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Reactions to local public schools' ISTEP+ results vary, but the majority of school officials in the Kosciusko County area would agree with Diana Showalter, curriculum director at Whitko schools.
"I'm not happy. I'm disappointed. You always hope that students will perform better," she said. "I think teachers are working really hard, students are learning, but I'm not sure they are learning things that are being assessed on ISTEP."
Whitko scores, like most schools', were up in some areas and down in others. For example, math and English scores in grade three were up over last year; sixth-grade scores were down from last year; eighth-grade scores were up; and 10th-grade scores were down.
Showalter said the state changed accreditation standards in 2000 and schools are in the process of changing their curricula to comply with the standards. Last year's ISTEPs were not based on the new standards, she said.
Whitko schools will set up remediation groups and work with teachers and parents on teaching essential skills, she said.
"It's not something that's going to go away," she said. "What we're doing now is not working."
Of the Whitko 10th-graders who took the Graduation Qualifying Exam, 52 percent passed (statewide, 58 percent passed).
Dr. David McGuire, assistant superintendent of Warsaw schools, said Warsaw officials also were disappointed that students didn't show more progress.
"We were flat in third grade and below in the 10th grade (compared to last year)," he said. (See table for individual schools' scores.)
"We knew we were splitting our attention between the old proficiencies and the new standards," he said. "We're disappointed but we're gearing up" for analysis and remediation.
At Warsaw Community High School, 63 percent of 10th-graders passed the GQE.
Dr. Karen Boling, superintendent of Tippecanoe Valley Schools, said scores improved at Akron Elementary and Tippecanoe Valley High School.
"We have really made a concerted effort to focus on the essential skills we were weak in," Boling said. "... Math has been a focus for us as far as strategies and interventions to get those scores up."
Tippecanoe Valley scores were down in grades three and eight, and up in grades six and 10; 58 percent of Valley 10th-graders passed the GQE.
Wawasee superintendent Mark Stock's reaction was more upbeat than most other school officials.
"Overall, we're pretty pleased with our scores," he said. "We've been working for the longest time here, for several years, on improving mathematics. ... We've been starting to show some gains in math. ... I'm confident that we're on the right track with our math curriculum."
Statewide, math scores were almost consistently higher than English and language arts scores, and educators had their own reasons for that.
McGuire said his theory is that math is taught almost exclusively at school, while language arts and communication skills depend on cultural and socio-economic backgrounds.
"We pull the entire load in math," he said, "but in language arts, they bring a lot of that with them."
Students for whom English is not their native language also do better in math than in language arts, he said, and Warsaw Community Schools has more than 500 ESL students.
Stock said Wawasee schools, like Valley, have been putting more emphasis on developing math skills.
"We chose math to spend more time on in the beginning because it's easier to develop testing and scoring," Stock said. "Reading comprehension is like trying to eat an elephant one bite at a time - it's such a big issue."
Wawasee math teachers in kindergarten through 12th grade give their students an end-of-year assessment, spend the last month of the school year working on remediation and include a list with students' report cards that details how each student did in specific math skills.
Wawasee educators are developing the same process with reading, writing and grammar skills, Stock said.
At Wawasee High School, 65 percent of 10th-graders passed the GQE.
