Sean C. Morgan
More Sweet Home students met or exceeded testing standards in the 2017-18 school year than the previous school year, according to results from state testing data released last week.
Sweet Home’s biggest gains overall were in language arts, with 45.5 percent meeting the standard, a 4.9-percent gain over the previous year. In science, 61.9 percent met the standard, an increase of 2.5 percent over the previous school year. The district saw a .4-percent decrease in the number of students meeting the standard in math, with 32 percent meeting the standard district-wide.
The biggest gains were at Holley Elementary, which posted the second lowest number of students meeting the standard in math and language arts in 2016-17, with 48.9 percent of students meeting the standard in language arts, a gain of 22 percent, in 2017-18; 28.7 percent meeting the standard in math, a gain of 2 percent; and 76.9 percent meeting the standard in science, a gain of 23.1 percent, the largest gain of any school in any area.
Holley was the only Sweet Home school to show improvement in all three subject areas.
Foster Elementary School, which posted the highest achievement among regular elementary schools in 2016-17, continued to improve in the number of its students meeting benchmarks in language arts and math. In language arts, 49.4 percent met standards, a gain of 12.7 percent. In math, 44.2 percent met the standard – an increase of 9.8 percent, the largest gain in math districtwide. In science, Foster saw a decline of 5.7 percent, with 56.8 percent meeting the standard.
The district tracks 44 groups of students, which includes each grade at each school, including third through sixth grade at elementary schools, both grades at the junior high and the 11th graders at the high school in math and language arts and fifth-, eighth- and 11th- graders in science.
Last year, the district had two groups showing improvement or were higher than statewide statistics. This year, 26 of those groups improved or were above state averages. Holley School improved in eight ouf nine areas, all but its sixth-grade math. Foster improved in six out of its nine groups. Hawthorne improved in five out of nine, and Oak Heights improved in four out of nine areas. The junior high improved in three out of five.
The high school saw declines in all three areas, with 68 percent meeting the standard in language arts, a .06-percent decline. In math, 31.3 met the standard, a decrease of 2.3 percent.
Including Sweet Home Charter Schools, all schools in the district improved in language arts except the high school. Just three improved in math, including Foster, the Charter School and Holley. Holley, Hawthorne and the junior high improved in science, with Hawthorne improving by 13.9 points and 67.4 percent meeting the standard.
The district outpaced the state in numerous areas. In grade three, students statewide improved by 1 percent in language arts, while Sweet Home improved by 7 percent. In grade four, the district improved by 13 percent while the state improved by just 2 percent. In grade six, the state decreased a percentage point while Sweet Home increased by 4 percent. The state remained even at the eighth grade, while Sweet Home improved 11 percent.
In math, the state declined 1 percent while Sweet Home improved by 6 percent.
Across the board, 61.6 percent of Sweet Home students met the science standard. compared to 60 percent statewide. In grade eight, the state stayed even while Sweet Home improved by 10 percent.
Across the district, figures show three gains in Grade Three language arts at Oak Heights, from 11 percent to 33 percent; Grade Four language arts, from 20 percent to 44 percent at Hawthorne; and from 34 percent to 50 percent in Grade Six language arts at Hawthorne.
The three-year trend at Foster in Grade Three math increased from 30 percent to 67 percent; 22 to 43 percent in Grade Four math at Holley; and 36 percent to 40 percent in Grade Six math at Hawthorne. Grade Eight math went from 34 to 38 percent over three years.
As third-graders, last year’s fifth grade students improved from 19 percent to 38 percent in language arts at Hawthorne and 11 percent to 41 percent at Oak Heights. In language arts, 30 percent of this year’s sixth-graders met the standard three years ago while 50 percent met the standard last year.