Royal School District reviews state testing results

ROYAL CITY - Royal School District officials are elated with the positive news from the latest round of state-mandated student testing, but they are not ignoring the negative.

"Challenges the district continues to work on include consistency across the testing spectrum, specifically in the area of elementary and middle school math," Red Rock Elementary Assistant Principal Rich Gregoire said.

Royal School District administrators, building principals and teachers are analyzing the 2011-12 testing data, Gregoire said. This information is used to make decisions about curriculum, staffing, budgeting, and student placement.

The state assessments are called Measurements of Student Progress(MSP) for grades 3-8, High School Proficiency Exams (HSPE), which include reading and writing from 10th-12th grade and End of Course Exams (EOC) in math and science.

It is important to note, Gregoire said, that each testing level has a new group of individuals each year. When you compare fourth grade in two different years, you compare different children.

"It's like comparing apples and oranges," Gregoire said. "No two groups of kids perform the same."

The Royal School District saw "very positive" results in fourth grade, where gains were made from the previous year in all three areas tested - reading, mathematics and writing. The biggest of those jumps was in reading with a 26-percent increase.

Students begin the state assessment journey in third grade. Tests are given in the two core subjects of reading and mathematics.

Elementary school students end up with fifth-grade assessments in reading, mathematics and science. The Red Rock fifth grade made a 30-percent jump in science.

"This was especially pleasing to the district because it was the first assessment those particular students took online," Gregoire said.

Another high point in science came in eighth grade. Royal Middle School students passed at a rate of 83 percent, compared to 66 percent across the state. They were in the top 10 percent of eighth-grade classes across the state, 59th out of 670 schools.

At Royal High School (RHS), 10th-grade writing was three percent higher than the state average of 88 percent. In EOC math, RHS was within five percent of the state average. In EOC biology it out-paced the state average by half a percent.

One of the measures to address this issue of consistency, Gregoire said, is the addition and expansion of academic coaching across the district. District and school level staff work to create interventions for those who struggle and add to core curriculums to give Royal students the best opportunities for success.