementary, where 78% of children are Latinos.
At the same time, other statistics from the Utah State Board of Education for the 2021-2022 school year highlight the more difficult situation some James Madison students may face compared to others in Ogden. The school has the highest concentration of “economically disadvantaged” students among the primary schools in Ogden, at 78.5%. It also has the highest concentration of homeless students among any of the Ogden schools at 6.1%, which equates to 22 children.
Efforts to make things better at James Madison began with a change in staff.
A timeline the district provided to the State Board of Education for its efforts stated that all faculties had to reapply in April 2019 to stay with James Madison. Of the 13 applicants, only three were retained. The others had the opportunity to be transferred to other Ogden schools.
Aside from a change in staff, Neilson said, there has been an intense focus on analyzing the nature of the teaching and the results the teaching provided. The teachers set specific goals for what the children were supposed to learn, they checked carefully that the lessons were working, and then recorded the results.
“Teachers analyze every day, answer these questions, write them down on the documents, and readjust their lessons for the next day,” said Neilson.
James Madison has also received assistance from experts at the Utah Education Policy Center, an educational research center within the University of Utah’s College of Education.
“Just kudos to you for getting out of the turnaround and not stopping work,” said Luke Rasmussen, the Ogden Headmaster. The work, he continued, “really means a lot. You change life. “
Sondra Jolovich-Motes, executive director of equity and access for the Ogden School District, said James Madison will continue to receive support from district leaders and experts at the Utah Education Policy Center.
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