Test scores from the Oklahoma Core Curriculum Test and End of Instruction from the 2011-12 school year were on display Monday evening at the Guthrie Public Schools board meeting.
Carmen Walters, Executive Director of Federal Programs and Elementary Education, shared with the board each subject score at each of the four locations that conducted the tests: Fogarty, Guthrie Upper Elementary School, Junior High and High School.
Walters explained a 70 percent or higher score reflected a proficiency score according to the State, but that the school district aims for a higher standard.
At Fogarty (third grade), the site saw increases in reading and math, but were still below the 70 percent plateau with scores of 62 and 66 percent, respectively.
Fourth grade (GUES) students saw two percent decreases in reading and math. The reading score came in at 59 percent while math registered a 72 percent.
Fifth grade (GUES) students increased in three of the five subjects. However, three of those subjects still scored under par. Despite a two percent increase, reading scored a 67 percent. Social Studies improved five percent to 63 percent while writing decreased nine percent to 69 percent. Science proved to be a strong subject with an 84 percent rating. Math also improved – up five percent to 75 percent overall.
Sixth grade (GUES) students skyrocketed their reading skills by 16 percent to finish with an 80% overall score. Math increased by four percent for a final score of 68 percent.
At the junior high level (7th and 8th grade), six of the eight scores saw slight decreases with the biggest drop coming in at 11 percent in 8th grade science, but still remained strong in the subject with an 80 percent overall score. In fact, five of the nine scores were above the 70 percent plateau. 7th grade Geography scored a 79 percent in its first year of testing.
The two subjects were below par in 7th grade reading (64%) and 7th grade math (67%). The highest scores was a 94 percent in 8th grade writing and 98 percent in Algebra I.
Guthrie Superintendent Mike Simpson
All seven subjects at the high school (Algebra I, Algebra II, English II, English III, Geometry, U.S. History and Biology) were above 70 percent with the lowest score coming in at 74 percent (Algebra II).
Four of the subjects scored at least an 82 percent or higher (Algebra I, English II, English III, Geometry).
“I think we identified some areas where we need improvement,” Guthrie Superintendent Dr. Mike Simpson said. “We know specific areas with specific grades that we need to work on and that information is helpful and powerful to target the areas that you need to improve in the district by site and grade.”
Simpson explained some items are easier to identify and some are more challenging when it comes to test scores.
“We try to identify the greatest needs of our students, but sometimes some of those students have moved on to another building, which is a challenge, but we’ve tried to put all this together into one piece so that we can be unified in this and bring our efforts together.”
Following the announcement of the scores, Walters shared strengths and focus areas for each grade, along with site plans of action for each school site as well as areas for the district to focus on.
“Our staff has done a great job of trying to align that so that we can improve and focus on the things that we need to improve by the difference buildings,” Simpson concluded with.
What is ‘Algerba’? Is that like Algebra? Let’s get those reading scores up! Lol
This is why we homeschool.