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Warsaw Community Schools is already looking at schools in the district that have lower-than-average ISTEP scores, the school corporation's assistant superintendent said Tuesday.
Anthony Etienne, who oversees most of the testing results, said the Indiana Department of Education gave students the ISTEP tests in the fall instead of the spring, as they did in the past. The timing gives teachers and parents a chance to work with students who did not do well on the tests, he said.
"As a good example, we know we're weak in the writing skills area," Etienne said. "We really need to start that down in the lower grades. It's not an easy thing to teach, but it's all in the practice. You learn best by doing it."
Some of the Warsaw schools that scored low in the state rankings are being compared to other schools that are totally different in terms of size and socio-economic status, he said.
For example, Atwood Elementary's sixth grade ranked 2,463 out of 2,612 in the state; Eisenhower's sixth grade scored 124 in the state. However, Atwood has one sixth-grade class of 15 students, and one or two discrepancies can make a big difference, Etienne said. Eisenhower has 92 students in four sixth-grade classes, and the gifted and talented program also takes place at Eisenhower.
ISTEP results let individual schools adjust their programs according to need, said Leesburg Elementary's Principal Brent Widman.
"We look at skills, any trends within the grade of deficiencies, strengths and weaknesses," he said.
Warsaw Community High School, compared to other high schools in the county, ranked best, at 1,034 in the state. Wawasee ranked 1,293, Whitko was 1,337, Triton was 1,468 and Tippecanoe Valley ranked 2,050.
However, on a statewide ranking, WCHS was still rated average.
In the Wawasee school district, Milford schools consistently earned higher ratings than Syracuse; in the Whitko district, South Whitley's third-grade ranking was approximately four times higher than Pierceton's.
