Knox Community School Board Study ISTEP Results

Gary Dulin, Jerry Fletcher, Harold Welter, Mary Lynn Ritchie, Kirk Bennett, Nathan Marcum, Mike Yankauskas, Superintendent A.J. Gappa

The Knox Community School Board dissected the Corporation’s ISTEP results at their meeting Monday night.

Students in the Elementary School showed gains in the 3rd grade Math and English/Language Arts while the 4th graders were down a little in English/Language Arts and unchanged in Math. The 5th grade students had a five point gain in Math.

The scores at the Middle School dropped and Principal Dave Miller told the Board that the teachers will focus more with instruction in those areas this school year. The NWEA test will be taken in the 6th, 7th and 8th grades this next year and that should be able to help track where the students need remediation. The High School is measured through the End of Course Assessment test and Principal Dr. Elizabeth Ratliff reported that the scores were better than the state average and that they were very happy with the scores overall.

The Corporation as a whole did make Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) while the Elementary, Middle and High Schools did not. The sub groups of how the ISTEP is measured is how the AYP status is determined. The Corporation gained points where the schools passed sub-categories on the ISTEP, but failed to make AYP by an average of just two students missed in each category.