School Districts In Abilene Surpass State Averages On New STAAR Test
By: Marlisa Goldsmith
Updated: June 12, 2012
"It has more questions it's a timed test and so there were a lot of different things that we needed to prepare the students for and also the teachers," says Associate Superintendent for Curriculum and Instruction, Dr. Cathy Ashby.
The new STAAR test attracted a lot of attention from all over the state.
This was the first year it was administered to public school students, and districts had no road map to point them in the right direction.
"When you don't know exactly what the assessment's going to look like, you're always apprehensive," says Wylie Superintendent, Joey Light.
It's been 10 weeks of anticipation as the two school districts in Abilene waited to see how their ninth graders performed on the new test.
"Our three traditional high schools, Abilene high,Cooper High School, and ATEMS surpassed the state average," Ashby explains.
Students were tested in algebra, geometry, english reading, writing, biology, pyhsics, and world geography.
In 18 out of 21 categories, these three Abilene ISD schools scored higher in all but three.
Wylie ISD students surpassed state averages in all categories.
Light says, "We are just pleased that when we're given an assessment that we don't have a lot of information about that our kids performed as well as they did."
After preparing for an exam they had never seen before it just goes to show that hard work does pay off.
Now that they know what to expect on the test, they expect results to keep improving.
Ashby says, "We meet the challenge, we always have. Our scores prove that once we start taking the test we get better at it every year and so I have no doubt that the students of AISD will continue to pass and surpass that mark."
"We have definitely got some areas that we're targeting improvement and our staff definitely feels like we can do better," Light adds.
The new STAAR test attracted a lot of attention from all over the state.
This was the first year it was administered to public school students, and districts had no road map to point them in the right direction.
"When you don't know exactly what the assessment's going to look like, you're always apprehensive," says Wylie Superintendent, Joey Light.
It's been 10 weeks of anticipation as the two school districts in Abilene waited to see how their ninth graders performed on the new test.
"Our three traditional high schools, Abilene high,Cooper High School, and ATEMS surpassed the state average," Ashby explains.
Students were tested in algebra, geometry, english reading, writing, biology, pyhsics, and world geography.
In 18 out of 21 categories, these three Abilene ISD schools scored higher in all but three.
Wylie ISD students surpassed state averages in all categories.
Light says, "We are just pleased that when we're given an assessment that we don't have a lot of information about that our kids performed as well as they did."
After preparing for an exam they had never seen before it just goes to show that hard work does pay off.
Now that they know what to expect on the test, they expect results to keep improving.
Ashby says, "We meet the challenge, we always have. Our scores prove that once we start taking the test we get better at it every year and so I have no doubt that the students of AISD will continue to pass and surpass that mark."
"We have definitely got some areas that we're targeting improvement and our staff definitely feels like we can do better," Light adds.
