Sunday, September 9, 2007 — Official results for end of grade scores and end of course scores in the Stanly County School System are in, with Stanly CountySchools on top of the state average this year.

Improvements occurred in both reading and math this past year in grades three through eight and biology saw the most significant increase in four years with a 9.3 percent increase from the previous year’s results.

“I’d like to commend the biology teachers who spent a great deal of time with benchmark assessments to drive instruction,” Dr. Terry Griffin, assistant superintendent, said.

Nineteen schools this past year made expected growth, meaning if a child scores 90 percent in the fifth grade, he/she is expected to produce that same percentage or higher to meet expected growth. A formula will then determine if the school as a whole met expected growth.

High Growth reached seven schools in the 2006-2007 school year, meaning 60 percent or more of individual students in those schools made expected growth. Those schools include Stanly Early College High School, South Stanly Middle, South Stanly High, Richfield Elementary, Norwood Elementary, New London Choice Middle and Locust Elementary.

This past year, adequate yearly progress (AYP) was met by 63.6 schools in the district. Eighty percent of K-5 schools met AYP this year, 60 percent of K-8 schools, 33.3 percent of middle schools and 75 percent of the high schools.

For a school to meet AYP, all subgroups within the school are measured for progress on a yearly basis. Subgroups measured in AYP are all students, black, American Indian, Asian, Hispanic, multi-racial, white, economically disadvantaged students, limited English proficient students and students with disabilities.

Each subgroup consisting of 40 or more students must meet all criteria as set by the state. Individual student groups in the tested grades must meet proficiency in reading/language arts and math and each student group must have at least a 95 percent participation rate in the assessments for both subjects. In addition, the school as a whole must show progress on the attendance rate, if in grade three through eight, or the graduation rate, if in high school or any school that graduates seniors.

Tremendous progress was shown throughout the schools according to regular test administration this past year include East Albemarle Elementary with a 13 percent increase in math with 66.7 percent of their students scoring at or above proficiency. Locust was right behind them with an 11.6 increase with 69.8 percent of students scoring at or above proficiency.

Richfield showed the biggest increase with a 17.7 percent increase resulting in 75.1 percent of their students scoring at or above proficiency in math.

Reading scores varied slightly from 2005-2006, but no significant change was reported. Endy and Kendall Valley remained at 95 percent with Oakboro joining them for the top three elementary schools in reading.

New London Choice Middle also reached 95 percent of their students scoring at or above proficiency.

In the high schools, regular test administration recorded a great improvement at South Stanly in biology with 84.9 percent of students at or above proficiency compared to 57.4 percent in 2005-2006. Civics and Economics was another big increase for South Stanly jumping from 59.7 percent in 2005-2006 to 71.8 percent of students at or above proficiency.

North Stanly High had an 11.3 percent increase in geometry this year resulting in 70.2 percent of students scoring at or above proficiency.

Stanly Early College blew the top off in English I with 92.7 percent its first year testing.

“I’m very proud of all our schools this year,” Griffin said.



SAT Scores

North Carolina Schools saw a decrease in scores this year with an average of 509 in math, 485 in writing and 495 in critical reading, which stayed the same from 2006. The new test was implemented in 2006 which included a critical reading section as well as a writing portion.

Stanly County averaged a 1456 for all sections included, only thirty points below the state average.

Albemarle High was right above the county with an average of 1458, North Stanly with 1373, South Stanly at 1367 and West Stanly with a mean score of 1550.



Sarah Jane Rosser can be contacted at snaponline26@yahoo.com