Student achievement climbs
John Heim - Emporia superintendent of schools
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Parents like to know their children are doing well in school. That is one reason that parent-teacher conferences are so important, and in our district, so well attended.
More importantly, parents want to know their children are attending good schools and have good teachers. The achievement results we are reporting this fall should give parents the assurances that their children are in good hands in Emporia.
In October, the Kansas State Board of Education released the 2009 Standard of Excellence Awards. These awards are the final piece of achievement data based on the Kansas Assessments. Last week, our Board of Education presented 21 Standard of Excellence Awards to six schools.
It is an honor for a school to achieve the Standard of Excellence and the award recognizes the hard work of the students, parents, teachers and administrators at those schools. To be considered for the Standard of Excellence, a school must first make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) in the “all-students” group for that subject. Then the school must meet the minimum and maximum targets for the percentage of students scoring at the highest (exemplary) and lowest (academic warning) levels on the assessment.
Emporia schools that received 2009 Standard of Excellence Awards are:
F Timmerman School — 3rd grade reading; 4th grade reading; building-level reading; 3rd grade math; 4th grade math; building-level math; and building-level science
F Village School — 4th grade math
F Turning Point Learning Center — 6th grade reading; 8th grade reading; building-level reading; 4th grade science; 5th grade writing; 8th grade writing; and building-level writing
F Emporia High School — building-level math
F Emporia Middle School — 7th grade reading; 8th grade reading; and building-level reading
F Walnut School — 4th grade math; and building-level math
The student achievement story in Emporia is a good one, and the Standard of Excellence Awards are just one chapter. In July, the first wave of 2009 achievement data showed another year of improvement in reading and math for all students and all of our student subgroups. Student proficiency is at an all-time high of 81% in math and nearly 83% in reading. For the second year, our district made AYP in both reading and math.
Equally important is the fact that our teachers are reducing the achievement gap while raising the achievement of our brightest students. More students are performing in the top exemplary category and fewer students are scoring below the state proficiency level. The growth in students scoring at the exemplary level and the drop in students at the academic warning level are dramatic in both reading and math.
State assessments are one of many pieces of information we use to measure whether students are doing well in school. In January, we plan to present a comprehensive report to the Board of Education showing student achievement results over time based on all of the assessments teachers use regularly. While I expect this report to show great success, we cannot be satisfied until 100 percent of our students are improving in reading and math each year and 100 percent of our students are graduating from high school.
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Posted by kseyetie (anonymous) on November 5, 2009 at 11:08 a.m. (Suggest removal)
Great news, Dr. Heim: You and your staff keep up the good work. Emporia is challenging in many ways, but the students are getting a chance to succeed and it's obvious many of them are doing just that.
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