At what level are the majority of your students on STAR testing?

Overall, the performance level of our students varied greatly.

What factors influence an increase or decrease in student achievement on the CST?

-Students may not do as well as others if parents do not take advantage of the learning centers, tutors or the resources of the departmental chairs.

- We felt that the testing environment played a large role in student scores overall.  We determined that some of the younger students who were tested individually scored at a higher level than other students.  We also found that some of the younger students that are advanced/proficient on their schoolwork did not always prove to be advanced/proficient on the STAR test because of the environment.  The younger kids are not used to being around other kids, with a teacher they are not familiar with, etc.  We're not sure how that could be remedied since we can't individually test all of those kids.  Very small groups might help?  We also feel that the school has made wonderful improvements in the testing environment for high school students in some areas.  For others, we still need to examine the class sizes.

- Students whose parents were highly involved scored higher than those students who did not have a lot of parental support.

- Students that are provided with a more structured program scored proficient to advance. Encourage parents to write lesson plans and provide a daily schedule.

- Test prep materials have proven to be very effective.

-Students who showed a decrease were students that were not using curriculum that challenged them to improve. Some parents/students don’t use the test prep materials properly, or don’t use them at all.

-Students who showed an increase were thought to be due to those students utilizing Dan Wyrick's Science labs and Debbie Kutz's Algebra classes, as well as the HQT support

What kinds of curriculum do you use?

-ESs mentioned Saxon and Singapore as math curriculum they used.

-Some thought that parents may need to try different curricula. In some instances they continue to use a curriculum that is not meeting the student’s needs. Some suggested programs include; Keys 2---, Glencoe for biology, Saxton Math if the student is achieving at grade level.

-For some ESs, students that used test prep material – Buckledown – tested proficient.

-For some ESs, students that used State Adopted Curriculum tested proficient or advanced.

-those that showed an increase used general curriculum with HQT support.

How can you share the test results with your parents and make suggestions for areas of improvement? ES's discussed sharing the exciting possibilities of using Tutor Vista with these students' parents.

Two students discussed:

1. Last year this student scored Far Below Basic, and this year he improved to Below Basic.  He was helped by the special ed team, changed his diet, and although he did not change his curriculum, he had extra curriculum given to him by the special ed dept. The parent was very involved.  He used a computer program that helped him focus.  He was only 3 pts. Away from basic in ELA.  Great news!
2. This student dropped score in math from 250 to 240, but gained in ELA from 233 to 295.  The curriculum changed to Odysseyware.  The parent was less involved this year, and the child did not receive extra tutoring.  This child had been retained, last year, so the math area actually lost skills.  The ES will probably advise something different for math.