Did you see Jacksonville High School’s state test score results?
Only 8.9 percent of the ninth graders score at or above grade level in math, meaning more than 90 percent are slightly under or a whole lot under grade level.
Less than 9 percent making the grade! Horrible, terrible, absolutely unacceptable.
But Jacksonville breaking away from the Pulaski County Special School District should give students a fresh start and a chance to improve.
As bad as those math scores are, here’s the silver lining: In the last year (2015-16) with PCSSD, less than 5 percent (4.4 percent to be exact) of Jacksonville students met or exceeded goals. That means the percentage of freshmen understanding math doubled under Jacksonville-North Pulaski School District leadership.
Doubled!
If that trend continues this school year, that score will be 17.8 percent – still horrible. But in 2018-19, it will be 35.6 percent – getting better – and then coming out of the first year in the new high school, it willl be 71.2 percent. Now we are talking!
Is it a pipedream? No. The numbers are very achievable as long as the district keeps students first and politics, turf wars and miniature kingdoms last. That’s what plagued PCSSD and caused the state to take it over years ago.
In science, 20.4 percent of freshmen last April showed they understood science at or above grade level. The state calls it meeting or exceeding expectations. The year before, only 3.2 percent of the ninth graders did well, meaning in one year there was more than a 600 percent turnaround. Does that mean next year more than 120 percent of the student will make the cut? Mathematically, no, but it shows the district is moving in the right direction.
In English, ninth graders jumped from 27.3 percent to 37 percent, a move of about 40 percent. By the time they graduate, following the pattern, it could be at 75 percent.
The same idea holds true in reading, where yes, the scores are ugly, but almost 100 percent improvement from the year before. In writing, the jump was more than 130 percent.
The entire district has made a strong commitment to literacy, meaning those test scores could improve at those “dream” rates or even faster.
Even math scores will go up because there is almost more reading than math in the state math exams.
But why look at freshman scores? Because more than likely that will be the first graduating class from the new $60 million Jacksonville High School, and wouldn’t it be great to match that jewel of a facility with a crown of outstanding students?