Sean C. Morgan
While the Oregon Department of Education is preparing to release school report cards, spring elementary school test scores are encouraging to local school officials.
Supt. Don Schrader shared some results with the School Board recently, showing gains in reading over the previous three years.
In the third through sixth grades at Hawthorne School, the number of students meeting or exceeding the state standard in reading was at its highest in the past three years.
In the third grade, 65 percent of students met or exceeded the benchmark in 2012, decreasing to 54 percent in 2013 but increasing to 68 percent in the spring.
The fourth grade was at 73 percent in 2012 but dropped to 48 percent in 2013 and then increased to 76 percent this year. The fifth grade was at 62 percent in 2012, decreasing to 50 percent in 2013 and increasing to 73 percent in 2014. The sixth grade was at 48 percent in 2012, then increasing to 50 percent in 2013 and 74 percent in the spring.
In third- and fourth-grade math, the number meeting the standard increased from 2013, although scores were lower than in 2012, while they were at their highest in the past three years for the fifth and sixth grades.
Many elementary schools were running at better than 90 percent meeting or exceeding the standard at one point, Schrader said, and then the state moved the bar in 2013.
“You always want to kind of increase the rigor,” Schrader said, but it makes comparing test scores apples and oranges. The comparison between 2013 and 2014 is apples to apples.
At Oak Heights, math results were better in all grade levels but sixth, he said, although the improvement isn’t as great as Hawthorne’s.
“Hawthorne had one bad year,” Schrader said. It had a new principal, and the school started handling the logistics of testing differently.
He has had a chance to look at the draft school report cards, released annually in the fall to the public, he said.
“I’m really encouraged by what I saw with the elementary schools and the junior high school.”
He said the high school’s graduation rate may affect the school’s report card, as students take advantage of the Access College Today program, which allows them to stall graduation while taking classes at community college. The School District pays their tuition. The school also used the new Smarter Balance state assessment test in the spring.
Going forward, Schrader said he thinks returning to the trimester schedule will help the school improve.
The upcoming school report cards “are just one measure of how our schools are doing,” Schrader said. “Kids are learning, but if you’re just using one assessment one time a year, that doesn’t really give you the whole picture.”
Assessment scores are just a snapshot, he said, but the district continues to strive for 100 percent using the “three Rs,” rigor, relevance and relationships.
Students with special needs often have their own particular goals, so having 100 percent of students meeting or exceeding state assessments really isn’t possible. However, he said, it is possible for 100 percent to reach their specially designed instruction goals in a place where all students’ needs are met, they’re attending school, feeling safe and getting intervention if needed.
“We’re going to make it happen,” Schrader said.