Riverton CUSD #14 Meets FY09 Strategic Objectives

by Tom Mulligan

August 12, 2009

District superintendent Tom Mulligan recently presented the student achievement results to the board of education at the recent August school board meeting. The results included test scores from the 2009 ISAT and PSAE state assessments. For the 2008/2009 school year, students in grades 3-8 were tested in reading and math using the Illinois Standardized Achievement Test (ISAT). Students in grades 4 and 7 were tested in science as well on the ISAT. All students in grade 11 were tested in reading, math and science using the Prairie State Achievement Exam (PSAE). The presentation was in the form of a power point presentation. This presentation can be viewed by clicking on the link below called “State Assessment Results for Riverton CUSD #14.” A written summary of results is provided in the next couple of sections.

FY09 ISAT/PSAE Assessment Scores

Reading

Last year, the school district’s strategic objective for reading was to increase the number of students meeting or exceeding on state assessments. The performance target was 75.11% for the 2008/2009 school year. The district’s actual performance reflected that 75.18% of the students that took a reading state assessment actually met or exceeded on the assessment. As a result, the school district exceeded its performance target. This represented over a 2% growth in the number of students achieving in reading from the previous school year. This also continued a four-year trend of increasing student achievement in the area of reading in the district.

All grade levels that took the ISAT Reading Assessment (grades 3-8) had over 70% of the students assessed meet or exceed. Highlights included: 82% in 4^th grade, 81% in 6^th grade, 83% in 7^th Grade, and 84% in 8^th Grade. The elementary school had 83% of all non-special education students meet or exceed and the middle school has 89% of the non-special education students. The lowest area of performance in the district was at the 11^th Grade level, where 55% of the students met or exceeded in the PSAE reading assessment. This lower score on the PSAE compared to the ISAT is a trend in districts across the state.

Math

The school district also set a strategic objective for math achievement. That strategic objective called for an increase in the number of students meeting or exceeding on state assessments in math. The performance target was 82.42% for the 2008/2009 school year. The district’s actual performance reflected that 82.57% of the students that took a math state assessment actually met or exceeded on the assessment. As a result, the school district exceeded its performance target. This represented over a 2% growth in the number of students achieving in math from the previous school year. This also continued a four-year trend of increasing student achievement in the area of math in the district.

All grade levels that took the ISAT Math Assessment (grades 3-8) had over 80% of the students assessed meet or exceed. Highlights included: 92% in 4^th grade, 91% in 6^th grade, and 93% in 7^th Grade. Both the elementary and middle schools had 92% of all non-special education students meet or exceed. The lowest area of performance in the district was at the again 11^th Grade level, where 59% of the students met or exceeded in the PSAE math assessment (over a 10% gain from last year). This lower score on the PSAE math compared to the ISAT is also a common trend in districts across the state.

Science

The district also saw an increase in the number of students that met or exceeded on state assessments in science. This is a much smaller group of students than in reading and math because science is only assessed in 4^th, 7^th and 11^th grades. The number of students meeting or exceeding in science in the district went from 67.59% to 75.24%.

Longitudinal Results

Last year’s state tests represents four years of ISAT testing for three different grade levels of students in the district. The following represents four years of growth in the percent of students meeting or exceeding in reading and math for each class:

6^th Grade Class [tested in 3^rd (FY06), 4^th(FY07), 5^th (FY08) and 6^th grade (FY09)]

Reading 70.00% in FY06 to 81.05% in FY09
Math 86.79% in FY06 to 89.57% in FY09

7^th Grade Class [tested in 4^th (FY06), 5^th(FY07), 6^th (FY08) and 7^th grade (FY09)]

Reading 70.93% in FY06 to 83.17% in FY09
Math 82.35% in FY06 to 93.09% in FY09

8^th Grade Class [tested in 5^th (FY06), 6^th (FY07), 7^th (FY08) and 8^th grade (FY09)]

Reading 75.56% in FY06 to 83.52% in FY09
Math 85.56% in FY06 to 81.52% in FY09

The school district is proud to have met its strategic objective targets for FY09 because the improvements represent slow growth that can be sustained over time. This can be seen in the positive trends over the past four years in both math and reading. On the other hand, the district is not satisfied with the results and will continue its commitment to continuous improvement.