Published: March 27, 2008 12:28 am            

New Waverly TAKS scores improving

Students in the New Waverly Independent School District have gotten off to a promising start on their Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills testing, and the results which have come back are expected to improve during upcoming retests.

According to Annette Nash, NWISD assistant superintendent, results for third, fifth- and eighth-grade on TAKS reading tests indicate high passing rates across the board due to increased initiatives applied this year.

“We’ve done an excellent job in all grade levels so far,” Nash said. “In TAKS reading, 94 percent of our third-graders, 89 percent of our fifth-graders and 93 percent of our eighth-graders passed the test.

“Those are the only results we have back at this time, because the bulk of the testing is going to be done between April 28 and May 2, but we’re off to a good start so far.”

Nash said the students’ scores are similar to the consistently high scores achieved in previous years, especially with respect to third- and fifth-grade students.

“We’ve done very well every year, and this is the first year that the eighth-grade students will have three chances to retake the test,” she said. “We complete at least three benchmarks throughout the year, so we’re expecting 100 percent of the students to pass the test after all retakes.”

Another reason the students have done well on this year’s TAKS test, Nash said, is because this is the first year that eighth grade students have worked with the Student Success Initiative program.

According to the Texas Education Agency, the goal of the SSI is to ensure that all students receive the instruction and support required to be academically successful in reading and mathematics.

The SSI grade advancement requirements apply to the third grade TAKS reading test, the fifth grade reading and mathematics tests, and the eighth grade reading and mathematics test.

“We are really proud of the students for working so hard,” Nash said. “They’re really striving for success and we’ve noticed that.”

Future testing

On April 7-8, additional tests will be administered including the fifth and eighth grade TAKS math tests.

“We will administer Linguistically Accommodated Testing, where we test ESL students who are not fluent in English, on April 7 starting with fifth and eighth grade math,” Nash said. “Regular fifth and eighth grade TAKS math will be administered on April 8.”

The bulk of the remaining TAKS tests will be administered between April 28 and May 2.

“On April 28, we will administer LAT TAKS math for our third, fourth, sixth seventh and tenth grade students,” Nash said. “On April 29, we’ll administer regular TAKS math for the same grades, and we’ll also hold our exit-level English-language arts tests that day.”

Also on April 29, two-day tests for LAT reading and English-language arts will begin for students in third through eighth and tenth grades, and those tests will conclude on April 30.

“We’ll also have our retests for TAKS reading for third, fifth and eighth graders, our TAKS reading for fourth, sixth and seventh grade and our exit-level math retests on April 30,” Nash said. “On May 1, we’ll administer our TAKS science tests for our fifth grade, eighth grade, tenth grade and exit-level students.

“We’ll also do exit-level science retests and administer TAKS math tests for the ninth grade students.”

Primary TAKS testing will conclude on May 2 with eighth and tenth grade TAKS social studies tests and exit-level TAKS social studies retests.

“We’ll also have our LAT science tests for our fifth, eighth and tenth graders,” Nash said. “Later, on May 13, a TAKS math retest for fifth and eighth graders will also be held.”

Testing for the 2007-08 school year will end in July with a final set of tests, Nash said.

For more information, contact NWISD administration at (936) 344-6751.

        

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