Ankeny School Officials Herald Reading and Math Gains on Standardized Test
School officials in Ankeny dig into Ankeny's performance on the Iowa Assessments
Eleventh graders in Ankeny performed especially well on the reading and math portions of the Iowa Assessments this year, said Ankeny school officials.
They said this year's test, which was given to students in the third through eleventh grades, was revamped and has increased in difficulty.
“We’re rockin’ it out of the ball park so we’re really excited about that,” said Susie Meade, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, of the eleventh-grade scores. “It’s the highest levels of proficiency that we’ve seen to date.”
Overall, students who are in special education programs and those who meet certain socioeconomic indicators have made gains, but still lag behind other students in reading and math. Extra help for those students will be emphasized, Meade said.
School officials said students are making gains but it will still be difficult to reach the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Law, which they said requires 100 percent of students be labeled as proficient by the year 2013-2014.
Here are some of the cohort scores for Ankeny eleventh graders, which compared the same group of students over time:
- 94.6 percent of eleventh graders in the cohort group wereproficient in reading
- 92.2 percent of eleventh graders in the cohort group wereproficient in math.
School officials presented the achievement data to Ankeny School Board members this week and cited the use of instructional coaches for teachers as one of the strategies used to help students improve.
Comparative data for other school districts is not yet available, school officials said.
Jim C.
3:41 pm on Tuesday, May 8, 2012
So I guess the old board should be congratulated and the new members who never gave credit and complained during the election season about academic progress should realize they were dead wrong!
I hope the new board stops "shelving" all of the plans and starts listening again to their curriculum team. Progress was being made and that could be erased because the new board is "slowing" everything down.
Hefty X
1:24 pm on Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Pretty strong statement Jim C. but this is a blog so what should anyone expect for it is easy to type... press enter... and stay in the shadows. The new Iowa Assessment tests that we as a district have gone to can not be compared to as apples to apples the the old ITBS and ITED they are two different tests with different norms to place on the student's scores. I applaud the students and there increased scores! However to somehow give credit to the "old board" and not to the "new board" is archaic thinking. It is a combined effort of the students, staff and administration. I do feel that these test scores are higher across the board because it it a different measurement. I hope I'm wrong but with this districts high growth cycle, not all the students that come to Ankeny are the cream of the crop.
Sue
10:08 am on Wednesday, May 16, 2012
The problem is the new board has lost almost the entire curriculum and instruction department and put on hold many of the acadmic plans that were in motion in order to "slow down". This will hurt us in a couple years. Our school district was WAY behind in its curriculum reviews and hopefully the new board sees that the prior plan was working just like the results indicated.
Jack F
9:12 pm on Wednesday, May 16, 2012
How much of my money are they saving my getting rid of these positions??? We were way behind in curriculum and technology when my kids were there. They are fine. Why wast the money?