Local schools improve marks

The test results are in and Libby and Troy’s elementary schools made pretty good progress.

W.F. Morrison in Troy and Asa Wood in Libby reached the Adequate Yearly Progress level based on standardized testing this past spring, while remaining schools in the two communities fell short under measurements set by the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

“We had big increases in both reading and math,” said Morrison Principal Lance Pearson. “We made it because of the hard work of our teachers who have gone above and beyond to personalize and customize education. We’re meeting every kid where they’re at.”

Third- through eighth-grade students and high school sophomores are tested in math and reading annually across the nation in order for the U.S. Department of Education to determine how each school is performing academically.

For a school to have made AYP last academic year, 68 percent of students must have performed proficiently in math and 83 percent in reading – or, the scores had to have experienced at least a 10-percent improvement from the previous year.

At Morrison, proficiency in math jumped 47 to 60 percent and in reading from 71 to 82 percent. Although the numbers did not reach the set benchmark, they were a significant enough improvement to make AYP.

“One of the big things that helped us out is this was the first year that our full-day kindergarteners were being tested,” Pearson said. “They had now entered the testing population.”

The third-grade test-takers were the first batch of kids that were a product of full-day kindergarten classes, and they performed well in reading at 92 percent, Pearson said. The performance gap between the whole group and the economically disadvantaged students – determined by free or reduced-lunch eligibility – also appeared to close some between last year and the previous year.

At Asa Wood, which was only represented by third-graders, reading scores increased from 60 to 74 percent and math scores from 34 to 61 percent.

Principal Scott Beagle attributes the major improvement in math scores to a new curriculum that began the year before. Math instruction time was also increased from 40 minutes per day to 70 minutes.

“Before we didn’t have a solid math program that all of the teachers really believed in,” he said.

Next year, the benchmark to meet AYP will rise 16 percent in math and 9 percent in reading.

Brady Selle, superintendent of Troy Schools, says he won’t lose sleep over test scores.

“We’re not too concerned where the bar is set at the state or federal level,” he said. “We’re trying to get kids to learn as much as they can. We’ll focus heavily on reading and math and, at the same time, we’re not going to (overlook other subjects). Our goal is to give them a broad education.”

The seventh- and eighth-grade test-takers in Troy scored virtually the same two years in a row – 66 percent in math and 78 percent in reading – only 2 percent and 5 percent below the current benchmark, respectively.

Troy High School sophomores scored 61 percent in math and 80 percent in reading. The scores were evaluated using a different formula than the prior year because the number of test-takers fell below 30 students.

Libby High School sophomores made AYP in reading with a score of 83 percent. The school also improved its math proficiency score from 49 to 57 percent, though still fell short of the benchmark.

Libby Middle School, represented by fourth- through eighth-graders , held a score of 58 percent in math and fell 5 percentage points to 74 percent in reading from 2009.