08/15/12 The Plymouth School Board received an overview of the 2012 ISTEP scores during a regular meeting on August 7. Michele Riise, Director of Quality Programs, presented the corporation’s totals that showed both increases and decreases from 2011 scores. The scores are tabulated for grades 3-8. Although in past years, high school students participated in ISTEP testing, that has been replaced with End of Course Assessments (ECA).
In Language Arts, the corporation had 83.3 percent of students passing, indicating an increase of 2.2 percent. The scores for math remain high at 84.9 percent; however it is a decrease of 2.3 percent. When the scores of Language Arts and Math were combined, 75.7 percent of students taking the test passed. This was a decrease of 1.4 percent.
Riise also provided scores using demographic information. There was an increase Language Arts in every category including Black, Hispanic, White, Free-reduced and Paid and only a slight decrease in Multi-Racial. The Math scores, using the same demographic categories ,showed a decrease in scores ranging from .3 percent to 9.1 percent. There was an increase in Black of 3 percent. When scores were tabulated using combined Language Arts and Math scores, there was an increase of 14.4 percent in Black and .8 percent in Paid. Decreases occurred in all of the other categories ranging from 1.4 percent to 10.8 percent.
The master agenda for the school board includes a report on elementary ISTEP scores for the September 4, 2012 meeting.
Other items scheduled for the meeting include a report on the School Safety Committee and consideration of adoption of the 2012 budget.
The meetings are open to the public; however, comments are limited to agenda items.
Carol Anders Correspondent
