Sisters schools rated 'outstanding'

All three Sisters schools earned the top grade of "outstanding" in the Oregon Department of Education's (ODE) annual public school report cards, released on Thursday.

"In general I was thrilled with our test scores," said Superintendent Jim Golden at Wednesday's school board meeting. "We have a couple of areas to work on, which is improving the performance of our economically disadvantaged children... and hopefully improving the performance of our special education students, especially in the middle school in their mathematical testing."

Long-time board member Glen Lasken said, "I want to echo that (praise) and to congratulate our staff and our administrators. The news we are getting today is the best possible advertisement for renewing the local option... (local option) is a big piece of why we have this achievement of small class sizes, individualized attention, differentiated learning, all the supplies and co-curricular activities that keep our kids engaged. Local option is steam that drives the engine."

The ODE ratings are based on standardized test score performance noted as "achievement." Other factors scored are "attendance," testing participation, and for the high school the additional criteria of graduation rate and "improvement index."

All three schools earned exemplary marks for attendance.

"At 93 percent to 94 percent, our attendance rates are phenomenal," said Golden. "Most schools struggle to get to 90 percent. That lets you know that the kids want to be in their schools, and (that) their parents value our schools."

It takes 94.5 or higher to earn an "outstanding'" in testing participation; all three schools scored 99.8.

The "achievement index" is based on the average of the reading index and the math index.

Sisters Elementary School scored 106.2 in reading and 98.6 in math for an average score of 102.4. Anything above 90 is outstanding.

Sisters Middle School scored 98.3 in reading and 89.2 in math for an average score of 93.8.

Sisters High School scored 87.6 in reading and 68.0 in math for an average score of 77.8. Scores between 66.0 and 84.9 are "satisfactory," but for high schools, improvement is a factor that is also measured. If the school earns an improvement score of 7.0 or higher their achievement index is raised by one category. In the case of SHS their improvement score was 9.9, so its achievement index was raised to outstanding.

The high schools are also evaluated on their graduation rate. It takes a 74 or better to earn an outstanding rating; SHS posted a score of 86.8.

Board member Cheryl Stewart said, "I want to acknowledge certainly all the schools, but I think the improvements that we have seen in the high school over the last couple of years are very notable. I know that people have done a tremendous amount of work. There were dramatic positive changes. The middle school has been always high and the elementary school has always been high, and now the high school."

Earlier this year Sisters schools received their ratings of Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) that are mandated and measured by the federal "No Child Left Behind" program. The AYP uses the data from the state's standardized testing, Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills (OAKS), as well as other criteria to determine individual school performance against preset improvement targets. The targets are set and measured for each of the subgroups individually (economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities, ethnic groups, etc). If any one of the sub-groups does not achieve their growth targets, the entire school is given a growth targets "not met" designation.

For the 2010-2011 school year SES and SHS met AYP targets; SMS was designated as "not met" as a result of a shortfall in improvements in special education math.

"It is my honor and pleasure to thank... all three schools," said Golden, "I am really actually very impressed and proud of the work that our schools have done. We have had a great start to the school year."

Report card and AYP details are available at hhttp://www.ode.state.or.us/data/reportcard/reports.aspx. Explanation of ODE report cards is available at http://www.ode.state.or.us/apps/faqs/index.aspx?=41.