With the scores improving at all but four of its schools, Bullitt County officials are pleased but not satisfied with the progress made on the CATS tests conducted last spring.

But Greg Schultz, assistant superintendent of curriculum, said the trends are good for the district but there is a sense of urgency.

"You never want to see any scores drop," said Schultz. "The goal is to sustain the scores and see them continue to improve."

With the 2014 target to reach a score of 100 in proficiency, some schools are close while others still have a way to go.

For the district, the overall scores in each of the tested grade levels either remained the same or increased. The district's accountability index was 72, shy of its goal of 77.8. Freedom, Lebanon Junction, Maryville, Nichols, Old Mill and Pleasant Grove elementary schools all reached their 2007 goal. Mount Washington, Shepherdsville and Cedar Grove elementary schools were less than 1 point away from their goal.

Eastside Middle was the lone school at that level to achieve goal. None of the high schools met their target goal.

Schultz said that there are many things being undertaken by the district and some of the initiatives started a couple of years ago were seen in the most recent test results.

In his short time as assistant superintendent, Schultz said there is a cooperative spirit between the central office, the administrators and the teachers to make improvements happen.

The days of taking the CATS test and not doing anything until the next year are over, said Schultz. Results should soon be back on the first countywide use of the Think Link program.

The county will test students three times prior to next spring's CATS testing. This will give teachers and administrators an opportunity to see how students are individually doing and what subjects they are struggling in.

"It's what you do with the information that's important," said Schultz.

The implementation of the Professional Learning Communities is important as educators will no longer keep those secrets for success stored away in a drawer. Instead, Schultz said mentoring would be done between schools.

In looking at the individual testing areas, Schultz said different schools lead the way in different categories.

"We should be learning for each other," said Schultz. "This district has a lot of experts."

A new elementary and middle school program - Study Island - will soon be unveiled. This would provide students internet access 24/7 to study guides. A public meeting is set for Oct. 25 at 6 p.m. at central office. The goal is to get more parent involvement.

While some of the schools at the top of the academic index ladder are proud of the accomplishments, they also understand the need for the entire district to excel.

"Success breeds success," said Bonita Franklin, principal at Eastside Middle.

The school earned an academic index of 85, which means it still much increase 15 points by 2014. She said the key to success at her school is the climate.

"Our climate is geared toward learning," said Franklin, whose students earned a district high 102.4 in reading.

Making students feel a little miserable for not succeeding is a point of emphasis. She said students who are struggling are immediately given a double dose of that subject area.

She said Friday Night School is for those who are at the end of the week but are not achieving at non-proficiency. Teachers in the four core content areas are there to assist.

"It's easier for you to do your work," said Franklin.

Having the proper attitude to learn is the number one key and Franklin said that is why the climate must be conducive to learning. And the expectations are high.

For the teachers, the mission is Engaging plus Meaningful equals Sustainability.

For the students, the formula means Encouragement plus Motivation equals Success.

A long-time advocate of using test data to find out as much as possible about every student, Franklin said the Think Link program will be wonderful.

And, in the long run, seeing students succeed should be the goal, said Franklin.

While admitting there is a little good-humored competition among the principals, Franklin said the bigger picture is to have a successful school district.

The elementary principals know a little about that competitive spirit. Pleasant Grove, Freedom and Maryville are usually near the top and the scores are normally very close.

For the 2007 testing cycle, Pleasant Grove's Joe Reister can hold the bragging rights.

With an index of 93, Pleasant Grove was closely followed by Freedom (92.8) and Maryville (92.6).

Reister, principal at Pleasant Grove since its opening 10 years ago, said that there are expectations. He credited the scores to a lot of work in the area of reading, where the students scored a 101.5. "Reading makes a difference in all areas," said Reister.

He also credited assistant principal Kim Sego's work on getting the entire staff to work together.

He said the staff is wonderful and they all expect the students to achieve. And when an area like math is 'lagging" at 91, Reister said strategies are taken to improve. For example, his monthly math quizzes will be a lot harder this year.

He also plans to lean on his fellow administrators who are doing well in certain subject areas.

Steps taken by the district are positive, including the curriculum specialists. And Reister likes the emphasis on principals doing more classroom observations.

Besides reading, Pleasant Grove led the district in writing (94.06) and attendance (96.67 percent). The attendance figures are important, said Reister. If the students aren't at school, there is no way they can learn.

At Maryville, principal Sam Cowan admitted nearly having a heart attack when the scores were released.

"I couldn't believe it," said Cowan. "I have the best staff in the world." Cowan said Maryville has a few obstacles that other schools don't, including the open classroom environment. However, with the professional learning community strategy, that type of facility encourages the cooperation and teamwork of the teachers.

