News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters students are getting set to head back to school in a couple of weeks -- and they have some solid test scores to brag about as they start the new year.
Sisters 10th graders turned in an exceptional performance on last spring's Oregon Statewide Assessments. In mathematics, they out-performed the state average with 35 percent exceeding the standard (compared to 17 percent statewide) and 39 percent meeting the standard (25 percent statewide).
Twenty-six percent failed to meet the standard, compared to 58 percent statewide.
"We've never had results that were so far above and beyond the state results," Sisters curriculum director Lora Nordquist told the school board on Thursday, August 23.
Nordquist and high school principal Boyd Keyser both acknowledged that performance varies between groups of students, but the high scores indicated that the curriculum has been effective.
Sisters fifth graders also performed extraordinarily well. They beat state averages in mathematics, with only 8 percent falling below benchmarks compared to a state average of 27 percent. Forty-two percent exceeded standards (22 percent statewide) and 51 percent met the standard, matching the state numbers.
In reading, only 9 percent fell below the bar, compared to 23 percent statewide; 59 percent met the standard and 32 percent were ahead of the benchmark.
There is still plenty of room for improvement, especially in the middle school grades, Nordquist acknowledged.
"Our results have been pretty stagnant," she said. "They've been pretty much at the state level... and they shouldn't be."
Nordquist believes that Sisters' generally high socio-economic status should give middle schoolers a "leg up" over their peers across the state.
"Given our population, we should be out performing the state and we're not," Nordquist said.
In reading, eighth graders did a little better than average, with 33 percent failing to meet the standard (38 percent statewide); 37 percent meeting standards (33 percent statewide) and 31 percent beating the benchmark (32 percent statewide). Mathematics scores were also a little better than average.
Both Nordquist and Keyser said the district needs to put more emphasis on developing and maintaining reading skills in grades 6-12.
Elementary school principal Tim Comfort cited some areas that need improvement -- although he was certainly pleased to see the high performance of the fifth graders.
Performance in third grade math tests was weak, Comfort acknowledged, with 30 percent failing to meet the standard (25 percent statewide). Only 27 percent exceeded the standard compared to 31 percent across the state and 44 percent met the benchmark, exactly paralleling state results.
Comfort noted that the student-teacher ratio in third grade classes stood at 32/1 last year. He hopes that small class sizes this year will enhance students' ability to learn math.
Third graders can be placed in one of three testing levels on the state assessments. With no prior background, it is hard to determine where third grader should be placed. Comfort believes some children may have been given tests that were over their heads.
On the other hand, the principal noted, an experiment with the school's "Talented and Gifted" students bore fruit.
In previous years, TAG students who were given the most difficult test exceeded state standards, while others who used a less difficult test performed less well.
This year, Comfort reported, all of the TAG students took the most difficult test and all of them exceeded the benchmark.
"You need to challenge your TAG kids or they will underperform," Comfort concluded.
This year, Sisters will pioneer the use of Technology Enhanced Student Assessment (TESA), which allows testing via computer at intervals throughout the year. This helps insure that students have been exposed to all the relevant curricula before they take the test.
Jim Cornelius is editor in chief of The Nugget and author of “Warriors of the Wildlands: True Tales of the Frontier Partisans.” A history buff, he explores frontier history across three centuries and several continents on his podcast, The Frontier Partisans. For more information visit www.frontierpartisans.com.
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