Local schools pass grade

By Sam Harvey
Staff Reporter

Indian River School District students continued to pace state averages, according to results from the Delaware Department of Education (DEDOE), released last week.

The spring cycle of the Delaware State Testing Program (DSTP) involves science and social studies for eighth- and 11th-graders, and while this year’s cycle returned more status quo than stellar results, there were a few starbursts, too.

District-wide, the percentage of 11th-grade science students meeting or exceeding state standards dipped by two percentage points from 2004, to 57 percent this year. Social studies students picked up a point or two, to nearly 52 percent.

These percentages were both roughly two percentage points below statewide averages.

However, district 8th-graders improved substantially in both areas — by more than three percentage points in science (to nearly 61 percent), and by more than seven points in social studies (to more than 63 percent). These results were eight and nine points above 2005 statewide averages, respectively.

Locally, Selbyville Middle School students showed solid gains in both science and social studies, to nearly 72 percent in science, and 76 percent in social studies.

While Southern Delaware School of the Arts (SDSA) eighth-graders couldn’t repeat last year’s 90-percent outcome in science testing, they stayed strong at better than 80 percent. And they better than repeated in social studies, moving several points to more than 91 percent of all students meeting or exceeding the standards.

Saving the best for last, Indian River High School 11th-graders maintained their position as among the best science testers in the state, placing sixth among all individual schools (public or charter), at nearly 67 percent meeting or exceeding. Indian River High social studies scores also increased slightly, to more than 65 percent meeting or exceeding.

Up a few or down a few, Director of Instruction Dr. Susan Bunting stood by the district’s academic rigor and called results encouraging overall.

Federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) guidelines are targeting an eventual goal of 100 percent of all students meeting standards, by 2014. However, it’s up to each state to determine how best to go about that.

Bunting said she’d continue to challenge the district’s teachers to complement those testing marks with deep level processing for the students, even as they kept their ultimate goals in sight. “Naturally, I’ll be totally satisfied when we reach that goal,” she pointed out. “We’re definitely making progress.”