The Plymouth School Board reviewed student performance on the school year 2014/15 ISTEP test, and a few areas for improvement were spotted.
Tuesday’s presentation offered a chance for school board members to view Plymouth’s ISTEP passing rate alongside the Indiana statewide averages. The presentation was from a district perspective, principals from the individual schools in Plymouth will present their school’s data in the spring.
Director of Quality Programs Brooke Busse says due to new state career-ready standards, the data is limited in its scope.
“Because it was a new test over new standards, what you’re going to see here…is a comparison of our district average next to Indiana’s average,” says Busse.
Plymouth students outperformed the state in the English-Language Arts portion of the ISTEP test with 70-percent of students passing, compared to 67-percent for the state. Math scores were below the state average by just more than 1-percent.
The scores were focused to classes in third through eighth grade. Apart from its general student population, Plymouth also had data to review for some of its subgroup student populations, including: special education, English learners, and free-and-reduced lunch.
Special education and free-and-reduced lunch performed quite well compared to the state as a whole. Still, Busse says there are areas that are planned to be addressed in the future.
“We have hired additional Title I teachers,” says Busse. “One at each elementary and one at Riverside. Also knowing how important it is to build a child’s foundation early, we added two additional preschool programs at Jefferson. The additional Title I teachers and the preschool programs were funded through federal grants.”
Busse says the grant funds were utilized both to combat understaffing in the areas needing attention, but also to aid in performance-related items.
Principals and their leadership teams at individual schools are currently busy developing action plans to improve test results. Implementation of those plans to come to the school board for review at some point in March.
