Talawanda Middle School students rank fourth in science and 10th in mathematics and reading based on last spring's Making Middle Grades Work Assessment.
By: Chau NguyenPosted: 4/3/07
Talawanda Middle School students have earned recognition from Making Middle Grades Work (MMGW), a national school improvement model that is a part of the Southern Regional
Education Board.
"It was a strong validation of the curriculum that we use at the middle school and the quality of instruction and the quality of students we have," said Superintendent Phil Cagwin.
TMS Principal Sharon Lytle was presented the award in front of the Talawanda School District Board of Education two weeks ago, recognizing the school for ranking in the top 20 on the
MMGW Assessment.
A random sample of 60 TMS eighth grader students was assessed in areas of reading, mathematics and science last spring in a test based off of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) test.
"(The NAEP) is considered a pretty good indicator of what students need to know at fourth, eighth and 12th grade," said Barbara Moore, associate director of MMGW. "As a country, we use it to compare our student gains against other nations and our economic competitors internationally and this test is based off of that assessment."
Two hundred and twenty-six schools in 20 states in the MMGW network were tested, with student scores averaging 157 in reading, 153 in mathematics and 147 in science. Talawanda, however, averaged 177, 174 and 173 respectively.
"Talawanda had students that met or exceeded performance goals by 87 percent in reading and 68 percent in both mathematics and science," Moore said.
According to Moore, Talawanda ranked fourth in science and 10th in both reading and mathematics among all testing sites.
"They are one of our high performing schools and were from the beginning," Moore said. "But more importantly, they've continued to grow and improve."
Growth and improvement are what Lytle credits for TMS' high performance, and hopes this trend will continue.
"It shows how progressive we are and how much emphasis we're putting on the core subject areas - reading, mathematics and science and I would include social studies," Lytle said.
This is the second MMGW Assessment that TMS has participated in since joining the network in 2001, and is scheduled to take it again in 2008.
"We're continually trying to enhance our programs and student learning, so we hope the test scores will improve even more,"
Lytle said.
TMS was required to test a minimum of 60 students who were randomly selected by corresponding numbers chosen by an online program. All 230 of Talawanda's eighth graders were equally considered to be a part of the representative sample of students.
According to Moore, only students with certain levels of disabilities can be exempt from being included in the selection process.
"If the nature of the student's disability excuses them from taking their state assessment, then we honor the legislation the states have for those students and exempt them from our tests," Moore said.
Although selected students were notified two weeks in advance of their selection and asked parents for permission, they did not receive any additional preparation for the test from the school. Even so, students had a positive outlook about the results.
"The students thought they nailed it," Lytle said. "Most of the kids were confident that they knew what they were doing."
Although there was no extrinsic motivation for the test, the selected students were rewarded with lunch at Miami's Shriver Center where the test was administered.
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