July 23, 2014 at 2:10 p.m.
Marks mixed for schools (06/08/07)
By By JENNIFER TARTER-
Two Jay County elementary schools are on top of a five-step ranking system from the Indiana Department of Education.
Bloomfield and Pennville Elementary schools were ranked as exemplary - the best in the state's five-category system.
General Shanks Elementary in Jay County was also ranked as above average, while the remaining seven schools in the Jay School Corporation were below average in the latest rankings released Wednesday.
Bloomfield maintained this ranking from last year while Pennville jumped from academic watch to the top of the chart. General Shanks Elementary was listed in the commendable category, the same ranking it was placed in last year.
In the South Adams School Corporation, the ranking of all three schools remained the same.
To measure progress, P.L. 221 places Indiana school corporations and schools into one of five categories based upon improvement and performance data from the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress-Plus (ISTEP-plus) test, according to information from the Indiana Department of Education.
The five progress rankings from the top include exemplary, commendable, academic progress, academic watch and academic probation.
The remaining seven county schools - Jay County High School, East Jay Middle School, West Jay Middle School, East Elementary, Judge Haynes Elementary, Redkey Elementary and Westlawn Elementary - were all ranked as academic watch. All of these schools except Redkey finished here last year. Redkey fell from the commendable category to the academic watch this year.
"We can always improve. That has to be our central focus. Our goal is to get to 100 percent," Jay Schools superintendent Tim Long said this morning. "Our board has taken on initiatives already with full-day kindergarten to start students in school earlier, Summer school in middle school will help them in high school and standardizing curriculum."
Long added that these changes will happen in the classroom as well as at home with parents will need to "hold their children accountable for their own education."
"A test score isn't about a school, but what it breaks down to is the individual student that takes the test," Long said.
South Adams Elementary and South Adams High School both were ranked as academic watch while South Adams Middle School was listed as academic progress.
"Students who didn't or almost didn't pass (ISTEP-plus) are given intense interventions through Title I and tutoring after school as well as focused learning on the parts they didn't pass," South Adams Elementary principal Jeff Rich said this morning.
He also added that elementary scores are based on third graders which move to the middle school in the fourth grade and historically the building change causes a decrease in test scores, Rich said. A similar trend is seen in seventh graders when they move to the high school.
"Historically we have been above state average (on ISTEP-plus)," Rich said. "We do look at that student data and we are obviously trying to look at improvements."
"We are constantly building in remediation. We look at what works and what doesn't work. We are looking at data to get what changes need to be made (for the 2007-08 school year), South Adams superintendent Cathy Egolf said this morning.
See Marks page 2
Continued from page 1
Although there are none in Jay County or South Adams, schools ranked as academic probation must request that the State Board appoint an outside team to manage the school and assist in developing a new school improvement plan. The corporation's school board must notify the public of the school's status, hold a public hearing and have the school improvement committee revise the improvement plan.
According to the public law, placement of school is based on the percentage of all students who pass the state's English and math portions of the ISTEP-plus test, improvements in passing percentage of students enrolled for 70 percent of the school year, and improvement based on a three-year rolling average which includes scores from the fall of 2006, 2005 and 2004.
The state classifications are based on the same test scores used to measure progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Indiana's ranking system also measures improvement, giving poor-performing schools a chance to reach higher categories if they show certain increases in the percentage of students who pass statewide exams.
Passed by the legislature in 1999, prior to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the law aimed to establish major educational reform and accountability statewide.
According to numbers released Wednesday, the performance percentage of both school corporations was just above 75 percent, with Jay County's average at 75.9 percent with a 1.8 percent decrease and South Adams average at 75.6 percent with a .8 percentage point decrease from last year's ranking.
The corporation and school's performance is figured by adding the number of students passing the math portion of the ISTEP-plus and the number of students passing the English part of the ISTEP-plus and dividing that figure by the total number of test taken.
Performance percentage and percentage of change for Jay Schools:
•JCHS - 71.3 percent, .2 percent increase
•EJMS - 75.3 percent, .3 percent decrease
•WJMS - 73 percent, 1.4 percent decrease
•Judge Haynes - 71.6 percent, 2.5 percent decrease
•East Elementary - 77.1 percent, 1.6 percent decrease
•Bloomfield Elementary - 83.5 percent, 1.2 percent increase
•Pennville Elementary - 81.5 percent, 1 percent increase.
•Westlawn Elementary - 74.4 percent, 5.7 percent decrease
•Redkey Elementary - 78.3 percent, 2.6 percent decrease
•General Shanks Elementary - 82 percent, .1 percent increase
Performance percentage and percentage of change for South Adams schools:
•SAMS - 80 percent, .3 percent decrease
•SAHS - 71.9 percent, .1 percent decrease
•South Adams Elementary - 74.5 percent, 6 percent decrease
The new classifications released Wednesday show that 11 percent of schools were ranked higher in 2006 than 2005, while 57 percent stayed in the same category and 32 percent saw a lower ranking, according to a story from the Associated Press.
