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SYRACUSE - Parents, taxpayers or just anyone interested in how local schools are doing on the academic standards can find out online at doe.state.in.us
Wawasee School Corp. Superintendent Dr. Mark Stock gave a presentation to the school board Tuesday on the Indiana Department of Education Web site and the comparative information on it.
Any person with access to the Internet can type any school name in on the site and get the academic information on that school. A viewer also can look at how various subgroups do compared to other subgroups, such as males versus females or non-English speaking students versus English-speaking students. However, any subgroup with fewer than 10 students does not have their information posted because of privacy issues, Stock said.
"The goal is not to improve scores," Stock said, "but improve the skills of students."
Officially, the ISTEP+ GQE results for fall 2003 will be released by the Indiana Department of Education Friday. They also should be released on the Web site.
However, assistant superintendent Russ Mikel presented the school board with Wawasee's scores Tuesday.
For grade three at North Webster, 80 percent scored above standard in math and 20 percent below; 70 percent were above standard in language arts, 30 percent below.
For Milford School third-graders, 75 percent were above standard in math, 25 percent below; the language arts scores were the same. At Syracuse, in math, 66 percent were above, 34 percent below; language arts, 72 percent above, 28 percent below.
For grade six at Milford, 78 percent scored above standard in math, 21 percent below; 72 percent were above in language arts, 28 percent below. For Wawasee Middle School sixth-graders, 73 percent were above standard in math, 24 percent below; 66 percent were above for language arts, and 34 percent below standard.
Sixty-four percent of Milford School eighth-graders scored above standard in math, 36 percent below; 69 percent were above standard in language arts, 31 percent below. At Wawasee Middle School, 62 percent of eighth-graders scored above standard in math, 35 percent were below; in language arts, 60 percent scored above standards, 38 percent below.
Finally, at the high school, 65 percent of 10th-graders scored above standard in math, while 32 percent scored below standard. For language arts, 65 percent scored above standard, 32 percent below.
In other business, the school board:
• Approved the general obligation bond sale in the principal amount of $6,090,000. They also approved the advance funding by the Indiana Bond Bank for year-end financial assistance and the advanced funding for 2004.
• Approved Hall & Marose insurance as presented.
• Approved the theater department's field trip request to New York to see Broadway shows.
• Heard a presentation from Brenda Rigdon on countywide literacy initiatives.
• Approved the appointment of Jim Evans as the school corporation treasurer and Sandy Hollar, assistant deputy treasurer.
Members of the Wawasee School Board are Brian Dawes, Dallas Winchester, Marion Acton, Jeff Wells and Mary Louise Dixon. The board meets at 7 p.m. in the administration building on the second Tuesday of every month.
