Saturday, November 21, 2009
SHORT ON TIME
South Dakota races clock to meet education goals
BY BOB MERCER, American News Correspondent
Published on Tuesday, November 03, 2009
PIERRE - South Dakota has four years left, and a long way to go, to reach the national No Child Left Behind targets.
Federal law calls for 100 percent of students in grades 3-8 and in grade 11 to perform at proficient or advanced levels in math and reading no later than the 2013-14 academic year.
South Dakota students are tested for NCLB purposes each spring using a state-designed set of assessments known as the Dakota STEP.
The 2009 results showed that one-fourth of South Dakota students in grades 3-8 haven't reached that threshold yet.
Nor have about one-third of the students in grade 11.
The state Board of Education received a briefing on Monday. Those levels of performance haven't changed much in recent years, said Wade Pogany, an administrator in the state Department of Education.
“If you look at the trend data, we're relatively flat,” Pogany told board members. “The hard part is keeping the trend, the momentum, going up ... getting to 90 percent is really stretching.”
The NCLB system uses a stair-step approach, with the percentage goals rising each year toward the 100 percent targets.
South Dakota students in the lower grades easily exceeded the 2009 goals of 69 percent in reading and 72 percent in math. In grade 11 they met the goals of 62 percent in reading and 63 percent in math.
But those proficiency goals increase very quickly in the next few years. State Education Secretary Tom Oster described the 100 percent targets as “laudable but not realistic.”
More rigorous
Oster noted that the Dakota STEP assessments have been made more rigorous in recent years as part of raising the expectations for South Dakota students.
The reading tests administered in 2009 were new, for example. Overall, proficiency dropped from the low 80s on the previous version to 75 percent in 2009.
He said it's time to stop moving the targets for a while.
“Now the idea is we're going to leave this test alone so schools can ramp up to it,” Oster said.
Native Americans
Native American students as a whole generally have performed at lower levels on the Dakota STEP.
In 2009, 44 percent of Native American students in grades 3-8 scored in the advanced or proficient ranges for math and 48 percent for reading.
At grade 11, about 45 percent of Native American students were proficient or advanced in reading and 30 percent in math.
Those compare with overall student performance for grades 3-8 of 76 percent proficient or advanced in reading and nearly 76 percent in math. In grade 11 overall, 69 percent of students were proficient or advanced in reading and 65 percent were in math.
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Federal law calls for 100 percent of students in grades 3-8 and in grade 11 to perform at proficient or advanced levels in math and reading no later than the 2013-14 academic year.
South Dakota students are tested for NCLB purposes each spring using a state-designed set of assessments known as the Dakota STEP.
The 2009 results showed that one-fourth of South Dakota students in grades 3-8 haven't reached that threshold yet.
Nor have about one-third of the students in grade 11.
The state Board of Education received a briefing on Monday. Those levels of performance haven't changed much in recent years, said Wade Pogany, an administrator in the state Department of Education.
“If you look at the trend data, we're relatively flat,” Pogany told board members. “The hard part is keeping the trend, the momentum, going up ... getting to 90 percent is really stretching.”
The NCLB system uses a stair-step approach, with the percentage goals rising each year toward the 100 percent targets.
South Dakota students in the lower grades easily exceeded the 2009 goals of 69 percent in reading and 72 percent in math. In grade 11 they met the goals of 62 percent in reading and 63 percent in math.
But those proficiency goals increase very quickly in the next few years. State Education Secretary Tom Oster described the 100 percent targets as “laudable but not realistic.”
More rigorous
Oster noted that the Dakota STEP assessments have been made more rigorous in recent years as part of raising the expectations for South Dakota students.
The reading tests administered in 2009 were new, for example. Overall, proficiency dropped from the low 80s on the previous version to 75 percent in 2009.
He said it's time to stop moving the targets for a while.
“Now the idea is we're going to leave this test alone so schools can ramp up to it,” Oster said.
Native Americans
Native American students as a whole generally have performed at lower levels on the Dakota STEP.
In 2009, 44 percent of Native American students in grades 3-8 scored in the advanced or proficient ranges for math and 48 percent for reading.
At grade 11, about 45 percent of Native American students were proficient or advanced in reading and 30 percent in math.
Those compare with overall student performance for grades 3-8 of 76 percent proficient or advanced in reading and nearly 76 percent in math. In grade 11 overall, 69 percent of students were proficient or advanced in reading and 65 percent were in math.
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