Steps are taken to help students improve test scores
Managing editor
Should teachers teach students the material they need for overall classroom success or teach material to help students do better on ACT and state assessment tests?
Not the entire USD 408 Board of Education in attendance Monday evening agreed that teaching students information on the test was the best tact instead of the traditional method of teaching students the information they need to know for the tests. Despite that, the majority of the board — 4-2 — adopted math and reading standards review classes. The classes will be required for those students who do not meet state requirements on assessments. The classes will be an elective for students who do meet requirements.
Marion High School Principal Brenda Odgers told USD 408 Board of Education Monday evening that one way to improve ACT and state assessment test results was to give her more staff development days.
Steps are being taken by the school administration to improve test scores.
Odgers explained that she and her administration looked at students’ grade point averages, the ACT composite, state assessments, and the current math and English curriculum.
“The basic kids were the ones struggling with the ACT,” she said.
For those who took advanced classes, they met or exceeded expectations.
“The sooner students take the (advanced) classes, the better they may do with ACT,” Odgers said. “If students take the harder classes later in high school, they may not have had the curriculum yet before taking the test.”
She further explained that the ACT is not an IQ test — it’s showing information students have learned while in high school.
Using data published in the Marion County Record, Odgers said just about every school in the county saw a drop in 2010 ACT scores — with Centre and Marion school districts falling below the state average.
Beginning Friday, teachers are taking steps to make sure students are learning what they need for testing.
Another concern is whether students know how to take a timed test. So, teachers are going to teach students how to take a test with a time limit. Online testing allows students to take practice tests and immediately know results.
ACT interventions in 2009-10 included all teachers giving an ACT question from the ACT website during first hour every day for three weeks preceding the April test. Only 17 students participated in a four-hour ACT review that rotated students through the four assessed areas. There were Wednesday morning and evening review sessions but few students took advantage of the extra study time.
Further interventions included evaluating the school’s curriculum to make sure what is being taught is what students need to know for the ACT, creating tests that look like the ACT, practicing ACT questions once a week for about 30 minutes during core classes in grades 9, 10, and 11, and requiring mandatory ACT practice testing in November during “dead week” for juniors.
Odgers and teacher Gary Stuchlik reviewed state math and reading assessments.
“We were one student away from standard of excellence (in math) for 2011,” Stuchlik said.
Administrators believe students have apathy about the tests but when encouraged to do better with the threat of remedial classes, MHS students did do better.
State reading assessment improved from fall to spring because in part because of remedial classes.
Middle school assessments
Teachers Bill Darrow and Michael Ayers presented the improvement plan for Marion Middle School math and reading assessments.
MMS seventh and eighth-graders met the standard of excellence in math and reading. However, there were areas in need of improvement and teachers will work with students to improve those areas.
Figurative language in the reading portion of the state assessment plummeted from 79.4 percent of students meeting the state standard to 54.3 percent.
During the presentation, Ayers showed the board a new method of testing students. A “clicker” is being used in middle school classrooms as a tool to know if students are learning. As a demonstration, each board member was given a device resembling a television remote. A question appeared on an overhead screen. Board members answered questions by pushing buttons on the “clicker.”
In a classroom, the teacher would be the only one who knows how students answer. This allows the teacher to know the results of a quiz immediately and it doesn’t single out students who do not know the information.