News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
News and Opinion from Sisters, Oregon
Sisters schools continue to generally outperform the rest of the state on Statewide Assessment Tests that track students' abilities in reading, writing, math and science.
Scores for 2005-06 were released last week.
The scores both for the state and for Sisters followed a consistent pattern: higher scores in lower grades, with scores falling as students get older and tests get tougher.
Sisters had 95 percent of its fifth-grade students meeting or exceeding state benchmarks in reading, compared to 83 percent statewide. But seventh graders were only a little above the state score (79.6/73).
"Seventh grade, I'd like it higher," said Sisters Schools Superintendent, Ted Thondstad. "It shows we have room to grow."
Thonstad noted that reading scores start to drop off markedly across the state when students hit middle school.
"When we get to middle school, we don't actually teach reading," he said. "Reading occurs in every class, but we don't actually teach reading."
Thonstad said efforts are afoot in Sisters to change that, bringing more reading instruction into the mix and teaching vocabulary for the subjects taught.
A similar pattern emerges with math scores. Sisters exceeded the state averages in all grades - except 10th grade. There, only 43.8 percent met or exceeded benchmarks compared to a state average of 45 percent.
"I am surprised at that math score," Thonstad said. "That, to me, was a big disappointment."
Administrators are investigating why that score was low. Part of the problem - both in Sisters and across the state - may be that students haven't taken all the coursework they need to do well on the test by the time the test is administered.
Sisters also has plenty of work to do in writing, where fourth graders scored 51.8 percent to the state's 42 percent and 10th graders scored only 61.7 percent to the statewide 55 percent. Seventh graders actually fell below the average, with 43 percent meeting or exceeding the benchmrk compared to 45 percent statewide.
Thonstad said he does not know why writing scores are so low - in Sisters or statewide.
"I need to learn more about what's happening in writing," he said. "I just don't have that information."
He did say that the natural assumption would be that insufficient attention is paid to writing.
Sisters did very well in science, with fifth graders topping the scale at 95 percent meeting or exceeding benchmarks compared to 79 percent statewide.
Eighth graders hit 82.5 percent and 10th graders hit 71.7 percent, well over statewide scores.
Thonstad noted that many schools are administering tests more than once. Last year, Sisters did that for the first time - for elementary school students who didn't meet the benchmarks.
Thonstad does not like the idea of multiple testing.
"That's a lot of testing time and we've resisted giving up instructional time for tests," he said.
Despite some rough spots, the overall testing picture is consistent with past years - Sisters scores five to 10 points above the state average.
"Sisters continues to do very, very well - but there is certainly room for improvement," Thonstad said.
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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