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MENTONE - Tippecanoe Valley High School 10th-graders taking the ISTEP+ Graduation Qualifying Exam for 2000 ranked 241st out of 386 public high schools in the state - the lowest in the area.
Tippecanoe administrators met Monday in a special meeting - open to the public - to discuss ISTEP results and administration and corporation goals.
Four parents and 15 administrators and board members were present at the meeting.
ISTEP's GQE results came out earlier this month, naming Manchester High School the highest ranked in the area with 75.21 percent of their sophomores passing the GQE. Triton followed with 68.69 percent, then Wawasee with 66.32 percent, Warsaw with 63.28 percent, Whitko with 62.35 percent and Tippecanoe Valley with 55.63 percent.
Although Valley came in last in the area, administrators, parents and board members say that's not what's important.
"We're gathering information right now on what we can do to help our students - to help us," school board president Rod Eaton said.
"We have a great school corporation and we've just got a few things that don't look very well under the microscope," Eaton said.
Board member Hal Hoffman said Valley is being compared to other area schools.
"When we're the low of five or six schools and it's in the newspapers, that hurts," Hoffman said.
A Tippecanoe parent of two children said he doesn't care how the school "stacks up" against other schools. What he and other parents care about, he said, is the education their children are getting. "It's how we're doing against ourselves - that's what the public wants to see," he said.
Mary Ann Irwin, Burket principal and Tippecanoe School Corp. curriculum director, said incoming kindergarten students are behind the level they need to be.
"We're finding that our kids are coming to us about two years below," Irwin said. "They don't even know simple things, like (how to work) scissors."
She said kindergarten-age students don't have enough background knowledge before coming to school.
"The bottom line is, we're having to make up a two-year deficit." And, she said, some children just aren't able to make up two years in one year.
She said this was the first year they've gathered information and data to see what level students are at when they begin kindergarten. Students will be tested again in April.
Eaton asked administrators what could be done. "If we're two years behind, maybe we're missing the boat."
Irwin said there's lots of options out there, such as implementing an extended day program to "help those kids that need to be with us for more time."
"Research shows that true improvement happens in small increments," Brett Boggs, Akron principal, said. "We're seeing improvements - but in small increments. We're really working hard on achievement as a school corporation."
"We've been focusing so much effort to the low end (students)," Irwin said. "What about focusing on the top end? That's going to raise our district average."
"My concern is those low kids to get them up to speed," board member Mark Wise said. "Those high kids are going to do just fine."
"Math is the one that we are dead last in - at least in this area," a parent said. "So math is where I'm concerned. The math is where we've been lacking in the last four years." He also said his children told him a math teacher began his course by saying: "A lot of you kids are going to be taking this course again."
"This is not positive reinforcement," he said. "I'm a little frustrated to hear that a teacher would start a course like that."
Tippecanoe Valley High School Principal Charlie Mills agreed with the parent and said: "We are coming up in math."
In 1999, 50 percent of students taking the ISTEP tests were above the state average, and last year, Mills said, it was 58 percent.
Juniors and seniors who have not yet passed this year's GQE will get a chance to retake them in March. Mills said a remediation program was implemented this year for juniors and seniors to help them with the test, and a large number of students are currently enrolled in the program.
Board member Tom Weaver asked administrators how Valley compared to other schools as far as following the rules and preparing for ISTEPs.
"It' not one problem and we know that," Weaver said. "We're not going to solve all these problems tonight." He asked administrators what kind of goal the school board could help them solve.
"One of the keys is going to be staff development," Marve Retzer, Mentone Elementary principal, said, "to teach them new skills - because education is changing just as business is changing. (We need to) develop our teachers to teach other teachers."
Boggs said students need to read more. He said it's the most important and simplest way to improve test scores.
Irwin said her school has experimented with the Star-Reader program, a software program that determines students' reading levels. The program has been purchased for Burket and the board is looking at buying it for other schools.
Besides student reading levels, Mills said, class size is a major issue. "Smaller numbers help," he said.
Mills also wants to develop an alternative education program, and passed out information on an alternative program for TVHS that he hopes school board members will consider. Mills asked board members to read over his proposal, which will be discussed at a future school board meeting.
The alternative education program would help keep students from dropping out of school, he said.
The Tippecanoe Valley School Board comprises: president Rod Eaton, David O'Brien, Hal Hoffman, Tom Weaver and Mark Wise. Superintendent is Dr. Karen S. Boling. Student liaison board members are Gail Rathbun and Kristi Rudd.
