Watkins report card shows growth

Apr 21, 2009 at 03:32 pm by Observer-Review


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Watkins report card shows growth

WATKINS GLEN—Superintendent of schools, Tom Phillips, presented a preliminary report by the state of the Watkins school district at the board workshop, April 20.
Phillips said the school has shown growth, but did point out areas where they still would need to keep an eye on in the future.  In many areas, Watkins Glen’s Effective Annual Measurable Objective (AMO) was much higher than the state standard.  The elementary school did better than their state set standard in math.
“(The staff) did a good job with the early morning program,” said Phillips.
One concern Phillips brought up was reading comprehension.  He said students’ reading comprehension should now get better because of the full-day Universal Pre-K.  Phillips explained getting more students into UPK would help them in elementary school.  The previous model was for half days.  Phillips said many parents could not pick up or drop off children during the day.
For the middle school, Phillips pointed out the middle level math and how that too was far above the state standard.  He added this is the third year the school has seen growth in the middle school.
One area Phillips had concern with was the low levels for students with disabilities.  He said part of the problem was because of a state requirement.  Phillips said if a seventh grade student has fourth grade reading level, that student still has to take the seventh grade English Language Arts test, because it is a state requirement.
In the high school Phillips pointed out the graduation rate.  After the last graduating class, the school had an 85 percent graduation rate.  Phillips explained though, this number only counts students who entered ninth grade together and graduated from Watkins within four years.  The rate does not count students who moved to another district or graduated in August.  The board did point out though, that the state standard was 55 percent.
The next regular board meeting will be Tuesday, May 5 starting at approximately 6:30 p.m. 
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