Chatham's writing test scores improve

Posted Saturday, June 28, 2008

 E-mail this page    Printer-friendly page

Chatham County, NC - The state has released 2008 writing test results. Scores across the state and in Chatham County Schools improved from 2007.

Students in grades four, seven, and ten are tested in early March. The assessment is scored on a range of levels from I, the lowest, to IV, the highest. The district holds training for teachers in understanding the scoring rubric for the test. Approximately 1,747 Chatham students were involved in the 2008 testing. The scores of approximately fifty students the state allowed to take alternate assessments are not included in the results below.

In grade four the county average improved from 46.3% of students scoring at or above level III in 2007 to 55.5% in 2008. The state average in 2007 in grade four was 52.7%. It increased to 59.8% in 2008.

In grade seven the county average improved from 56.7% of students scoring at or above level III in 2007 to 67.8% in 2008. The state average in 2007 in grade seven was 50.8%. It increased to 58.3% in 2008.

In grade ten the county average improved from 47.0 % of students scoring at or above level III in 2007 to 68.4% in 2008. The state average in 2007 in grade ten was 51.4%. It increased to 72.3% in 2008.

“We are pleased our state writing scores have shown improvement and will carry the momentum into the upcoming school year as we work toward making even better progress in the area of writing. Even though our scores are not above the state average at grades four and ten, all three grade levels made significant gains. We consider this to be a strong indicator that we are moving in the right direction,” said Superintendent Robert Logan.

Chatham County Schools has district and school initiatives in place that focus on better developing student writing skills. At the district level these include Writer’s Workshop, which is a process in which students choose their own writing topics and get feedback about their writing from a teacher and sometimes fellow students. Some school faculties have worked together at all grade levels to support what is required for the writing tests at grades four and seven in order to assist in preparing students before they reach the tested grade levels. Examples of individual school programs included a fourth grade writing camp at J.S. Waters; small groups of seventh graders working with an adult to improve writing skills at Perry Harrison; a step-by-step writing process in various classes at Jordan-Matthews; and teachers in subject areas other than language arts/English focusing on good writing skills as part of their regular, for example, science and math units.

The State Board of Education is currently considering options to give individual school districts greater flexibility in the type of writing assessment given to its students.