Student test results mixed for Wahkiakum

The Washington State’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) released test results that led Wahkiakum School District staff to analyze trends as they sought strategies to improve scores.

The district met criteria for federal No Child Left Behind standards, which require continual improvement across 36 areas to avoid financial consequences.

The Measure of Student Progress (MSP), which replaced the WASL, the Washington Assessment of Student Learning, in 2010, gave the district’s students mixed results across grade levels and subject matter. Tenth graders showed improvement in all areas, High School Principal Dan Casler said.

The district’s third graders, who read below the state average on the WASL, moved further down with the MSP, while the state average score increased each year.

Third graders read much higher than the state average in the 2006/2007 school year, scoring 93 percent to the state average of 70 percent, and in 2007/2008 scoring 85.3 percent to state’s 70.7.

Last spring, 64 percent of district third graders met state standards for reading compared to a statewide average of 73.1 percent.

Third graders’ math trends showed a similar pattern. Test results were above the state average in 2007/2008 and 2008/2009, but in 2009/2010 fell below state average with 46.9 percent to state average of 61.8 percent.

Last year, third grade math scores improved slightly, with a district average of 48 percent to state average of 61.5 percent.

“Fourth graders are on target with the state,” Julius A Wendt Elementary School principal Theresa Libby told the Wahkiakum school board at its September meeting.

Libby analyzed strands data available to the district. Strands are the specific skills or kinds of learning that help students succeed in school, such as the ability to understand information they read in context, reading fluency or number sense. Libby said she has been unable to isolate particular deficits that would explain the trends.

Last spring Wahkiakum high school students were given High School Proficiency Exams, (HSPE) for Reading, Writing, Science, Math and End-Of-Course Exams (EOC) for Algebra and Geometry. They will be tested in biology in 2012.

High School Principal Dan Casler reported that HSPE and EOC results for tenth graders improved in all areas.

In 2011, 87.5 percent of tenth graders met state standard for reading, up from 83.8 in 2010; writing, 92.9 percent up from 87, science was 50 percent, up from 30 percent, math was 61.3 (algebra) and 91.7 (geometry) up from 27.5 percent.

The overall average for Wahkiakum students was 64.7 percent, the state average was 68.5.

Casler said, “These results… are a direct result of the hard work of students, faculty, and families.”

In seeking to understand the test results, Libby said in an interview, “We have a core group who attends first through twelfth in the district.”

Administrators plotted test results for district sixth graders over past years, but found no clear pattern.

“At first I thought the results would show that children did better early in elementary when they love their teachers… then later as they went along and have more going on, they’d be less likely to care. But it’s almost the opposite,” Libby said.

The MSP isn’t the only assessment of student learning available to staff, although the stakes are high for the state tests. Staff focus on each student using several assessment methods, fine-tuning teaching and interventions to individual students.

“The state tests are just one piece of information about a student, showing what they were doing on a given day. A middle school students’ test results might be off, depending on what was happening in their life that day,” Libby said.

“Teachers look at classroom based assessment to see whether a student has gained what is expected from a unit. If they don’t understand, it can be re-taught,” she said. The curriculum offers CDs with units of learning, students can hear the material if they are having difficulty with reading and comprehension.

Based on the results of all of the assessments, Libby said, teachers will be identifying students who are struggling and may partner them with stronger readers or spend more time on a particular unit. Students also have tests for speed and fluency in reading four times per year, she said.

Casler told administration faculty is discussing strategies for further improvement and a plan will be presented in October.

Results for individual students are mailed to families, and full results are available on the school district website http://wahksd.k12.wa.us or the OSPI website http://reportcard.ospi.k12.wa.