Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

School strives to meet standards

Federal Coordinator Bonnie Ross says between tutorial programs after school, and in the summer, plus a test-taking orientation for Benchmark exams, "all that we know to do is being done to make sure Gurdon stays up with state school standards in the future."

Ross said the state looks at three criteria for a school to meet; scores on Benchmark tests, attendance rate and/or high school graduation rate, and that the school has 95 percent of all segments of the student body tested.

This year, at the Gurdon Primary School level, Ross said all three categories were met and that group is up to standards.

At the Cabe Middle School, the school was put on alert in 2002-2003, but was up to standards after Benchmark results in 2003-2004. If proficiency scores in math and literacy continue to meet the state of Arkansas's Adequate Yearly Progress scale in 2004-2005, after Benchmark tests this March, the middle school will go off of alert.

Ross said, "I believe the middle school will go off of alert this year, and I would like to complement them for their hard work to do so."

As for the high school, the results of Benchmark 2003-2004 put the school on Academic Alert for falling down in literacy.

"We met the graduation rate and the testing percentage requirements on the high school levels," she said. "Looking at Gurdon High School over three years, we had 36.53 percent of students reaching proficiency in literacy for grades 9-12, with the 2003 requirements for this average at 32.92. But the alert came because on the 2004 Benchmark in literacy, we fell down to 23.7."

As for math, the three-year average for Gurdon was 24.3 percent in proficiency, with the state requiring 25.34 percent for the 2003-2004 school year. Ross said the optimism in math comes from the fact that this past year's math proficiency rating hiked up from 28 percent to 30 percent in algebra, and from 19 percent to 61 percent in geometry.

Ross said, "We are teaching our kids how to take Benchmark tests and presenting them practice tests in those formats to help. Alert is just that. It is a state warning so we get off that rank and don't go down to the Academic Distressed School level. We have written an academic improvement plan for every student that scored below proficient. The proficiency percentages state requirements are raised every year, but so far they can be achieved."

In addition to test taking skills, especially in the literacy area, a big help in getting test scores up has been the after school tutoring on all three campuses, as well as summer school.

Ross said tutoring is offered through a 21st Century grant, with Lynn Failla as the grant program director.

On the high school level, tutoring is offered for an hour and a half an afternoon after school on Mondays and Wednesdays; concentrating on math and English.

At the Cabe Middle School, tutoring is offered after school for an hour and a half on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday; also concentrating on math and English.

As to summer school, 60 hours a summer for the high school and middle school students. That is two and a half weeks, at six hours a day for 10 days. Again, the concentration is half on literacy and half on math.

Tutoring is offered to Gurdon Primary School students at one hour an afternoon on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. There is no summer school at the primary level.

Failla has another major component, Ross said, in that every Thursday night Hispanic parents are offered a class to learn English.

Ross said, "It is a battle to keep up with state standards for students and teachers, but so far it is obtainable. The thing that has us worried is each year they raise the bar. Our disabled students testing scores are figured in with the averages of the regular students, and yet they say they want 100 percent proficiency in 12 years on the Adequate Yearly Progress chart.

"We will just have to ask questions to understand that one when the time comes."