Schools see ups, downs in test scores

OLYMPIA - Some Columbia Basin school districts saw some achievement test scores go up, others saw some scores go down, and others had scores that stayed about the same. Test scores for the 2011-12 school year were released Wednesday. The tests are taken in the spring.

A chart of local results is available elsewhere on this page.

Statewide results showed what Randy Dorn, state superintendent of public instruction, called encouraging trends. "Students are continuing to make progress," Dorn said. The process will be going through major changes by the 2013-14 school year, he said, as "common core standards" and a new assessment system are instituted.

The tests measure student achievement in reading, math, writing and science. Third through eighth graders and high school sophomores are required to take the tests.

"We're very, very proud of the job our students and teachers are doing. We're making progress," said Warden Superintendent Sandra Sheldon.

Warden fourth and fifth graders made gains in reading, and fifth graders made gains in science, Sheldon said.

Othello students made gains in 15 of the 22 areas measured in the fourth, seventh and 10th grades, said Superintendent George Juarez. Every elementary and junior high class except the eighth grade made gains in math, Juarez said.

The Quincy School District generally is seeing upward trends in math, said Superintendent Burton Dickerson. "That is a positive sign for us," he said. Eighth grade algebra students took the sophomore test and 94 percent of them passed it, Dickerson said.

"Generally, we're really pleased with the performance of our students," said Ephrata Superintendent Jerry Simon. Ephrata fourth graders, sophomores and seventh graders beat the state average in reading and math, and the seventh grade and sophomores beat the state average in writing.

Simon said Ephrata's experience has been that effective teacher training has a big impact on students. In addition, the district has been working to use test data to help individual students. "If kids aren't getting it, we're doing the best we can to reteach them," he said.

Every school saw gains between the seventh grade and sophomore years; the sophomore test is the one kids must pass to graduate. Soap Lake Superintendent Dan McDonald said that knowledge probably makes a difference to kids. "Some of it is that the kids care a little bit more, know they need to step it up," he said. At Soap Lake teachers and administrators are focusing on teaching kids to think more, read more and write more, he said.

In Othello, Juarez said kids do realize they need to pass the test and pay more attention to it. But he likes to think that kids at Othello are dealing with a system, where each grade builds on the foundation built previously, and by the time the kids hit high school all that work is paying off. Each class is "like spokes in a wheel," Juarez said, and that wheel has enough spokes by high school to make it most effective, he said.

Sheldon said 50 to 70 percent of Warden students enter kindergarten with limited English skills, and that research indicates it takes five to seven years to learn a language, especially the academic component. "It takes those kids longer to express themselves in English," she said. Juarez and Dickerson said the data shows similar results in Othello and Quincy.

Dickerson said Quincy is working on instituting consistency across all grades to improve language acquisition. Where test scores stayed about the same or dropped, teachers are asked to keep encouraging the students, "having high expectations," Sheldon said.

Moses Lake School District Superintendent Michelle Price was unavailable for comment on Friday.