The Enumclaw, White River and Carbonado school districts are celebrating the successes as the state Office of Public Instruction released test scores.
Students completed the Measure of Standard Progress, the High School Proficiency Exam and End of Course tests in Algebra and Geometry in the spring.
Enumclaw
“We had the strongest across-the-board trend of student academic performance improvement in the past eight years of the WASL, MSP, HSPE era,” Enumclaw School District Curriculum and Assessment Director Terry Parker said.
For the first time, he said, all scores were higher than the state average.
Parker, who presented the results during the Enumclaw School Board’s Sept. 6 work session, noted Enumclaw had its highest scores in recent history in fourth-, sixth- and seventh-grade math, seventh-grade writing and eighth- and 10th-grade science.
He was excited about the district’s math scores with seventh- and eighth-grade levels in both the MSP and EOC higher than the state average.
Enumclaw Middle School eighth-graders EOC Algebra 1 scores were 61.8 percent and in eighth-grade Geometry, 11 out of 11 scored 100 percent on the high school level graduation math requirement.
The results at Thunder Mountain Middle School were impressive with 23 out of 24, scoring 95.8 percent on the EOC in Geometry.
“These are eight graders taking a high school graduation test,” Parker said. “It really validates, in my mind, exposing all eighth-grade kids to Algebra. They’re not overwhelmed by it. They’re getting it and succeeding at it.”
Parker attributed the success to the a different math curriculum, instructional work, Friday Professional Learning Community time and the hard work of students, staff and families.
Overall, on the MSP, EMS’s math scores for eighth grade were 74 percent, eighth grade reading was 83.3 percent and science, 76.7 percent.
Thunder Mountain’s seventh-grade writing scores came in at 81.2 percent.
At Enumclaw High, writing scores were 94.4 percent, a jump from 2005; reading was 89 percent.
At the elementary level, Black Diamond’s third-grade students had reading scores of 84 percent. Kibler’s fourth-grade math scores were at 69.1 percent. Southwood had fourth-grade reading scores of 80.3 percent and math at 74.2 percent. Sunrise third-grade reading was at 81.5 percent and math at 78.2 percent. Westwood fourth-grade math scores were 74.2 percent and fifth-grade reading, 84.2.
White River
“There’s a lot to be proud of there,” White River School District Curriculum and Assessment Director Mike Jacobsen said, noting scores in comparison with state numbers.
“These are the strongest I’ve seen it since I’ve been here,” he said. “We’re still not where we want to be. We’re working hard and we need to continue to work hard.”
Like its Enumclaw counterparts, Glacier Middle School also saw success with its eighth-grade students taking End of Course math exams as well as those at the high school with percentages hovering between 79 and 88 percent. GMS sixth- and eighth-grade students also posted reading scores of 82.7 and 80.6 respectively.
Reading was strong across the district with high school sophomores scoring 86.9 and adding a score of 87.5 in writing.
Elementary school highlights included third-grade and fourth-grade math scores at most of the schools approaching or well-over 70 percent including a district high 78.2 percent for fifth-grader at Mountain Meadow and 77.2 for third-graders at Foothills. Mountain Meadow also led the district with a 79.5 percent science score among fifth graders. Writing scores for fourth graders were consistently in the high 60s.
Jacobsen plans to make a presentation to the White River School Board tonight, Wednesday, at 6 p.m.
Carbonado
Historically, Carbonado students have always done well in state testing and this year was no different.
Carbonado students scored well with reading scores, above 70 percent across the board with eighth graders topping the chart at 81 percent and third graders not far behind at 80.
Math scores for third grade and sixth grade were high at 70 and 75 percent respectively. Fifth grade science scores came in at 73.7 percent and seventh-grade writing was at 80 percent.
Eighth graders also scored 81.8 percent on the EOC Algebra test.
