SYRACUSE – Certain that Wawasee Community schools are doing better than state report cards indicate, school corporation Data Technician Bob Cockburn and Superintendent Tom Edington devised an alternative scoring system which they say prove their suspicions. The new report card includes data from the state system, but instead of ISTEP uses test scores from the Northwest Evaluation Association, a favored test at Wawasee. “I would stand behind these data as a truer indication of how our students are doing,” said Cockburn. The report cards’ categories include both staff and students’ attendance, test percentile and growth percentages, national assessment comparisons, percentage of special education and free and reduced lunch students and the Indiana Department of Education school grades. The school board approved the new metric in September. The administrators said Tuesday the criteria were set before any numbers were entered. “We made the grading scale first, then put in the numbers,” explained Edington. The new scores for all schools in the corporation range from A to B or B minus. The state had given Wawasee Middle School an F, Milford and Syracuse schools each a D and the high school an A. In another matter relating to performance, the board heard the results of Indiana’s attempts to replace Common Core standards with its own. High school math teacher Kristi Harris was selected to be on the state team working on math standards. She explained how she, along with other teachers, representatives of the business community and college professors, carefully examined criteria, course offerings and the needs of students and business. The “College and Career Ready” standards arose out of many meetings and public input, she said. “We took the best out of all.” Saying that math classes have possibly taught only a little about a lot of math, the new standards require that students be taught “a lot about a little.” Harris added that the team members did prefer Common Core’s specificity as opposed to the vagueness of past requirements. The new standards are very similar to those of Common Core, she said. The state will continue to hear comments, tweak the criteria, and possibly adopt the new standards in about another month. In other business, the board: • Accepted a $42,500 Dekko Foundation grant which will provide kindergarten teachers at North Webster Elementary with a new outdoor lab. • Presented awards to six members of the girls swim team who performed at state competition. They were Breanna Robinson, Kendra Miller, Paige Miller, Shelby Adams, Kayla Hershberger and Mikala Mawhorter. • Received the Gary Sandifur Award from the Kosciusko County Tobacco Free Coalition for prohibiting smoking on school campuses. The ban includes electronic cigarettes. • Congratulated Wawasee Middle School teacher Ryan Edgar for his award as the Air Force Association’s State Teacher of the Year. Edgar will compete this summer in Washington, D.C., against 49 other representatives for the national award. Supporters can write to the association for one more week in support of Edgar. • Accepted a donation of $250 from the “Walmart Foundation’s Volunteerism Always Pays” program, and $1,000 from Trupointe. • Approved the advertising of bids for improvement work at the high school.
