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ACT scores help school to rebound

Madison High class of 2010 achieves highest scores in 10 years

By JERRY GUENTHER
Regional editor

MADISON — There’s some good news coming from the Madison Public Schools system this school year, including the highest ACT scores in 10 years at Madison High School.

Thirty students — or 56 percent — of the Class of 2010 at Madison High School took the ACT college entrance exam. They achieved the highest composite score at Madison since 1999 — and scored higher than the national and state averages.

Madison’s composite score of 22.2 was above the national 21.0 average and the state’s average of 22.1.  Madison’s English subtest score was the highest average ever, according to school records kept from the 1980s.

Dave Melick, Madison Public Schools superintendent, said the results are a positive affirmation about the work the students and staff have been doing.

Since the ACT is really an assessment of what students have learned throughout their school career, it is truly a team effort that involves nearly all our staff in one way or another,” Melick said.

Terri Gross, Madison Public Schools counselor, said the ACT results also provided a look at college readiness of these students.

Eighty-three percent of the Madison seniors were prepared for college English composition compared to 76 percent of the state’s students; 63 percent were prepared for college algebra versus 50 percent of state; and 63 percent were prepared for college social sciences versus 60 percent of state.

Madison’s science scores were below the state average but were at the national average and 27 percent were prepared for college biology compared to 35 percent of the state’s students, Gross said.

Gross said there were several factors that contributed to the Madison students’ success:

— Continued updating/revising of the core subject curriculum.

— Practicing ACT type questions in math, science and English classes.

— Providing John Baylor Test Prep software for learning how to take the ACT test.

— Tough curriculum with challenging assessments.

— Dedicated teachers, counselors and administration.

Gross said that even with the significant change in population in Madison in recent years, students have embraced the diversity that is present and are achieving.

Andy Luebbe, director of curriculum, instruction, and assessment and intervention project manager, said the school also recently received results from the state’s first-ever reading assessment.

Because it was the first test of its kind, school officials were not sure what to expect, Luebbe said. The end result? Madison officials are not “pleased or unhappy,” he said.

Some of the grades performed better than others, and school officials are not sure why, Luebbe said.

Some students, such as those in third and seventh grades, scored higher than the state in the percentage meeting state standards, but were lower than the state average in the number of students exceeding standards.

In other grades, Madison was below the state average in both the percentage meeting state standards and exceeding state standards.

Overall, Luebbe said, the results are about what was expected.

Still after the school’s first to fifth grade received the “Persistently Lowest Achieving Schools” label last May, there are reasons for encouragement, he said.

That was a tough label to have placed on the elementary school, so the ACT results — although not directly tied to the elementary school — have mostly been encouraging, he said.

Some additional demographic information will be released publicly Oct. 1 on the new state standardized reading test. That will help provide more information on what all the results mean, Luebbe said.

There are many factors that affect test scores, including familiarity with technology and the numbers of students who take the tests, he said.

Additionally, it’s important to consider several factors and tests when assessing the quality of education. The staff at Madison, the students and parents are working hard to make sure that all students meet or exceed expectations, Luebbe said.

“We’re encouraged, but we realize there’s still a lot of work to do,” he said.

Reprinted with permission from Norfolk Daily News.


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