Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
An increase in SAT scores at Warsaw Community High School is encouraging, but should not be used as a yardstick to measure the school's performance, Warsaw's assistant superintendent told the school board Monday.
Dr. Anthony Etienne said the 1997 average SAT scores were improved over the 1996 scores: a total of 1021 for 1997, and 1015 for 1996.
However, he said, SAT scores should be used as an indicator of how well a student will perform academically in college, not to measure the school's performance.
At WCHS, the 1997 average score for verbal was 513 and for math was 508, compared to state averages of a total 991, verbal 494 and math 497.
Indiana law now requires students to take an ISTEP test in their sophomore year, and the student's graduation depends on passing the test. In 1996, the first year for the test, Etienne said, one-third of the students at WCHS and in the state did not meet the state standards.
He said the test is given in the sophomore year so that if the student fails, he can take the test again in his junior and senior years.
School board members were themselves tested in a way Monday, when Harrison Elementary teacher Ed Jarrett described an innovative science curriculum.
Sponsored by the National Science Foundation and Ball State University, the project teaches kids by allowing them to experiment.
Jarrett passed out batteries, wires and small light bulbs to the school board members, and asked each member to make the bulb light up. Students from Jarrett's class were on hand to help any members that could not complete the experiment, but almost all of the school board members were able to do it in the required time.
The curriculum will gradually build on the basics by having each student build a small-scale house with at least four rooms that are lit independently with only two batteries.
"With this kind of curriculum, a kid can learn 100 percent of what they're doing," Jarrett said. "There's nothing to limit their knowledge."
The school board also heard reports from the food service director and the director of the maintenance department on their status and goals.
The school board meets in the administration building on the second Monday of each month.
