This is a story that aired on OETA Public Television's The Oklahoma News Report in Tulsa Oklahoma as reported by Cathy Tatom and photojournalist Edwin Wilson. For more information or to contact us, please go to the new and improved www.oeta.tv
The verbatim script follows below...
OKLAHOMA HAS 42 SCHOOLS ON ITS NEW NEEDS IMPROVEMENT LIST. WHEN SCHOOLS GO ON THE LIST THEY OFTEN GET A LOT OF ATTENTION FOR THEIR DEFICIENCIES. BUT FEW ARE RECOGNISED FOR GETTING BACK INTO COMPLIANCE WITH THE FEDERAL NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND LAW. OETA'S CATHY TATOM TAKES US TO WILSON MIDDLE SCHOOL TO DISCOVER HOW IT GOT ITS STUDENTS BACK ON TRACK.
First things first, your heading... STUDENTS AT WOODROW WILSON MIDDLE SCHOOL ARE CELEBRATING GETTING THEIR SCHOOL OF THE THE STATE'S "NEEDS IMPROVEMENT" LIST BY TAKING ON A CHALLENGE FROM VETERAN LANGUAGE ARTS TEACHER, LINDA RICHMOND.
Linda Richmond/Teacher: "I've made the challenge, put the challenge before them to do as well or better than my 8th graders did the past two years." IT WAS HARD WORK BY THOSE STUDENTS THAT GOT THIS SCHOOL'S TEST SCORES UP AND THE SCHOOL OFF THE SO CALLED, "AT RISK," OR "NEEDS IMPROVEMENT LIST. WILSON WAS ONCE ONE OF DOZENS OF SCHOOLS ACROSS THE STATE WITH TEST SCORES THAT REPEATELY DID NOT MEET GOALS SET DOWN BY THE FEDERAL NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND ACT.
Caleb Starr/Principal: "You get on the list because your test scores aren't high enough, and you get off because they are." GETTING OFF THE LIST BECAME A WHOLE SCHOOL EFFORT. ANALYSIS OF TEST SCORES SHOWED MANY STUDENTS WERE HAVING TROUBLE SCORING WELL ON THE MATH PORTION OF THE TEST. WHILE SOME OTHERS HAD DIFFICULTY WITH READING. TO FIX BOTH ISSUES, TEACHERS DIDN'T JUST PUT MORE EFFORT INTO TEACHING MATH CONCEPTS OR READING SKILLS. INSTEAD, THEY FOCUSED ON TEACHING ONE BASIC SKILL THAT APPLIES TO BOTH SUBJECTS.
Caleb Starr/Principal: "Specifically reading. Reading impacts every single area so one of the things that's done here at Wilson is that all kids take a reading class regardless of if they are a high performing student or a low performing student or even a student in the middle we know that reading, you have to be able to read your math textbook to be able to understand math concepts, you have to be able to read to be able to read your book to understand any subject so we specifically target reading and that's one of the ways we've really help our test scores go up."
"Getting off the needs improvement list isn't easy, it takes two full years of improved scores to do it." NOW IT'S UP TO THIS NEW CLASS TO KEEP ITS TEST SCORES HIGH ENOUGH SO THE SCHOOL DOESN'T SLIP BACK ONTO THE NEEDS IMPROVEMENT LIST. PRINCIPAL CALEB STARR SAYS HIS STAFF ALREADY HAS A PLAN TO CATCH PROBLEMS WHILE THEY'RE SMALL AND EASILY REMEDIATED.
Caleb Starr/Principal: "We take benchmark tests periodically so the teachers look at the benchmark data and see which specific pass skill that they are not doing well in." THEN MORE EMPHASIS WILL BE PLACED ON THOSE SKILLS TO KEEP THESE STUDENTS ON TRACK FOR ACADEMIC SUCCESS. AND KEEP THE SCHOOL OFF THE STATE "NEEDS IMPROVEMENT" LIST. IN TULSA, I'M CATHY TATOM, THE OKLAHOMA NEWS REPORT.
Loading...
0:55Hoover High School Lockdownby Ailesh118,436 views
Featured Video
All Comments