By Carolyn Cole/Staff Writer

El Reno students’ reading and math scores improved according to results from tests taken in April by children in elementary and middle school.

At the same time, Special Services Director Lisa Horn said she’s concerned El Reno is moving away from a program that could have contributed to student success.

Some of the most dramatic reading score improvements happened at Webster Elementary, which is moving from a year-round schedule to a traditional school schedule this year. At the school, 93 percent of third-graders met state reading standards, a 26-point increase, and 81 percent of fifth-graders met reading standards, a 19-point increase. In 2006, all Webster fourth-graders met standards; 90 percent met standards in 2007.

Lincoln Elementary School, the district’s other former year-round campus, also saw progress in test scores.

School officials cited the district’s financial problems as a main reason for cutting the year-round calendar. While children are required to attend 175 days each year, they could also attend intersession classes, which added about 20 days to their school year.

Other reasons listed were vacation scheduling conflicts in families with children on both calendars, in addition to building maintenance and student and teacher burnout.

“I think a lot of those are excuses,” she said. “Those are things that could be corrected.”

Horn said she’s worried children won’t retain as much when they return to class in August, adding there are also nutritional concerns as well. All of Lincoln’s students qualify for free or reduced price lunches, while more than three-quarters of Webster’s student body qualifies for the program, which is an indicator of a high concentration of low-income families.

Horn said time will tell, adding El Reno teachers will continue other efforts to provide additional instruction to children, and the scores seem to show the district’s new strategies are working.

“We are proud of these scores; we have work to do,” she said.

With the exception of sixth grade, El Reno schools made the greatest gain in math, with third-grade scores increasing 16 points to 83 percent showing proficiency and surpassing the 2006 state average of 77 percent. Among seventh-graders, 82 percent showed math proficiency — a 15-point climb from 2006. Seventy-three percent of eighth-graders met math standards — 13 percent more than in 2006.

In reading, third-grade scores made the greatest strides, rising to 93 percent meeting standards — up 13 percent from 2006. Fourth-grade scores held steady at 96 percent, while eighth-grade scores climbed one point to 90 percent, meeting reading standards. Fifth- and seventh-grade scores showed gains at 86 percent and 87 percent meeting standards, respectively.

As other reading and math scores climbed, sixth-grade scores dropped. One-quarter of sixth-graders didn’t meet state standards in math, while 28 percent didn’t meet standards in reading.

Children in third through eighth grade take a battery of state standardized tests each spring. In third, fourth and sixth grade, students so far are tested only for their reading and math abilities. In seventh grade, students also took a geography test. Fifth- and eighth-graders completed tests in five subjects — math, reading, social studies, social science and writing.

The goal is to identify children needing help long before the standardized tests and catch them up with the rest of their class before students become frustrated, Horn said. The district is using short monthly math and reading tests in most grades to evaluate if children have learned subjects covered in class.

“You can’t teach unless you know where the kids are at,” Horn said.

The district’s Profiles 2006 report shows El Reno school officials are targeting more first- through third-graders for reading remediation. In 2006, El Reno was providing reading remediation to 36 percent of early elementary students, up from 20 percent the year before. Horn said the data reflects efforts to catch struggling children earlier and provide additional instruction.

One of the new ideas Webster teachers are testing includes changing class structure to allow children to work in small groups and improve their reading. During the 2006-2007 school year, Horn said each school day included a 90-minute reading time, and teachers wrote lesson plans in tiers, with activities for children at different skill levels. She said the hope was to keep children working on grade level moving forward while taking time during the day to provide extra instruction to students who are struggling.

These test scores bring El Reno closer to the state goal of having all children reading on grade level by next May.

“If you don’t get these kids by fourth grade … you lose a lot of ground,” Horn said.

Another strategy Horn said that seems to work is grouping together second-graders struggling with reading in a single class of no more than 12 children with a teacher specially trained to help them reach their grade level by third grade.

El Reno has also offered a Saturday School Scholars program for third- through fifth-graders for three years, and has recently added sessions for middle schoolers. School buses pick children up and take them for breakfast at a school site. Classes focusing on reading and math start at 8:30 a.m., and children go home at 11:30 a.m. The district also offers summer instruction.

Third grade

El Reno School District scores climbed in both reading and math. Eighty-three percent of third-graders met state standards in 2007 in math, a 16-point climb from 67 percent in 2006. The state average in 2006 was 77 percent.

Ninety-three percent of El Reno’s third-graders met standards in reading, up 13 points from 80 percent in 2006. Ninety percent of Oklahoma third-graders met standards in 2006.

• Hillcrest Elementary’s third-grade scores exceeded 90 percent on grade level in 2007. In math, 91 percent met state standards, up 14 points from 77 percent in 2006, which was the state average that year. Ninety-three percent of Hillcrest third-graders scored satisfactory in reading, up seven points from 86 percent in 2006.
• While scores at Lincoln Elementary showed improvement, they still lagged behind state and district averages. Lincoln Elementary scores climbed 35 points in math to 66 percent of students meeting standards, but it is still 11 points lower than the 2006 state average of 77 percent. The school’s score plummeted to 31 percent in 2006. Reading scores climbed six points to 82 percent meeting state standards.
• All of Rose Witcher Elementary’s third-graders met state standards in reading, a climb of 18 points from 82 percent in 2006. Ninety-three percent of third-graders met standards in math, up from 78 percent the year before.
• Reading scores climbed 26 points to 93 percent of third-graders meeting state standards. However, math scores dropped to 67 percent meeting state standards, from 78 percent in 2006.

