Sean C. Morgan
Of The New Era
School District 55 state assessment improved substantially in writing, but the number of students meeting math standards declined slightly across the board last school year, according to state testing results the district has received.
In reading, the number went up slightly at the elementary and high school levels while declining slightly at the junior high level.
The standards changed from the 2005-06 school year to the 2006-07 school year, Curriculum Director Jan Sharp said. She recalculated 2005-06 information according to the new standards in a report to the School Board this month.
In reading, 82 percent of elementary students met or exceeded the standard in 2006-07, up from 78 percent in 2005-06. In the Junior High, 75 percent met or exceeded the standard, down from 79 percent. In the High School, 66 percent met or exceeded the standard, up from 53 percent.
In math, 64 percent of elementary students met or exceeded the standard, down from 72 percent. At the Junior High, 82 percent met or exceeded the standard, down from 85 percent, and at the high school, the number dropped from 49 percent to 46 percent.
Writing scores were up substantially everywhere except at the Junior High and at Crawfordsville, which has a small sample of students, causing scores to vary more widely year to year, Sharp said.
At Crawfordsville, the number of students meeting or exceeding the standard declined from 50 percent to 27.3 percent. At Foster the number increased from 17.1 percent to 43.9 percent. Hawthorne increased from 23 percent to 43.9 percent. Holley increased from 22.2 percent to 40 percent. Oak Heights increased from 47.5 percent to 53.6 percent. The Junior High decreased from 50.3 percent to 48.5 percent. The High School increased from 39.7 percent to 54.9 percent.
Sweet Home Charter School had 60 percent of its students meeting or exceeding the standard in math and reading and 20 percent in writing. Last school year was the school’s first year in operation.
Attendance was better across the district. Elementary and junior high attendance increased from 94 percent to 95 percent. High school attendance increased from about 89.5 percent to nearly 91 percent.
These numbers will be part of the state’s report card on schools and school districts due out next month, Sharp said. That information will allow the district to compare its results to the rest of the state’s schools. It also is used to check for annual yearly progress under the No Child Left Behind Act.
Statewide data are not available yet, she said, so the district cannot be compared to the state yet.
One of the School Board’s goals is to do at least as well as the state on assessment testing, Sharp said.
District officials are still worried about writing despite the gains last year, Sharp said, because it’s still the lowest area for the district.
“It’s looking like we’ll have a lot of schools with goals around math,” Sharp said. “Even though our reading scores are pretty strong, we’re still going to keep working that.”
Last year, the district did some staff development and planning around writing, Sharp said. Three schools are involved in a study on different teaching techniques. Foster is receiving treatment in the study while Hawthorne and Oak Heights are control schools.
The district also has emphasized reading, with 90 minutes a day spent in that area, she said. Staff is getting more comfortable with the program introduced last year.
As far as math goes, the district doesn’t have complete data on the scores yet and cannot analyze yet where students may have struggled, in computation or algebra, for example, Sharp said.
“I’m feeling good,” she said. “We still have work to do, but we’re making progress. We have good staff doing good things out there.”