Ankeny School Officials Herald Reading and Math Gains on Standardized Test

Eleventh graders in Ankeny performed especially well on the reading and math portions of the Iowa Assessments this year, said Ankeny school officials.

They said this year's test, which was given to students in the third through eleventh grades, was revamped and has increased in difficulty.

“We’re rockin’ it out of the ball park so we’re really excited about that,” said Susie Meade, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, of the eleventh-grade scores. “It’s the highest levels of proficiency that we’ve seen to date.”

Overall, students who are in special education programs and those who meet certain socioeconomic indicators have made gains, but still lag behind other students in reading and math. Extra help for those students will be emphasized, Meade said.

School officials said students are making gains but it will still be difficult to reach the requirements of the No Child Left Behind Law, which they said requires 100 percent of students be labeled as proficient by the year 2013-2014.

Here are some of the cohort scores for Ankeny eleventh graders, which compared the same group of students over time:

• 94.6 percent of eleventh graders in the cohort group wereproficient in reading
• 92.2 percent of eleventh graders in the cohort group wereproficient in math.

School officials presented the achievement data to Ankeny School Board members this week and cited the use of instructional coaches for teachers as one of the strategies used to help students improve.

Comparative data for other school districts is not yet available, school officials said.