Fourth grade

Ninety percent of El Reno fourth-graders met state standards in math, up from 79 percent in 2006, and 96 percent read on grade level — a score that held steady. Both exceeded state averages for 2006, at 86 percent for math and 93 percent for reading.

Hillcrest Elementary math scores climbed to 89 percent meeting standards, up 11 points from 78 percent the year before. Ninety-seven percent read on grade level.

Lincoln Elementary math scores made the greatest gains, climbing 22 points to 88 percent meeting standards. Ninety-four percent read on grade level, a slight decrease from 96 percent in 2006.

Ninety-eight percent of Rose Witcher students met state math standards, and 97 percent read on grade level. In 2006, the school’s entire fourth-grade class met standards.

Scores decreased at Webster Elementary. Seventy percent of fourth-graders met math standards, down from 73 percent in 2006. Ninety percent read on grade level, down 100 percent in 2006.

Fifth grade

Reading scores continued to climb slightly for the fourth year. Eighty-six percent of El Reno fifth-graders met state standards in reading, up five points from 81 percent in 2006. The 2006 state average is 85 percent. Writing scores also rose slightly to 89 percent meeting state benchmarks, which was the state average in 2006. Eighty-six percent of El Reno fifth-graders met state standards in 2006.

Math and social studies scores held steady. Seventy-eight percent of students met math standards, up one point from 2006, but still below the state average in 2006 of 84 percent. In social studies, 72 percent of El Reno fifth-graders met standards, up from 70 percent in 2006. Statewide, 68 percent met standards.

Science scores dropped. In 2006, 87 percent of fifth-graders showed proficiency meeting the state average. Only 79 percent demonstrated proficiency in 2007.

At Hillcrest Elementary, scores climbed 18 points in social studies to 67 percent meeting state standards, one point off the state average in 2006. Eighty-eight percent of fifth-graders showed proficiency in reading, up from 83 percent in 2006.

However, Hillcrest Elementary’s fifth-grade math, science and writing scores slipped. Sixty-seven percent of students met math standards, 4 percent less than the year before. In science, 77 percent met standards, down from 83 percent in 2006. Ninety-two percent were proficient at writing, down from 96 percent in 2006, but still ahead of the state average in 2006 of 89 percent.

At Lincoln, fifth-grade scores made large gains in math, reading, social studies and science. Math scores climbed 24 points to 86 percent meeting standards, up from a low of 62 percent in 2006.
Ninety-one percent met reading standards, up 15 percent from 2006. In writing, 96 percent of students showed proficiency, up 11 percent from the year before and outperforming the other districts’ fifth-graders in the subject. Social studies scores also improved with 82 percent meeting state standards, compared to 67 percent in 2006. Lincoln Elementary’s science scores slid to 82 percent meeting standards, down 4 percent from 86 percent in 2006.

Rose Witcher Elementary students led the district in test scores in four subject areas, and exceeded the previous year’s state average in all subject areas tested. Ninety-four percent of fifth-graders scored proficient in math and in reading — a 9 percent and 5 percent increase from 2006, respectively. In science, 97 percent met state science standards. In 2006, all fifth-graders demonstrated proficiency. Eighty-five percent of fifth-graders met standards in social studies — a 13 percent increase over 2006. Writing scores increased 9 percent to 94 percent demonstrating proficiency.

Webster Elementary’s reading, social studies and writing scores showed steep improvement, while math and science scores declined. Eighty-one percent of students showed reading proficiency, a 19-point climb from 62 percent in 2006. Three-quarters of fifth-graders met writing standards, up 23 points from just over half in 2006. Sixty-three percent of students met state social studies standards, up 25 percent from 38 percent meeting benchmarks in 2006.

Webster Elementary scores lost ground in math, slipping 12 points from 93 percent showing proficiency in 2006 to 81 percent in 2007. Science scores also dropped 10 points to 75 percent in 2007 from a two-year plateau of 85 percent in both 2005 and 2006.

Roblyer Middle School

While seventh-grade test scores climbed across the board, sixth-grade scores lost ground. Three-quarters of sixth-graders showed math proficiency and 72 percent showed reading proficiency. In 2006, 84 percent showed math proficiency and 89 percent showed reading proficiency, both exceeding the state average by 3 percent.

When the 2006 sixth-graders took tests in seventh grade in 2007, their scores remained strong. Math scores climbed 15 percent, with 82 percent showing proficiency. Eighty-seven percent met state standards in reading, up from 80 percent scored by seventh-graders in 2006. In geography, 91 percent met state standards in 2007, up from 86 percent, which tied the state average.

Etta Dale Junior High

Eighth-grade math scores made the most improvement, rebounding 13 points to 73 percent meeting state standards, from 60 percent in 2006 and 70 percent in 2005. Science scores also improved, with 85 percent meeting state standards, up from 76 in 2006 and almost meeting the 2006 state average of 86 percent.

Otherwise, scores held steady, with 90 percent meeting state reading standards, up one point from 2006. Eighty-one percent met social studies standards, down two points from the previous year, and writing scores held steady with 94 percent demonstrating proficiency.