I Say Yes!

I prepared a list of explanations. Not excuses, mind you, but explanations as to why our ISTEP+ scores were low. First, we embarked on a massive transformation into the digital realm. Never before had there been such wholescale change in our school for ALL kids and ALL teachers in ALL grades. Second, the ISTEP+ system was glitchy and we had kids that were bumped out of the tests. You might recall the hubbub last year as CTB/McGraw Hill had underestimated it's ability to handle the huge volume of test takers on it's servers. And of course, we always have the Lexington Academy handicap. The residential school in Lexington had 9 middle school students that took the ISTEP and their scores go on our school totals even though they don't attend here. These scores tend to be low (and they were).

Here's the funny part. When I opened the school reports and started looking at area schools, I quickly realized that I should push aside those explanations and look for different ones... about why we CRUSHED IT on the test!

Congratulations, SMS students and staff! Your ISTEP+ scores were awesome! Here are two bits of data that put our performance in perspective.

Area School	Percent Pass          Both LA and Math	Percent Change from 2011-2012
Silver Creek	71.89	-5.11
Salem	71.28	+3.26
Scottsburg	69.71	+3.1
Henryville	67.78	no test in 11-12
Jennings County	67.43	+11.12
Madison	62.3	-4.3
Seymour	60.49	-3.33
Austin	59.5	+0.7
Southwestern	56.9	no score report 11-12
Hoosier Virtual Academy	44.79	-3.32

Well, well! When comparing SMS to the other schools that residents can drive to, we must be doing something right. The state of Indiana average growth for middle schools was +1.1. SMS grew +3.1. Our combined pass rate of 69.61 is the best we have EVER had. 

This happened in a massive change. In a difficult time. And BTW, if we took out the failures of the Lexington Academy students, we'd have been 1.2% higher... like a 71.2%.

I am so very proud of our school. And I am so humbled. This incredible performance is due to the hard work and dedication of so many. 

Is the iPad sometimes frustrating? Is Study Island hard? Is digital math practice a big challenge (since you can't just guess wrong and hand it in?) Do some lessons FLOP when we try new tools to expand student thinking?

Does our new learning environment appear to be working? 

I SAY YES!