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TES, MMS don’t meet AYP

By Shawn Linenberger - | Aug 16, 2011

Though USD 464 met most annual yearly progress standards in its buildings, Tonganoxie Elementary School did not meet AYP standards in reading.

The Kansas Department of Education released information this past week of listings for districts and schools not meeting AYP.

McLouth Middle School did not meet AYP in mathematics. TES and MMS were two of 213 schools to not make AYP in the state.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act requires states to determine whether schools and districts are making adequate yearly progress to get 100 percent of students proficient in reading and math by 2014.

TES principal Tammie George said the school continued to work on improving students’ skills.

“We’re working really hard to make sure our students are well-rounded,” George said, “and doing well in all subject areas. And the assessments really have you focused on reading and math.”

She said the tests are important, but “we also feel strongly we shouldn’t just teach that test, but also the essential skills.”

George said TES started an after-school program with the 2010-11 school year that targeted students struggling in reading and math. That will continue this year.

Teachers also spent last year’s professional development in teaching reading skills and implement teaching.

“We haven’t focused as heavily on math last year and this year because we think reading is the core subject important to all other subjects,” George said. “To do math, you have to read the math problems.”

George said TES traditionally has done slightly better on math assessments than reading. The school also gives fourth grade science assessments, but those are not included in AYP at this time.

Discussing reading further, George said math is sequential and different than reading. With math, addition must be mastered before tackling subtraction and so on, she said. With reading, some students might understand prefixes but not suffixes.

“It’s not quite as exact,” George said. “It’s more individualized.”