The Mail-Journal, Volume 29, Number 9, Milford, Kosciusko County, 11 April 1990 — Page 11

School news

I STEP tests show —

Indiana pupils are 'moderately proficient'

Most Indiana students continued to rank as "moderately proficient” in the annual ISTEP writing assessment. Superintendent of Public Instruction H. Dean Evans told the state board of education today, April 4. He said results reported from last December’s writing assessment in Indiana Statewide Testing for Educational Progress (.ISTEP) correspond to recent findings of the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). The ISTEP writing assessment was administered from December 5 to 7, to about 323,200 students in grades three, six, eight, nine and 11. Other parts of ISTEP are administered in early March each year to measure student proficiency in English/language arts, mathematics, science, and social studies. The March scores help teachers determine which students qualify for extended learning help in summer remediation classes before advancing to a higher grade level. Evans showed the state board two actual examples of students' writing to demonstrate top ratings achieved by some students in grades eight and nine.

Webster student makes finals

With one swoop of her pen. Erika Sincroft got the attention of her Congressman and earned literary accolades to boot. The

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LETTER WINNER — North Webster School eighth grader Erika Sincroft is presented with a writing award from social studies teacher Glenn Byers Monday. Erika was a district winner in the Speak For

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and he displayed a series of graphs with grade-by-grade percentages of students whose scores reached or exceeded the level of "moderately proficient" when measured for overall, or "holistic" effect. Overall scoring of the ISTEP writing assessment also looks at a student’s ability to focus, organize, and develop a composition in response to a specific "prompt” or assignment. The two student samples that Evans displayed had achieved the top holistic rating of 6.0 on the scale that considers 4.0 to 4.5 to be "moderately proficient.” The average U.S. adult writes at a level near 4.0. Evans pointed out that ISTEP writing samples are "first drafts.” and are prepared by students who are working to master writing skills they still lack. "It’s natural that students make mistakes,” he said. "If they wrote perfectly, there would be no need for them to study writing." Among the graphs he displayed, the example for grade 11 recorded a holistic rating for 81 percent at 4.0 pr above for "moderate proficiency," 47 percent at 4.5 or above "between

North Webster School eighth grader was recently named as a state finalist in the Speak For Yourself letter-writing contest.

moderately proficient and proficient,” and 24 percent at 5.0 or above for "proficient.” Eighth grade students consistently scored lower than those in the other four grade levels being tested. The graphs for grade 8 showed a holistic rating of 62 percent for “moderately proficient,” 19 percent "between moderately proficient and proficient,” and six percent for “proficient.” Evans noted two significant factors in Indiana’s annual ISTEP writing assessment. "First,” he said, “it is a good example of ‘performance’ testing, or ‘authentic’ testing, which has received a lot of publicity lately. We have been doing this kind of assessment in Indiana schools since 1985. "Second, Indiana's results correspond with those reported from the National Assessment of Educational Progress. The NAEP results also show that few students nationwide performed at levels considered to be “adequate or better.” As one example. Evans cited the NAEP finding that "only 28 percent of the 11th graders responded with minimal adequacy to a writing <?task which required persuasion." He pointed out that the scale used

Thousands of students from across the nation wrote letters to their respective Congressmen as part of the event. Erika's letter

Yourself letter-writingcontest. Students from across the nation wrote letters to their respecAe Congressmen as part of the contest. (Photo by Mitchell Stinson)

Named to Dean's List at Ball State

The following area students are among 21 Kosciusko County residents named to the fall semester dean’s list at Ball State University: Leesburg — Beth Bonner, senior, r 1 Milford — Stephen Galegor,

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by NAEP ranges from one to five while Indiana’s scale is from one to six. "Indiana's average writing scores have shown little fluctuation over the three years of the program's history,” Evans said. This is consistent with NAEP’s experience which shows relatively stable results between 1984 and 1988. In the 1989 assessment, however, he pointed out that 47 percent of Indiana’s 11th graders achieved “moderate proficiency” and 24 percent showed “proficiency or better” in responding to a “persuasive” prompt; that is, one that asks the student to write a persuasive essay. This is in contrast to lower levels of performance reported nationwide to a similar persuasive prompt in the NAEP assessments. Evans also said the writing assessment is a highly valued aspect of ISTEP in opinions expressed by superintendents, teachers, and parents. He said it has promoted both the act of writing itself and the systematic evaluation and improvement of writing efforts on the part of students.

was judged as the best among the entries from the voting district she lives in. “I was’ like really happy,"

senior, r 2 North Webster — Kent Campbell. senior. 404 Wade Drive Syracuse — Craig Cobbum, senior, 313 Benton; Amy Conroy, sophomore, r 2; Jeffrey Johnson, senior, r 1; and Joshua Lantz, sophomore, 103 Cherokee Rd.

ISEA PRESIDENT — