That said, we still have some good news to relay. Principal Bozarth has been crunching some numbers, and he had some interesting news to share - news that he calls "incredible". He reports, "Our building strategic plan had a couple of goals related to NWEA data. The new goal for this year was centered around moving kids out of the low achievement/low growth quadrant." When we began the year, 32% of our second through fifth grade students were in the lowest quadrant in both math and reading. When we took the midyear test, however that number dropped to 13% in math and 12% in reading. "Both of those numbers," says Bozarth, "surpassed our end of the year goals!"
Now to jump to the other end of the scale: our strategic plan included another goal to address the percentage of students who met their projected their growth goals on the NWEA tests. Mr. Bozarth explains, "This goal looked at all students K-5 who had valid tests in the fall and winter testing windows." The results at midyear demonstrate that 56% of our students met their goals in math, and 59% of our students met their goals in reading. Adds the principal, "Both of these results are only one percent below our end of the year goals." Not only this, but that constitutes a three percent increase over the previous year.