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Schools Release Preliminary Test Scores: Final Numbers on All Results Won't Be Ready Until October

Posted on: Wednesday, 21 June 2006, 12:00 CDT

By Brandee Hayhurst, Times-News, Burlington, N.C.

Jun. 21--A good number of Alamance-Burlington students seem to have forgotten the lessons of history.

At least, that's what unofficial results from a new end-of-course test on U.S. history suggest.

According to numbers released Monday, just half of high school students passed the statewide test. The 11th-grade curriculum in U.S. history was revised a few years ago, but students took the test for the first time this year.

The same is true for civics and economics, a class typically taken by 10th graders. The school system has calculated that 60 percent of students passed that test.

Final numbers on all test results won't be ready until October. The school board looked at preliminary numbers in every subject area at its meeting Monday night.

Alesia Burnette, director of accountability for the school system, said that the history results were not exactly a surprise. The passing rate is "pretty close" to when students were last tested in those courses, which require a lot of reading and writing. "It is a challenging curriculum," she said.

She said that parents of elementary and middle school students won't see any math scores for end-of-grade tests until as late as October. The same is true for parents of children who took alternate tests for students with disabilities or limited English skills.

State officials say they have to review the numbers extensively because the tests are new.

The delay won't change how students did in their classes this year or whether fifth- and eighth-graders are promoted to the next grade, Burnette said.

"This year, what teachers had to do is make their decision on promotion for students in elementary and middle schools based on what they had seen all year," she said.

The delay will, however, leave schools somewhat in the lurch. The math scores play a part in whether schools fare well under North Carolina's ABCs of Public Education program and No Child Left Behind. Until the results are released, teachers won't know if they get bonuses, schools won't know whether they've made the grade and the school system won't know if it has to set aside federal money for staff training.

The preliminary results suggest that Alamance-Burlington students are improving in a few areas. Test results in algebra I edged up slightly, with more than 80 percent of students passing. Students also edged up for record performances in chemistry (84 percent passed) and geometry (68 percent passed).

They lost a little ground in English I (78 percent passed), but the percentage of students passing that test has basically held steady since 2001.

Students also lost a little ground in physical science, with 62 percent passing this year.

But that's still a huge improvement over 2003-04, when only 48 percent of students passed.

Whether Alamance-Burlington students excelled on writing tests administered in fourth, seventh and 10th grades depends on your perspective. Only 49-55 percent passed, but that was an improvement for every grade level over recent years.

School board member Steve Van Pelt said he thinks high schools have a harder time motivating students on writing tests because they don't count toward grades or graduation requirements.

"Some students will always try their best and some students won't try unless there's a reason for them to try," he said. "It's not just our scores, it's the whole state." Burnette said that some educators believe many students struggle with seeing a question for the first time, coming up with ideas and writing rough and final drafts in 75-100 minutes.

And not everybody gets excited writing about a magic egg cracking under their bed or about athletes who fail academically, which were the essay questions for fourth and 10th-graders this year.

"It would be a nice idea to give them a choice to write about," Burnette said.

You can see preliminary reports on how each school fared in writing, reading, math, science and social studies tests at www.TheTimesNews.com Brandee Hayhurst can be reached at brandee_hayhurst@link.freedom.com

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Copyright (c) 2006, Times-News, Burlington, N.C.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: Times-News

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