By RICK KRON
Leader staff writer
Several area schools were perfect or near perfect on end-of-year testing in math, but they all scored below average in biology.
Only 21 Lonoke Middle School students took the federally mandated algebra end-of-course exam this spring, but all 21 scored advanced.
They join all 109 Cabot Junior High School North students, who scored proficient or advanced on the geometry end-of-course exam, and 99 percent of Cabot Junior High South’s 72 students taking the test also did the same. In Cabot, 88 percent of the students taking the algebra end-of-course exam scored proficient or advanced.
Students completing algebra I, geometry or biology had to take state and federally required end-of-course exams.
By scoring advanced on the algebra exam, the Lonoke students won’t have to worry about any remediation or retakes as this is the first year that students take some of the responsibility for their test scores.
Overall, 76 percent of students across the state taking the algebra exam scored proficient or advanced, 69 percent did so on the geometry exam and just 40 percent scored proficient or advanced on the biology exam.
Beebe, Cabot, Lonoke and Searcy all surpassed the state average on the algebra exam. England and Lisa Academy-North tied with the state.
Pulaski County Special School District was five points below the state average, and Jacksonville High School, with just 49 percent of the students scoring proficient or better, had the second worst passing rate in the district.
The high school had the worst passing rate in PCSSD on the geometry end-of-course exam at 37 percent proficient or advanced. Only 9 percent scored proficient (and none advanced) on the biology end-of-course exam.
Student scores on the algebra and geometry exam are used to determine if a school is in need of improvement under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
The algebra end-of-course exam is now called a high-stakes exam, meaning that ninth-graders and younger who took the exam this past school year had passed the test. Those who failed their first try will have two opportunities to undergo remediation and then retake the exam. If they still fail after three attempts, an alternative for remediation will be made available and they will take an alternative computer-based exam, explained Julie Thompson, with the state Education Department.
Statewide, more than 90 percent of the seventh-, eighth- and ninth-graders taking the algebra end-of-course exam passed.
The cutoff for passing the test is slightly lower than the cut-off considered proficient.
ALGEBRA
In Beebe, 144 junior high school students took the exam and 87 percent scored proficient or advanced. At the high school level, 105 students took the test and 43 percent made the cut, giving the district an average of 79 percent proficient or advanced.
In Cabot, 372 students from Cabot Junior High North took the exam and 89 percent scored proficient or advanced. At Cabot Junior High South, 334 students took the exam and 86 percent made the cut, while 19 students took the end-of-course exam at the Academic Center of Excellence and 89 percent scored proficient and advanced.
Overall, 732 Cabot students took the exam and 88 percent made the cut.
At Lisa’s Academy-North in Sherwood, 34 students took the exam and 76 percent scored proficient or advanced.
In Lonoke, 21 middle school students took the exam and all scored advanced. At the high school, 108 students took the algebra test and 79 percent made the cut, giving the district an average of 82 percent scoring proficient or advanced.
In Pulaski County, 1,079 students took the exam and 71 percent scored proficient or advanced.
At Jacksonville Middle School, 53 students took the test and 75 percent made the cut; 98 percent of the 59 students at Sylvan Hills Middle School scored proficient or better, while 89 percent of the 72 Northwood students did the same.
Sylvan Hills High School had 126 students take the algebra exam and 71 percent scored proficient or advanced, 71 percent of 139 North Pulaski High students also made the cut, while just 49 percent of Jacksonville High School’s 173 students scored proficient or advanced.
GEOMETRY
In the Beebe School District, 237 students took the end-of-course exam in the spring and 76 percent scored proficient or advanced. The state average was 69 percent.
Of the 107 students taking the exam at Cabot Junior High North, all of them—100 percent—scored proficient or advanced. At Cabot Junior High South, 72 students took the exam and 99 percent made the grade.
At Cabot High School, 425 students took the exam with 79 percent scoring proficient or advanced, bringing the district average to 84 percent making the cut.
At Lisa Academy-North, 23 students took the exam and all of them—100 percent—scored proficient or advanced.
Lonoke School District had 98 students take the geometry end-of-course exam and 70 percent scored proficient or advanced.
In the PCSSD, 870 students took the exam and 59 percent scored proficient or advanced.
At Sylvan Hills High School, 143 students took the exam and 65 percent made the cut, 62 percent of the 171 students at North Pulaski High scored proficient or advanced, while just 37 percent of Jacksonville High School’s 181 students taking the test made the cut.
BIOLOGY
All schools and districts did worse in biology than in the math exams. The state average for scoring proficient or advanced on the spring biology exam was just 36 percent.
In Beebe, 218 students took the exam and 45 percent scored proficient or advanced.
Lisa Academy-North had 22 students take the test and 46 percent made the cut.
In Lonoke, 109 students took the test and just 27 percent scored proficient or advanced.
PCSSD had 1,000 students take the biology end-of-course exam and just 21 percent scored proficient or advanced.
North Pulaski High had 180 students taking the test with 28 percent making the grade. Sylvan Hills had 22 percent of its 196 students score proficient or advanced. Jacksonville High School had 238 students take the test, but just 9 percent scored proficient (none scored advanced).
