Plymouth school principals reviewed their schools’ test results during Tuesday’s school board meeting. Last month, the elementary school principals discussed their schools’ scores on last year’s ISTEP test. This week, Riverside Intermediate School Principal Jeni Hirschy and Lincoln Junior High School Principal Reid Gault had the chance to talk about their schools’ results.
At Riverside, students passed the test at a higher rate than the state average. According to Hirschy, the school’s biggest challenge is to close the achievement gap between special education students and everyone else, now that almost all special ed students are required to take the ISTEP. “We used to have three different levels of testing for special ed students,” she said. “We had the ISTAR, which was testing our low-functioning students, we had IMAST, which was a modified ISTEP, and then we had ISTEP. Starting last spring, IMAST went away, so the majority of our kids do take ISTEP, even though they may be reading at a lower grade level”
With more of these students now taking the ISTEP, the school’s ISTEP passing rate for special ed students has dropped to 21 percent, although that figure is still above the state average. To help deal with this issue, the school has hired additional staff members to assist with intervention efforts. Hirschy also said that the new Math textbooks formally adopted by the school board Tuesday should help all Riverside students be better prepared for the new testing standards.
One trend that continued from the elementary schools’ data was that each successive grade level generally had a lower passing rate than the previous one. While Riverside’s scores compared favorably with statewide averages, Lincoln Junior High School scored below the state in most categories.
Lincoln Principal Reid Gault says there’s a lot of work to be done, “That starts with our core instruction. When we have the scores that we have seen this year, that means that the instruction that all students receive every day in the classroom needs to be improved. So that is where our focus lies.” He also suggests upgrading the school’s intervention efforts to provide more individualized help, as well as extending class periods to one full hour.
Also during Tuesday’s meeting, High School Principal Jim Condon reviewed last year’s ACT and SAT scores. Plymouth students’ average ACT scores saw slight declines from the year before but were generally in line with state and national averages. One concern, though, was a 20-percent drop in the number of students taking the ACT. Condon said there’s no clear reason behind the decline, “You know, we talked about that because we really expected that to spike, since we became a test site, but we didn’t see it. That was something that stood out to us, and we couldn’t understand why, because we had incurred growth for the previous two or three years.”
Overall, Plymouth students fared worse on the SAT, with significant drops seen in average scores in all subjects. Plymouth’s scores also lagged behind those at the state and national levels.
Condon pointed out that since last year’s test was given, the SAT has been revised. Among the changes, the essay portion is now optional, and penalties are now given for answers left blank, making the test more like the ACT.