The school achieved one of the top math scores in the state at 104.3 and also in practical living at 115.7. He credited the hard work of the staff, students and the parents in making the success possible.

"This is a hard-working community and I'm amazed at the number of parents who come into the school for things after work," said Cowan.

Using the Saxon Math program, Cowan said Maryville is the only one utilizing the program. He expects others may follow.

Over the course of the past couple of months, Cowan has been speaking at various schools, including the new teacher orientation, on the professional learning community. He said the collaboration between the schools is essential to sharing the good things that are happening in all schools.

He was proud that only one subject area dropped - reading. But going from 105 "down" to 99 isn't too bad, said Cowan. "The students want to work hard for you and we fight for our kids," said Cowan. "This is an unbelievable place."

Nearly 83 percent of Trimble County School students scored proficient in the subject areas assessed under the new Commonwealth Accountability Testing System implemented for the 2007 tests.

Taken last spring, the 2007 CATS tests were updated and redesigned to conform to new curriculum standards and to bring the state into compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act. The four schools in the Trimble County School District continued to make progress toward reaching the goal of 100 percent proficient by 2014. Milton Elementary School is the closest to that goal, achieving an adjusted score of 85.9 percent. More than 90 percent of the students tested were proficient in science, reading and mathematics. The students also had a 96 percent proficiency in science, 95 percent in reading, and 91 percent in mathematics. In other subjects tested, 87 percent were proficient in writing and practical living and vocational skills; 77 percent in social studies and 74 percent in arts and humanities.

Bedford Elementary School reached 77 percent proficiency, which includes both academic and non-academic indicators. Bedford did best in reading, scoring 88 percent proficiency, followed by math, science and social studies in the mid-70s and writing at 70 percent proficiency. Students scored in the mid-60s in arts and humanities and in practical living and vocational skills.

Trimble County Middle School scored 69.9 percent proficiency. The students performed well in arts and humanities, scoring 89 percent proficiency, and in reading, scoring 83 percent proficiency. Trimble County High School had 73.2 percent proficiency. In the five major subjects, high school students scored 84 percent proficiency in reading; 78 percent proficiency in social studies; 73 percent proficiency in science; and 65 percent proficiency in writing.

Because continued growth is needed, the district and the schools will be focusing on improving the schools' goals to reach 100 percent proficiency, said Sheila Rowlett, instruction supervisor for the school district. Rowlett said the district plans to implement strategies that compare the 2007 subjects, in which the students were tested, to each other to determine areas of strengths and weaknesses and focusing on individual student performance.

Rowlett said the percentage of students in each performance category - novice, apprentice, proficient and distinguished - will be examined. Analyses of student subpopulation, such as students who receive free or reduced lunches, performances will also be conducted.

"A determination will be made regarding which group's overall performance is farthest from the goal," Rowlett said. The schools will continue to use ThinkLink Predictive Assessment Series, a specific online testing program that correlates with the CATS tests and that can determine a student's weakness in each of the subjects assessed, analyzing the results to the minutest details.

For example, a student may be proficient in addition and subtraction, or in division by whole numbers but only score at an apprentice level in fractions. When a student finishes taking a ThinkLink tests, the teacher receives immediate feedback on what students have mastered, what they partially know and what they don't know.

These tests can also determine how certain subpopulations, particularly students who receive free or reduced lunches, will do on the CATS tests. A major mandate of the federal No Child Left Behind Act is to close the achievement gap of low-income students. If the gap persists, teachers can determine from these practice tests what strategies they need to use to make improvements within this subpopulation of students.

Meanwhile, the principals will particularly target all students who are doing poorly in math, providing them with tutoring during and after school, as well as focus on improving their writing skills.

"We're pleased that we are progressing, but we still have a great deal of work to do," Superintendent Marcia Dunaway said.

The Shiloh Board of Education Thursday night approved an administrative plan for implementing more testing at the lower grade levels.

All Illinois schools are required to annually administer the Illinois Standards Achievement Test (ISAT), but some educators believe the ISATs are flawed and do not provide viable data for measuring progress. All students between the third and eighth grades take ISATs in reading and math every year, but a science test is administered only in the third and seventh grades. Writing is tested at the fifth and eighth grade levels.

ISATs are designed to measure each student against the state learning standards in compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind legislations. ISATs don’t track a student’s individual progress.

“What I don’t like about ISAT is that it is one test,” said Gary Lewis, district superintendent. “I’d like to be able to tell the public that students started here and finished here.”

