There are many ways to determine how effective a school is – ACT test scores and remediation rates are two of them. Both have been in existence for a long time. As was discussed last week, only one school in the area has a higher test score than the state composite average – Durant. It’s a different story though when you look at remediation rates. As was mentioned in last week’s article, remediation rates are the percentage of first year college freshmen that have to go through a remediation process and still must take remediation classes because their ACT tests were not high enough. This process is mandated by the legislature for the Oklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. The most current year of remediation information is 2010. The chart below shows the number of students in public higher education and the corresponding number of students that required remediation and the applicable percentage by local high school.
| Remediation Rate | |||
| Fall 2010 | |||
| School | # students | # students | |
| Public coll | Remediated | Percent | |
| Achille | 14 | 8 | 57.0 |
| Atoka | 45 | 22 | 48.9 |
| Bennington | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Caddo | 11 | 1 | 9.1 |
| Calera | 15 | 4 | 26.7 |
| Caney | 14 | 5 | 35.7 |
| Coalgate | 24 | 9 | 37.5 |
| Colbert | 14 | 4 | 28.6 |
| Durant | 72 | 23 | 31.9 |
| Kingston | 24 | 12 | 50.0 |
| Madill | 48 | 22 | 45.8 |
| Rock Creek | 9 | 2 | 22.2 |
| Silo | 20 | 7 | 35.0 |
| Tishomingo | 49 | 18 | 36.7 |
| Tushka | 21 | 9 | 42.9 |
| Tupelo | 6 | 5 | 83.3 |
| Wapanucka | 8 | 8 | 100.0 |
| Total | 394 | 159 | 40.4% |
In part I of this article, it was mentioned that Liz McCraw, SOSU Dean of Enrollment Management, quoted their remediation rate at 52.2 percent. Certainly, compared to that, the local schools show a lower remediation rate. As we discussed last week, math is the most prevalent area of a need for remediation. Shown below are the ACT scores for math for the last six years.
Math ACT Scores
| 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | |
| Math | Math | Math | Math | Math | Math | |
| Achille | 16.6 | 16.6 | 17.3 | 17.4 | 17.2 | 17.5 |
| Atoka | 16.8 | 15.8 | 17.7 | 17.6 | 16.9 | 17.1 |
| Bennington | 18.3 | 17.7 | 17.8 | 18.7 | 16.9 | 19.0 |
| Caddo | 16.7 | 17.2 | 18.5 | 18.5 | 16.8 | 17.5 |
| Calera | 18.0 | 17.7 | 20.1 | 18.3 | 17.9 | 17.7 |
| Caney | 15.8 | 16.6 | 17.3 | 15.9 | 16.5 | |
| Coalgate | 18.3 | 17.9 | 18.2 | 19.0 | 17.9 | 19.0 |
| Colbert | 17.6 | 16.8 | 17.3 | 16.9 | 18.9 | 18.1 |
| Durant | 19.3 | 20.5 | 21.0 | 19.8 | 20.6 | 20.9 |
| Kingston | 17.2 | 17.7 | 18.0 | 16.8 | 17.7 | 19.6 |
| Madill | 18.7 | 18.8 | 18.5 | 17.6 | 17.7 | 18.8 |
| Rock Creek | 18.5 | 18.9 | 18.7 | 19.7 | 18.5 | 19.5 |
| Silo | 17.8 | 18.5 | 19.0 | 18.3 | 17.2 | 18.3 |
| Tishomingo | 17.8 | 19.4 | 18.1 | 18.4 | 18.4 | 20.0 |
| Tushka | 16.7 | 19.1 | 17.1 | 18.6 | 17.5 | 17.9 |
| Tupelo | 16.7 | 17.5 | 17.0 | 16.6 | 19.9 | 18.1 |
| Wapanucka | 18.0 | 18.1 | 17.1 | 16.4 | 18.4 | 17.1 |
A student’s score that is lower than a 19 on the ACT test requires that student to go through a remediation process and if additional classes are required it will cost the student tuition money for those classes and possibly requires additional time to graduate. Some schools above never had an average math score that was at or above the cutoff for remediation. Durant’s math scores are above the cutoff all six years.
