Sisters test scores remain higher than state average

Jim Cornelius, News Editor | Last updated Aug 10, 2004 12:0pm0

Sisters students continued to beat statewide scores on Oregon State Assessment tests in reading and math this year. Test scores were released last week.

Considerably more Sisters students in third, fifth, eighth and 10th grade meet or exceed state standards than the statewide average and fewer students fall short of the bar (see scores on below).

Sisters School District curriculum director Lora Nordquist told the school board Monday night that more complete analysis of students' performance will be available in October. She is particularly interested in tracking the progress of groups of students from one grade to the next -- analyzing how they do on tests from third to fifth grade, for example.

"The good news is, we're still looking pretty good," she said.

Nordquist acknowledged that simply measuring how well Sisters does compared to the statewide averages is not sufficient.

Sisters has some advantages in size and the socio-economic make-up of the community. In that sense, Sisters should be doing better than average. Is that good enough?

"I don't think we're doing as well as we should be doing until we have 85 percent meeting the standards," Nordquist said.

She'd like to see more students exceeding standards.

"Given our demographics, I'd like to see those numbers be pretty large, too," she said.

Still, Nordquist argued, Sisters does a good job of focusing on standards and pushing students to and above the benchmarks.

Nordquist believes serious improvement requires more focused instruction and teaching geared to each child's individual needs. That kind of instruction requires small classes.

"How easy is that to happen in a class of 30 or 31?" she said. "Not very easy."

Nordquist was quick to say that teachers should use class size as an excuse, but she is adamant that individual attention is critical for success. She said that she has many problems with the No Child Left Behind Act, but there is one aspect of the federal mandate that she likes: "What that forces us (educators nationwide) to do is to look at the individual child," she said.

Nordquist said that the tests are a pretty good measure. She noted that there is some concern that the math benchmark is set too high to be realistic. However, she said the reading test is excellent.

"I think that test is a darned good measure of your reading skills," she said.

Oregon State Assessment scores

All test scores are recorded as Sisters/State

Sisters Elementary School

Reading -- Third grade --

Does Not Yet Meet (%): 4/18

Meets Standard: 45/37

Exceeds Standard: 51/45

Reading -- Fifth grade --

Does Not Yet Meet (%): 10/24

Meets Standard: 49/54

Exceeds Standard: 41/22