Ogden School District test scores show improvement but fall below state average
OGDEN — Some Ogden School District test scores are showing improvement over recent years though many still fall below the state average.
The data was presented to the Board of Education at a meeting Thursday, Sept. 21, but the state is slated to release more comprehensive school assessment and accountability information Monday, Sept. 25, including assigned school letter grades.
Earlier this year, the district set graduation rate and literacy goals and district spokesman Jer Bates said in an interview these test scores bring to light the necessity of those goals.
The Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills test, or DIBELS, measures early literacy skills for students in kindergarten through sixth grade.
The the district’s kindergarten students tested at 73 percent proficient in 2017, a decrease from 80 percent in 2015 and 81 percent in 2016.
First- and second-grade student scores have also decreased by a few percentage points since 2015.
Third-grade students tested at 59 percent proficient, also a decrease from 60 percent in 2015 and 65 percent in 2016.
Bates said he’s not sure what caused the decline.
“Because I don’t know that makes it that much more of a concern and it makes it something we’re putting a lot of resources and attention into,” he said.
The school district had these scores last spring, so Bates said teachers have known and been working on improvements.
The Student Assessment of Growth and Excellence, more commonly known as SAGE, is given to students in second grade through their junior year, assessing language arts and math. Science is also part of the test starting in fourth grade.
“This gives us information as educators so we can ensure our students are getting the instruction they need to be proficient,” Assessment and Data Specialist Ian Davey told the board.
In 2016-17, the Ogden School District saw scores of 34 percent proficiency in language arts, 28 percent in math and 33 percent in science. All percentages fell at least 10 percentage points below the state average.
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Ogden School District/Supplied
The Ogden School District’s Student Assessment of Growth and Excellence proficiency percentages for the most recent school year were presented at a Board of Education meeting Sept. 21, 2017.
Since the 2014-15 school year, the Ogden School District’s SAGE proficiency scores have increased every year in language arts and science. Math proficiency was 26 percent in 2014-15, increased to 29 percent in 2015-16 and fell again to 28 percent last school year.
Bates said standardized tests like SAGE are useful for setting baselines, but he can imagine they’re hard to work toward as a teacher.
“That’s difficult, I think, for our educators to teach to a standardized test sometimes when they might prefer to focus more on an individual and say ‘Johnny needs this, Susie needs that,'” he said.
While every grade level in the Ogden School District tested at lower proficiency rates than the state average in all three testing areas, the margins are slimmer for lower grade levels. The older students get, the wider the score disparity, particularly in math.
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Ogden School District/Supplied
Ogden School District Student Assessment of Growth and Excellence math proficiency scores by grade level.
Bates said this might be because older students have been in school since before SAGE tests were used and therefore haven’t been taught with curriculum that caters to it.
With SAGE, schools cannot give students an incentive in the form of a test grade that counts toward their GPA. When asked if this might affect how hard high school students try on the exam, Bates said he would hope students are inspired by their teachers to do well regardless.
“I want to believe our students want to perform their best on those tests,” he said.
The ACT is commonly used as a college admissions test and includes sections on English, reading, math and science. An optional 40-minute writing test hasn’t been required in most of Utah, but Director of Assessment and Accountability Adam McMickell told the board that starting this year, the writing test will be included.
According to the presentation, a student is considered to have passed the ACT if they receive a score of an 18 or above.
Ogden School District results show an average composite score of 16.8 while the state’s average is 19.9. Broken down by testing subject, all Ogden schools results fall between a 15.9 and a 17.4 and all are below the state averages.
“This signals we haven’t been achieving and I won’t sugarcoat that,” Bates said. “It signals these students who are finishing high school right now, we haven’t had them at the level they need to be.”
Divided by the district’s three high schools, Ogden High School has the highest composite ACT score with 17.7. Ben Lomond High School’s composite average is 16.5 and George Washington High School, the district’s nontraditional high school, has a composite score of 13.7.
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Ogden School District/Supplied
2017 Ogden School District ACT scores, broken down by high school and subject matter.
Bates said the district is going to focus on helping students who are now in junior high to do better.
Contact education reporter Anna Burleson at aburleson@standard.net. Follow her on Twitter at @AnnagatorB or like her on Facebook at Facebook.com/BurlesonReports.
