Garden Heights staff reports science progress

MOSES LAKE — Garden Heights Elementary School staff came to the Moses Lake School Board meeting Thursday to answer a question of how the school is improving science performance.

Each meeting the board is hearing from a different school on the same topic until the end of the school year.

"Garden Heights is doing some great things in terms of science," Principal Kristi Hofheins said.

Hofheins said the science curriculum is supported by district training, which she receives positive feedback about from teachers. Instruction is hands-on, which benefits students, she said. A teacher on staff has experience scoring the Washington Assessment of Student Learning.

"It's pretty unique to have a teacher on your staff that scored for science, so we feel pretty fortunate to have her on our staff with that experience," Hofheins said.

Becoming involved with a district-wide collaboration team is beneficial as well, she said.

Second grade teacher Claretta Walker presented state assessment data from 2003 to 2006 for fifth grade students. Garden Heights scored higher than the state and district all three years.

Staff believe the highest science score of the three years, 77.6 percent from 2004 to 2005. is likely related to high reading scores the year before, Walker said. In the 2003 to 2004 school year, 100 percent of fourth grade students passed the reading section of the test.

"Of course, we know that science is not only a test of science, it's also a test of reading," Walker said.

Fifth grade teacher Rebecca Buchmann said a challenge the school faces is the comprehensive nature of the state assessment.

"Putting it into perspective, can you imagine taking a comprehensive final for everything you've learned for the last five years?" Buchmann asked. "I mean, that's like a Praxis (test) for a lot of our college students, and these are 10-and 11-year-old kids. So that's a tough thing. That's a challenge for us."

Another challenge is the time required to teach the curriculum contained in each science kit, Buchmann said. The kits are shared with 17 districts, and Buchmann said staff members were unsure what they should do when the kits were not in their possession.

Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Michelle Price noted kits are purchased in phases. One kit was phased into the district each year starting with the 2005 to 2006 school year, Price said. Next year the final kit is purchased for the elementary schools. When the kits arrive, teachers are going to have no down time between kits, she said.