Shiloh will implement a Dibbles testing program to evaluate kindergarten students. A second testing system known as Think-Link is for students between third and eighth grade.

Students take the Think-Link tests via a computer hook-up. Think-Link tests are given in early October, December and in the spring prior to the ISATs. The goal is to have a series of tests showing how each student progresses.

“It provides hard data on what we need to do,” said Lewis, noting the computer testing method best suits the younger students.

“These kids are visual learners,” said Lewis. “The more visual things we can get before them, the better they do.” Lewis noted the tests are also designed to provide early identification of reading problems.

More timely identification of the problem permits the school to implement corrective measures that much sooner. “If we can catch them at that age, I think we will have less problems later on,” said Lewis.

“If they feel comfortable in school, they do better. It’s (the new testing systems) is money wisely invested.”

The kindergarten Dibbles tests are free and Think-Link has a nominal per student fee each time a test is administered.

Discovery Education today extended its expansion into the assessment market with the launch of Discovery Education ThinkLink Assessment, reinforcing the division's commitment to providing educators with the best tools to improve student achievement. This suite of assessment products stems from the powerful, proven ThinkLink Learning formative assessment services that help educators improve student learning and predict how students will score on high-stakes achievement exams.

The tests within the ThinkLink Assessment suite of products are created specifically to match student proficiency requirements as defined by each state's unique No Child Left behind plan. In 2004-2005, 92 percent of ThinkLink schools maintain or improved adequate yearly progress status (AYP). One school district, Birmingham City School Districted, reported gains of 50 percent in two years in grade 8 math and 27 percent in grade reading after implementing ThinkLink.

In 2007, Discovery Education ThinkLink Assessment is expanding its services to 21 states and Washington, D.C.--an increase from eight in 2006. The states include Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Discovery Education acquired ThinkLink Learning in April 2006, expanding the business unit's high-quality products and services to include formative assessment. Founded in 2000 at Vanderbilt University, ThinkLink pioneered a unique approach to formative assessment that uses a scientifically research-based continuous improvement model that maps diagnostic assessments to state high-stakes tests. Benchmark Assessment, from ThinkLink, assesses student progress toward meeting state standards for reading/language arts, math, and science. The assessment products powered by ThinkLink are proven to predict performance with up to 80-90 percent accuracy.

"The introduction of Discovery Education ThinkLink Assessment reinforces our goal of helping educators engage and measure 21st century learners," said Jaqueline Shrago, senior vice president, Educational Assessment, Discovery Education. "We are excited about expanding our reach to 21 states and Washington, D.C. in 2007, giving us an opportunity to enable even more educators to use technology to monitor student progress toward meeting state academic standards."

Read complete article at eSchool News Online.

Silver Spring, MD (April 3, 2006) – Discovery Education, the leader in digital video-based learning, today announced the acquisition of ThinkLink Learning, a pioneer in the field of formative assessment. This union brings the ThinkLink Predictive Assessment Series into the Discovery Education family of award-winning services.

“The acquisition of ThinkLink Learning demonstrates Discovery Education's continuing commitment to provide best in class resources that help teachers become more effective in the classroom and increase student achievement,” said Ron Reed, Executive Vice President, School Services, Discovery Education. “We've aligned ourselves with an assessment provider who shares our vision for developing products and services that help teachers provide students what they need to succeed.”

Founded in 2000 at Vanderbilt University, ThinkLink pioneered a unique approach to formative assessment that uses a scientifically research-based continuous improvement model that maps diagnostic assessments to state high-stakes tests. ThinkLink Learning’s Predictive Assessment Series assesses student progress toward meeting state standards for reading/ language arts, math, science, and social studies. The tests are preconfigured and analyzed by ThinkLink experts to provide teachers the prediction of mastery, proficiency, and adequate yearly progress (AYP) that is critical to monitoring student progress toward state-mandated goals.

“Our mission is to provide the best tools and services to support educators in improving learning for all students, said Jacqueline Shrago, President and CEO of ThinkLink. “Joining forces with Discovery Education allows us to reach more educators and students and have a greater impact on teaching and learning.”

About Discovery Education
Discovery Education is a division of Discovery Communications, the leading global real-world and knowledge-based media company. The leader in digital video-based learning, Discovery Education produces and distributes high-quality digital video content in easy-to-use formats, in all core-curricular subject areas. Its award-winning digital learning resources are licensed to more than 70,000 schools across the United States. Discovery Education is committed to creating scientifically proven, standards-based digital resources for teachers, students, and parents. Through strategic partnerships with more than 25 public television stations across the country, its public service initiatives, products, and joint business ventures, Discovery Education helps educators around the world harness the power of broadband and media to connect their students to a world of learning. For more information, visit www.discoveryeducation.com.

