By Holly Fesperman LeeSalisbury Post
State test scores are in for the Rowan-Salisbury School System and the results are mixed.
Alesia Burnette, director of school improvement, summed up the test reports at Thursday night’s meeting saying, “There’s good news in there … as well as work to do.”
Test scores are broken down into several categories including writing, reading and math with additional course specific testing for high school students.
Writing results were released earlier this month and showed Rowan-Salisbury students performing below state averages.
Students take the state writing test in the fourth, seventh and 10th grades. A breakdown by school and grade level was available Thursday.
Fourth graders at Morgan claimed the top score among elementary school students, with 62.8 percent of students scoring a level 3 or 4 on the test.
A score of level 3 or 4 is required for a student to be considered proficient.
Hanford Dole Elementary fourth graders had the lowest score in the district with only 19.4 percent of students earing a proficient score.
The second lowest scores went to Landis Elementary, although they bested Hanford Dole by several points with 32 percent of students proficient.
The first comment on writing scores came from vice-chairwomen Karen South Carpenter.
“When I look at the grade four by school, you know I can’t help but pick on a school when I see a 19.4 percent at Hanford Dole,” she said.
“Tell me why I shouldn’t be worried about that?” Carpenter asked Burnette.
“It’s a great concern,” Burnette said.
Burnette said she hoped getting student papers back and meeting with principals, teachers and literacy coaches would help shed some light on the problem and uncover what students are missing.
One problem fourth graders are experiencing statewide is not enough elaboration. They only provide lists, according to Burnette.
Overall writing scores fall below state average, and Superintendent Dr. Judy Grissom talked about problems at the high school level.
“The problem at the high school level is that the writing test is not connected to any course,” she said.
She explained that the test is administered in March and students who take English the first semester are out of practice by the time the test comes around. If the student has the course the second semester they are only halfway through their studies at test time.
Because the writing test doesn’t fall in line with other end of course testing “it can’t just be the responsibility of the English teacher,” she said.
“It’s still not where we would like to be,” Grissom said.
She told board members central office staff was working on a school wide writing plan that will be implemented this coming school year.
Reading, math
Results on state end of grade testing for elementary and high school carried some increases and remained steady in some instances.
District wide reading scores for elementary school students in grades three through five held steady with last year’s scores.
Last year, 83.8 percent of elementary students scored proficient. That number was almost identical this year with 83.7 percent.
Middle school students in grades 6-8 showed slight increases on reading scores this year, with 84.4 percent of students scoring a level 3 or 4 ó up from 82.8 percent last year.
Both elementary and middle school students showed increases on the state end of grade math test this year.
Elementary scores increased to 58.3 percent from 55.6 percent last year. District wide 56.1 percent of middle school students earned proficient scores. Last year that number was only 51 percent.
High schools
HIgh school scores across the Rowan-Salisbury School System were down from last year in English I, algebra I, algebra II and geometry. School officials attribute the lagging scores to recently revamped end of course tests.
On the other hand, scores increased on biology, civics and U.S. History tests.
Systemwide, 71.4 percent of students enrolled in English I earned proficient scores. Last year, 83.6 percent of students scored proficient.
Grissom cautioned that scores from last year are not comparable to this year because the tests administered are totally different.
Scores in algebra I plummeted as well, down from 84.2 percent last year to 59.6 percent this year.
In algebra II, 76.1 percent of students earned proficient scores. Last year, before the revamped test, 89.7 percent of students scored proficient.
Results were similar with the geometry end of course test. This year 68.7 percent of students scored on a proficient level, compared with 76.7 percent last year.
Numbers were up several points in biology this year, with 64 percent of students scoring proficient. Last year only 56.3 percent of students fared as well.
Scores also increased in civics to 67.1 percent, up from last year’s 56.7 percent.
Students made large gains in U.S. history as well with 61 percent of students earing proficient scores. That’s compared to only 52.4 percent last year.
Burnette pointed out that in most cases the system saw an increase in high school scores from the fall to the spring semester.
“It’s a very significant increase … and I really think a lot of that was the pacing guides and really focusing on the standard course of study,” she said.
Central office staff developed improved pacing guides to help teachers keep students on track with the standard course of study.
“I think we’ve seen a positive effect of following that pacing guide,” Burnette said.
Grissom weighed in on the results saying, “what’s frustrating for me … what happens is that target moves all the time. That just makes it so difficult.”
She explained that once student scores start improving on state tests, officials decide to re-do the tests, making them more rigorous. The result is that schools have to start all over again.
“It’s just hard when it changes continually. We’re facing that next year in reading,” she said.
Contact Holly Lee at 704-797-7683 or hlee@salisburypost.com.