SYRACUSE – A little more than 88 percent of third-graders in the Wawasee School Corp. passed the IREAD-3 test, the school board learned Tuesday.
Of 218 students who took the reading assessment necessary to pass third grade, 192 passed and 11 earned perfect scores.
Twenty-one of the 26 who did not pass the test were special education and limited English students, and may still pass third grade after conferences and evaluation of their individual learning plans. All 26 students will begin remediation programs this week and retake the test in June.
Transportation to and from school will be provided for those students. Tutoring will be done in small groups of three or four students per tutor.
North Webster Elementary School students shined in every category, earning the highest average scores – 516.4 out of 520 – and highest passing percentage, 93.2, according to Corporation Data Technician Bob Cockburn. They also scored highest in two of the three categories on the test.
Syracuse Elementary saw a passing percentage of 87.5 and an average score of 512.9, while 81.8 percent of Milford Elementary students passed, with an average score of 500.1.
Joy Goshert, curriculum and instruction director, noted the results reflect well on teachers leading up to third grade.
“It’s kind of a culmination of (kindergarten to third grade),” she told the board. “It reflects the efforts at all of those levels, not just third grade.”
She also noted results follow closely to models of success that should be expected. The corporation’s core reading program is working, she said test results show, but Wawasee needs to look at how it targets students in need of reading intervention.