No other school was above the cutoff more than two of the six years. According to LeCreatia Decker, Counselor at Durant High School, Durant has required four years of math to graduate since the class of 2003-2004. Once again, the state requires only three years of math to graduate. They currently offer eight math classes including one class which includes a portion of the class which is for math ACT prep/remediation. The Durant administration feels that this is one reason that they have higher math scores than the smaller county schools – they can offer more classes and require the four years of math to graduate. Business refers to this situation as economies of scale. That is why so many businesses buy up other similar businesses, to reduce costs yet improve the product.
Another reason brought up by numerous superintendents for the higher test scores in Durant is that there are a lot of professionals that live in Durant and whose children go to Durant. They felt that smaller, rural schools don’t have a lot of professionals’ children going to their schools.
According to numerous superintendents and other administrative personnel, they are coming up with ways to improve their overall learning and resulting test scores. For example:
- Kingston and Madill high schools have gone to an eight class day which has enabled them to teach additional classes including the ACT test Prep class.
- Madill has remediation work done in a class after normal school hours.
- Many of the schools require teachers to attend special conferences during the summer to learn “best practices” which can improve classroom teaching. This was especially brought out at Durant and Madill, but others are doing it as well. Durant administration stresses classroom rigor.
- Silo instituted a 30 minute class for every student in junior high and high school for either remediation or reading. This time is also used for practice tests.
- Colbert offers Calculus every year. In some years they only have three students, but they offer it every year.
- Colbert offers remediation in each class that is included in the ACT test. They go over questions that were missed and practice tests.
- All schools included in discussions encourage concurrent enrollment in either Murray State College or at Southeastern.
- Some schools (at least Kingston and Silo) pay the tuition for those juniors that qualify and take concurrent courses. The state pays for concurrent courses taken by seniors.
- Multiple schools give free meals to all students whether or not they qualify. Everyone agrees with the superintendent (Jay McAdams of Kingston) who said that a kid that is hungry cannot learn very well. McAdams has also said that the poverty level has a direct correlation on test scores, graduation rates, attendance and other school measurables. He went on to say that rural Oklahoma schools are in some ways similar to inner city schools in that respect.
- Many school administration personnel have stressed accountability for teachers including Madill, Durant, Colbert, Kingston, and Silo.
- John Caraway, Asst. Principal of Kingston, explained their motivation approach. They instituted a slogan of “Raising the bar” slogan which is a challenge to the students of improving classroom performance and the two types of tests, End of year tests and ACT tests. They started this with a motivational assembly a year ago when test scores came back with some solid improvements. All students were given a T-shirt with “Raising the Bar” on the back of the shirt. Speakers talked about the importance of classroom performance and how important it is to always strive for improvements. There were other fun yet motivational activities during the week. The ACT test scores came back this year with one full percent improvement over the previous year to a record 20.4! They are planning to continue this program.
Dr. Jason Simeroth of Durant is the superintendent who said, “The importance of education in the home is most important, after that the most important thing is the quality of the classroom teacher.”
All educators that were asked about this comment agreed with it. All of the points listed above are relative to what goes on in a classroom which most people agree with being only the second most important factor. What can be done about the importance of education in the home?? Some possibilities are listed below:
- Make community pride an issue. We always talk about sports teams and how the community should rally around the teams, but the reason there are schools are to educate the youth. Make the education as much of a community pride rallying point as the various sports are.
- Make ACT test scores part of school pride. In a way, that is what Kingston has done.
- Local businesses can offer incentives or recognition to schools if their test scores show improvements or their remediation rates go down. Many businesses advertise at the fields or gyms now, what about recognition for education achievements??
- Many business offer recognition for attendance to students, but maybe something could be done for ACT test scores as well. Every community has at least one business that can be a champion for learning.
- Schools should encourage more parents to attend school board meetings and get a better understanding of how a school works. Maybe there can be some presentations directed for parents. This could heighten their expectations of their children which can improve learning and resulting test scores.
- Many inner-city schools have a mentoring program for disadvantaged youth. Can something like that work for rural schools as well? There are the same issues. Jay McAdams supports this theory.
Numerous schools noted that help is now available with tutoring before and after school. Many of the administrative staffs brought up how their teachers often go beyond what is expected of them in helping students. The students (and the parents) need to take an active role (personal responsibility) in seeking the help they need in specific courses such as math. Normally the help is there, but too often the student is just not taking advantage of it. For those who might be falling through the cracks for various reasons, someone with the school system, whether it is the teacher or a counselor or administrator, has to identify the student (s) and actively guide them into seeking that help through tutoring. In many cases this happens, sometimes it doesn’t. We all need to be vigilant to recognize this situation.
Post a Comment