Thirty-seven percent of school corporations (108) and 48 percent of schools (991) earned the top two P.L. 221 categories while 48 percent of corporations (140) and 37 percent of schools (776) placed in the bottom two categories, according to the state department of education.[[In-content Ad]]
Bloomfield and Pennville Elementary schools were ranked as exemplary - the best in the state's five-category system.
General Shanks Elementary in Jay County was also ranked as above average, while the remaining seven schools in the Jay School Corporation were below average in the latest rankings released Wednesday.
Bloomfield maintained this ranking from last year while Pennville jumped from academic watch to the top of the chart. General Shanks Elementary was listed in the commendable category, the same ranking it was placed in last year.
In the South Adams School Corporation, the ranking of all three schools remained the same.
To measure progress, P.L. 221 places Indiana school corporations and schools into one of five categories based upon improvement and performance data from the Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress-Plus (ISTEP-plus) test, according to information from the Indiana Department of Education.
The five progress rankings from the top include exemplary, commendable, academic progress, academic watch and academic probation.
The remaining seven county schools - Jay County High School, East Jay Middle School, West Jay Middle School, East Elementary, Judge Haynes Elementary, Redkey Elementary and Westlawn Elementary - were all ranked as academic watch. All of these schools except Redkey finished here last year. Redkey fell from the commendable category to the academic watch this year.
"We can always improve. That has to be our central focus. Our goal is to get to 100 percent," Jay Schools superintendent Tim Long said this morning. "Our board has taken on initiatives already with full-day kindergarten to start students in school earlier, Summer school in middle school will help them in high school and standardizing curriculum."
Long added that these changes will happen in the classroom as well as at home with parents will need to "hold their children accountable for their own education."
"A test score isn't about a school, but what it breaks down to is the individual student that takes the test," Long said.
South Adams Elementary and South Adams High School both were ranked as academic watch while South Adams Middle School was listed as academic progress.
"Students who didn't or almost didn't pass (ISTEP-plus) are given intense interventions through Title I and tutoring after school as well as focused learning on the parts they didn't pass," South Adams Elementary principal Jeff Rich said this morning.
He also added that elementary scores are based on third graders which move to the middle school in the fourth grade and historically the building change causes a decrease in test scores, Rich said. A similar trend is seen in seventh graders when they move to the high school.
"Historically we have been above state average (on ISTEP-plus)," Rich said. "We do look at that student data and we are obviously trying to look at improvements."
"We are constantly building in remediation. We look at what works and what doesn't work. We are looking at data to get what changes need to be made (for the 2007-08 school year), South Adams superintendent Cathy Egolf said this morning.
See Marks page 2
Continued from page 1
Although there are none in Jay County or South Adams, schools ranked as academic probation must request that the State Board appoint an outside team to manage the school and assist in developing a new school improvement plan. The corporation's school board must notify the public of the school's status, hold a public hearing and have the school improvement committee revise the improvement plan.
According to the public law, placement of school is based on the percentage of all students who pass the state's English and math portions of the ISTEP-plus test, improvements in passing percentage of students enrolled for 70 percent of the school year, and improvement based on a three-year rolling average which includes scores from the fall of 2006, 2005 and 2004.
The state classifications are based on the same test scores used to measure progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Indiana's ranking system also measures improvement, giving poor-performing schools a chance to reach higher categories if they show certain increases in the percentage of students who pass statewide exams.
Passed by the legislature in 1999, prior to the federal No Child Left Behind Act, the law aimed to establish major educational reform and accountability statewide.
According to numbers released Wednesday, the performance percentage of both school corporations was just above 75 percent, with Jay County's average at 75.9 percent with a 1.8 percent decrease and South Adams average at 75.6 percent with a .8 percentage point decrease from last year's ranking.
The corporation and school's performance is figured by adding the number of students passing the math portion of the ISTEP-plus and the number of students passing the English part of the ISTEP-plus and dividing that figure by the total number of test taken.
Performance percentage and percentage of change for Jay Schools:
•JCHS - 71.3 percent, .2 percent increase
•EJMS - 75.3 percent, .3 percent decrease
•WJMS - 73 percent, 1.4 percent decrease
•Judge Haynes - 71.6 percent, 2.5 percent decrease
•East Elementary - 77.1 percent, 1.6 percent decrease
•Bloomfield Elementary - 83.5 percent, 1.2 percent increase
•Pennville Elementary - 81.5 percent, 1 percent increase.
•Westlawn Elementary - 74.4 percent, 5.7 percent decrease
•Redkey Elementary - 78.3 percent, 2.6 percent decrease
•General Shanks Elementary - 82 percent, .1 percent increase
Performance percentage and percentage of change for South Adams schools:
•SAMS - 80 percent, .3 percent decrease
•SAHS - 71.9 percent, .1 percent decrease
•South Adams Elementary - 74.5 percent, 6 percent decrease
The new classifications released Wednesday show that 11 percent of schools were ranked higher in 2006 than 2005, while 57 percent stayed in the same category and 32 percent saw a lower ranking, according to a story from the Associated Press.
Thirty-seven percent of school corporations (108) and 48 percent of schools (991) earned the top two P.L. 221 categories while 48 percent of corporations (140) and 37 percent of schools (776) placed in the bottom two categories, according to the state department of education.[[In-content Ad]]
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