About ThinkLink Learning
Established in 2000 as a for-profit company by Vanderbilt University, ThinkLink Learning has been determinedly focused on the use of formative assessment to improve K-12 student learning and performance. The underlying mission of the company is to bridge the gap from university research to classroom practice. ThinkLink Learning has translated its mission into practice by developing unique formative assessment services that predict student proficiency, mastery, and AYP performance with up to 90% accuracy, and by creating industry-leading alternate assessment services that enable all students to reach their academic potential.

Students at Elmore Park Middle School outside of Memphis began using ThinkLink Inc.'s Predictive Assessment Series in December 2002.

"ThinkLink Learning was a way to identify and address students who were not making at least a year's academic growth in math, reading or English," McDonald says.

The tactic seems to be working. On the state report card Elmore Park raised its grade for value added in math from an 'F' to a 'B' in two years, and raised its value-added grade in reading from 'C' to 'A' in one year.

Administrator buzz about the results has been so positive that what began as an initiative in Title I schools has led to all but three of the 41 elementary and middle schools in Shelby County purchasing ThinkLink from their individual school's budget, says Karen Woodard, testing supervisor for the district.

For full story, visit: http://www.districtadministration.com/page.cfm?p=1188

ThinkLink Learning would like to congratulate the teachers and administrators across the district in their outstanding efforts to increase student achievement.

Source: www.nashvillecitypaper.com

"ThinkLink Learning, a private, for-profit company that sprung from Vanderbilt University in 2000, demonstrated an online formative assessment solution that is one of the few existing products to tackle 'predictive assessment.' This means the software takes assessment results and tries to predict how close students are to meeting state achievement standards--and how close schools are to meeting their AYP goals.

...ThinkLink's software--called (Predictive Assessment Series) --allows teachers to give periodic, benchmark-based assessments correlated with state standards, or teachers can create their own assessments using an item bank of questions linked to these standards.

...P.A.S. uses color-coded graphs, charts, and numeric indicators to report on the progress of students, schools, or entire districts toward state-prescribed performance goals. For instance, a sample class summary report for teachers appears as a series of multicolored bars, one for each content strand to be taught. Each bar indicates the percentage of students who are mastering that particular topic (in green), who show partial mastery (in yellow), and who are in need of major intervention (in red). The teacher can click on the topic to get a report on how individual students are faring--or by simply looking at the original bar graph, the teacher might realize he or she needs to go back and cover the topic again if only a sliver of the bar for that topic is green."

- 80% of all ThinkLink schools made AYP
- 65% of schools that didn't make AYP in 2002-2003 made AYP in 2003-2004

The PASS (Predictive Assessment System for Students) exams are offered by the ThinkLink Learning Corp.

These exams are given in every school in the county system three times each academic year, said Assistant Director of Schools John Hinson

The exams test students in specific areas of language studies and math to see where they are not meeting acceptable levels.

...'We want to get to the point where we are transferring a student's individual data to the classroom instruction,' (Rick Kriesky) said. 'We need to know what every student is deficient in.'

The Title I Distinguished School awards are based on performance on Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program tests, Tennessee Value Added Assessment System data as well as making adequate yearly progress as required by No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The awards honor schools receiving Title I federal funds under the NCLB law.

Source: http://tennessee.gov/education/031215newsltr.htm

County plans for lagging students

"Students will be tested early and often, and underachievers can expect after-hours tutoring and extra work.

That's the Shelby County school system's strategy for staying off a list of failing schools next year.

Students who score below proficient will be targeted for 'reinforcement or re-teaching, tutoring (after school and on Saturdays) and assigned homework/practice,' according to an action plan.

In elementary and middle schools, the system will expand use of an interactive computer program, ThinkLink Learning. Students would be assessed three times during the school year before they take Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) tests.

The action plan also calls for accountability teams of principals and instructional supervisors to study schools that had no deficiencies.

“Another computer-based instruction program that some schools are using … is called P.A.S.S. or Predictive Assessment System for Students, Adams said. ‘It’s one of the programs that Metro is using and they experienced a lot of success with it last year,’ she said.”

http://www.dicksonherald.com/archive/2002/12/122702/1227_computers.html

Paul Beavers, an eighth-grade American history teacher at Moore Middle School, thinks these products could be especially beneficial to new teachers who need guidance with their lesson plans and districts struggling to meet the law’s demands.

‘The testing materials tend to deal with basics, and that’s usually where there’s a huge deficit in those schools,’ he said. ‘(The students) can’t read, and if they can’t read they can’t do anything else.’”