Indian River students continued to perform among the best in the state on standardized tests, but achievement gaps between racial groups continued in 2007. Scores from the statewide spring test were released last week.
Black students, particularly at the high school level, continued to lag behind their white counterparts in Indian River and statewide, while Hispanic students made improvements district wide. Despite the gaps — which have been a subject of concern statewide and a problem with no clear solution — Indian River administrators lauded the work of teachers and students.
“I was pleased. I feel that our students and our staff members are really working hard to enable everyone to be successful,” said Dr. Susan Bunting, Indian River School District superintendent. “We are teaching to the standards. When you teach to the standards, they are going to do well.”
District students continued to excel on the reading test, with at least 90 percent of fifth-grade students meeting or exceeding the standards in six district schools. In each of the district’s middle schools, at least 90 percent of the eight-graders met or exceeded the standard on the test.
At least 83 percent of third-graders met the standard in each of the district’s elementary schools and at least 90 percent met the standard in four of those schools. At Indian River High School, 84 percent of 10th-graders met the standard on the reading test, a 9 point increase from last year. On the reading test at the third-, fifth- and eighth-grade levels, Indian River performed among the top three school districts in the state.
At Indian River High School, though, only 53 percent of black 10th-grade students met or exceeded the standard on the reading test. The score, up from 36 percent last year, marked a dramatic increase but still symbolized one the worst of the district’s achievement gap problems. More than 88 percent of white students met the standard on that test.
Mark Steele, principal at Indian River High School, said his staff plans to continue to work with underachieving students but said there is no clear answer to the problem.
“It really involves the parents more than anything else,” Steele said. “When parents support their child in high school, those are the ones who are more successful.”
Roughly 72 percent of 10th-grade students met the standard on the reading test district wide. More than 56 percent of black students statewide met the standard on the 10th-grade reading test, beating Indian River’s average by more than 3 points.
At the lower levels, black students mostly outperformed the state average in reading. On the eighth-grade reading test, for instance, nearly 83 percent of black Indian River students met or exceeded the standard, eclipsing the state average by more than 12 points.
But on the writing test — where students struggled statewide with an average of only 67 percent of students meeting the standard — the achievement gaps were most pronounced.
Only 25 percent of black 10th-grade students at Indian River High School met the standard on the writing test, with 74 percent of white students doing the same, a dramatic drop from last year, when more than 72 percent of black students met the standard.
Roughly 82 percent of white students at Indian River High School met the standard on the writing test last year, also dropping this year. The average of black students meeting the standard at Indian River High School falls 30 points short of the average for black students on that test statewide. Black students are roughly 13 percent of the student population at Indian River High School.
“We will keep on trying to work toward closing our achievement gaps. This year our African Americans took a drop. That’s something we will carefully analyze. One thing we are watching for is that we don’t lower what we expect to lower gaps. In other places, you’ll find that’s happening. We want to be helping all students achieve more.”
At Frankford Elementary School — a school that has received national praise for its ability to close achievement gaps — students continued to set an example, despite the school’s diversity. In a school that boats a 75 percent low-income population, low-income students scored only roughly 7 points worse than white students on the fifth-grade reading test. Achievement gaps among white and Hispanic students — which make up 38 percent and 33 percent of the school, respectively — were too narrow to measure.
On the spring 2003 test, black fifth-grade students scored more than 20 points worse than white students on the reading test. That gap had closed last year and black students scored nearly 7 points worse this year. On the third-grade reading test, black students scored 19 points worse than white students while Hispanic students actually scored more than 6 points better with the low-income gap too narrow to measure.
Visit www.doe.k12.de.us and follow the links for “Delaware Student Testing Program” and “DSTP Online Reports” for full reports on the results from this year and from previous years.