2022 ILEARN testing results released for Lawrence County schools

Noah Dalton, The Times-Mail
·6 min read

ILEARN testing results were recently released by the Indiana Department of Education, providing a glimpse into how each of Lawrence County’s schools, grades 3-8, tested in the subjects of English language arts, science, math and social studies.

More:Four more file for upcoming school board races.

The scores measure a student’s proficiency in each of the subject categories. A student is considered proficient by IDOE when their scores either reach or exceed the given threshold by the department.

North Lawrence Community Schools

For NLCS, the corporation averaged 38.7% proficiency in ELA out of 1,623 students tested; 36.2% proficiency in math out of 1,620 students tested; 36.1% proficiency in science out of 518 students tested and 46.8% proficiency in social studies out of 263 students tested.

For individual schools, the highest and lowest scorers were:

ELA: grades 3-8

  • High – Shawswick Elementary School, 45.5% proficient, 117 out of 257 students

  • Low – Needmore Elementary School, 30.9% proficient, 47 out of 152 students

Math: grades 3-8

  • High – Parkview Elementary School, 45.1% proficient, 121 out of 268 students

  • Low – Bedford Middle School, 29.1% proficient, 118 out of 405 students

Science: grades 4, 6

  • High – Parkview Elementary School, 42.4% proficient, 56 out of 132 students

  • Low – Lincoln Elementary School, 24.8% proficient, 26 out of 105 students

Social studies: grade 5

  • High – Oolitic Campus, 50% proficient, 21 out of 42 students

  • Low – Lincoln Elementary School, 46.7% proficient, 21 out of 45 students

NLCS Director of Learning Maggie Dainton in-part credits the return to in-person learning for results for the district being increased from 2021.

“Coming off a year of remote learning, students were challenged to re-acclimate to the school and testing environment. We are proud of how they adapted and performed,” Dainton said.

“Overall, scores did improve on average from the spring of 2021 to 2022. We believe the return to in-person instruction helped these scores improve, even in the midst of returning to normalcy," she continued.

Dainton said NLCS intends to identify areas for improvement and make changes accordingly before 2023 testing.

“Our expectation is to continuously improve all schools and all students and identify areas of enhancement. We will focus even more on data this school year to help guide our classroom instruction. We hope to see that reflected in scores this spring,” said Dainton.

Mitchell Community Schools

MCS averaged 27.8% ELA proficiency out of 676 students tested; 22.5% math proficiency out of 675 tested; 32.8% science proficiency out of 232 tested and 25% social studies proficiency out of 108 students tested.

Individual school results for MCS were as follows:

Burris Elementary School

  • ELA – 27.5% proficient, 92 out of 334 students

  • Math – 33.6% proficient, 112 out of 333 students

  • Science – 33.6% proficient, 38 out of 113 students

  • Social studies – 25% proficient, 27 out of 108 students

Mitchell Junior High School

  • ELA – 28.1% proficient, 96 out of 32 students

  • Math – 11.7% proficient, 40 out of 342 students

  • Science – 31.9% proficient, 38 out of 119 students

Superintendent Brent Comer said MCS uses a variety of metrics to determine the academic development of students and the efficacy of educational practices within the district. While these metrics include ILEARN testing results, Comer said MCS to rely more heavily on other data, that provide more direct information.

“MCS uses a variety of measures to determine the effectiveness of our instructional practices and the academic growth of all of our students. ILEARN results are a set of data points that are used in this process. Although helpful in determining these levels of effectiveness and academic growth of our students, we rely much more heavily on other forms of assessment,” Comer said.

“Our formative assessment practices, which measure student growth during a course of study and direct teacher interaction and observation of each individual student are weighted much more than summative assessment scores which are designed to measure a specific moment of time, typically at the end of a unit of study,” he continued.

Comer said that MCS using formative assessment practices allow them to better identify the needs of individual students and help educators develop plans catered to those needs.

“MCS believes that by placing a more concentrated focus on formative assessment results and teacher observations, we are much more prepared to meet the individual needs of each of our students. These indicators are also extremely beneficial to grade level and department teams when tasked with on-going curriculum design, shared instructional practices, and the focus of professional growth,” said Comer.

“Most importantly, formative assessment results, or continuous assessment results, allow our educators to provide a more detailed plan of support for each child and allow for continuous evolution of our instructional practices and individualized learning plan for each of our students.”

Lawrence County Independent Schools

In their first year open, LCIS averaged 18.7% ELA proficiency out of 187 tested; 17.6% math proficiency out of 187 tested; 19.7% science proficiency out of 71 students tested and 25% social studies proficiency out of 32 tested.

Here’s the breakdown of how each grade level tested for LCIS:

ELA

  • Grade three – 33% proficient, 11 out of 33 students

  • Grade four – 20.6% proficient, seven out of 34 students

  • Grade five – 31.3% proficient, 10 out of 32 students

  • Grade six – 8.1% proficient, three out of 37 students

  • Grade seven – 9.7% proficient, three out of 31 students

  • Grade eight – 5% proficient, one out of 20 students

Math

  • Grade three – 42.4% proficient, 14 out of 33 students

  • Grade four – 26.5% proficient, nine out of 34 students

  • Grade five – 15.6% proficient, five out of 32 students

  • Grade six – 13.2% proficient, five out of 38 students

  • Grade seven – 0% proficient, zero out of 31 students

  • Grade eight – 0% proficient, zero out of 19 students

Science

  • Grade four – 23.5% proficient, eight out of 34 students

  • Grade six – 16.2% proficient, six out of 37 students

Social studies

  • Grade five – 25% proficient, eight out of 32 students

LCIS principal Joanne Symcox said she felt as though the school’s grades 3-5 testing scores were comparable to other nearby districts. She attributed lower math and ELA proficiency to learning loss suffered by students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We all knew that the pandemic would impact students' learning acquisition and growth as students had fundamentally missed out on two years of consistent instruction,” said Symcox.

“There appear to be similar deficits across all school systems in Lawrence County in math proficiency at the middle school level and I think this can be attributed to the skills and concepts of algebraic reasoning that 7th and 8th grade students missed practicing in late elementary school and early middle school. It seems all middle schools in Lawrence County saw lower than state average scores in English proficiency for similar reasons,” she continued.

She said that LCIS is looking to use these scores to adjust their teachings, with the goal of targeting specific areas of need and helping students who may be struggling after learning virtually during the pandemic.

“LCIS is adjusting our course for the next year to focus on overcoming those gaps and be more intentional in our strategies for reaching and teaching our students,” she said.

This article originally appeared on The Times-Mail: 2022 ILearn testing results released for Lawrence County schools