Mount Vernon News

MOUNT VERNON — How students perform on mandated standardized tests is a major component of the overall school building and school district report cards. The Ohio Graduation Tests are part of that component, as are the Ohio Achievement Tests given to pupils in grades three through eight.

Students in grades three through eight are tested in reading and mathematics; fourth- and seventh-graders also took a writing test. Science and social studies assessments were also administered to students in grades five and eight.

Depending on how they fared on the exams, the students are placed in one of five performance levels: Limited, basic, proficient, accelerated or advanced. The accompanying chart shows how local students did on the May 2008 round of achievement tests, compared with the percentage of students statewide who scored at or above the proficient level. The chart does not necessarily reflect passing or failing scores in each subject area, and does not include the results of the OATs given earlier in the 2007-08 school year.

Centerburg middle school students did well on the May tests.

“This success,” said principal Mike Hebenthal, “is due to our students and teachers working hard. We met all but two indicators and missed one of those by three points. We still will continue to work as [No Child Left Behind] continues to raise the bar every year. We will continue to narrow our curriculum to the standards and try to find ways to reach each student’s needs. We’re still struggling with meeting [Adequate Yearly Progress], as are 80 percent of the schools in the nation, but we’ll continue to adjust and move our resources to the students who are not reaching the standards.”

“Our teachers, students and families have worked hard to achieve at impressive levels on the OAT,” Dan Freund, Clear Fork superintendent, said, after reviewing test data. Like other administrators, he is already looking ahead to the next round of testing.

“This year’s focus,” he said, “will be to improve in fifth-grade math and science and eighth-grade social studies. In math, we plan accelerated math activities for all of our fifth-graders districtwide. We will also take a close look at our middle school social studies curriculum to ensure that our students have opportunities to achieve well on the eighth-grade test.”

Danville Elementary Principal Lynn Shoemaker said she is proud of her pupils’ accomplishments. She is especially proud, she said, of the third-grade reading and math scores, and said a concerted team effort helps the students to succeed. One key piece is student attendance at school.

“We worked hard as a staff to keep attendance high,” Shoemaker said. “If they are not here, they cannot learn. Students know we will do home visits if they are not here.”

As did many other school staffs. Danville teachers worked over the summer to review test data and plan strategies for the new school year.

“We provide notebooks with every released question and item analysis of the test,” Shoemaker said. “We meet as grade levels to see where we did well and what needs to happen to improve. We then have this year’s student class lists and can analyze by student so each teacher in grades three through six knows by day one where the class has weakness and where the strengths are.”

Danville joins other districts in working to align the school curriculum with the state assessments and to modify and develop instructional techniques. Shoemaker said that in addition to meeting in grade level groups, teachers are beginning to meet vertically. That means, for instance, that second-grade instructors meet with third-grade teachers to close any gaps in the curriculum form one grade level to the next. Danville has implemented a new learning system called Davis Learning Strategies, in an effort to assist the kindergarten through third-graders to better prepare to learn.

“The teachers’ dedication and determination to raise student achievement is the biggest factor to our success,” said East Knox elementary principal Steve Rose. “I am very proud of the students and staff for all their hard work in raising our achievement test scores. It was a pleasant surprise to get an excellent rating from Ohio Department of Education for making substantial improvements over the past two years.”

Rose said some of the other factors that led to that achievement are teachers working to make sure every student masters the content standards; teachers working to align their curriculum to the state standards, district support for the after-school tutoring program and the dedication to provide small group tutoring to struggling students.

This is the first time Fredericktown Intermediate School has received the designation of effective, and principal Emily Funston said she finds the test scores to be exciting, but there are no real secrets to achieving those results.

“The teachers work hard at teaching the standards,” she explained. “We do have some special things — room amplification devices, Accelerated Reader, Fast ForWord and the Wilson Reading program. The district has set annual goals, and Professional Learning Communities have met regularly to discuss common assessments and planning. There has been a great deal of consistency among the staff and administration across the district during the last few years, and that helps, too, when we don’t constantly change the direction of our goals and vision.”

To help with improving reading skills, Fredericktown has received OhioReads and Literacy grants from the Ohio Department of Education for the last seven or eight years. Funston said those additional funds have helped.

“Also,” she said, “our librarians are certified professionals, and research tells us that there is a direct relationship between the educational level of school librarians and school achievement.”

Mark Lambka, principal at Highland Central Elementary said, “I’m very pleased with our improvements. Our third-grade scores in reading and math were 96 percent, so my hat is off to our K-3 staff for the excellent work they have provided over the past five years in those areas.

“Our fourth and fifth grades have worked equally as hard,” Lambka said. “We moved to proficient in science and social studies, but we need to improve our math scores. Our goal is to become an Excellent building and we are moving in the right direction.”

Mount Vernon elementary students performed well on the OATs, too. Dan Emmett Elementary Principal Margy Arck said all the district’s staff and students are striving for success and the Dan Emmett family is “very happy with our scores continuing to increase yearly.”

Parents will receive a Family Report, an individualized test report for each of their school-age children. The report describes the expected performance levels for each test and details the child’s strengths and weakened in each subject area. A Family Report Interpretive Guide, accessed through the Ohio Department of Education Web site, is available to help parents and families understand their students results on the OAT.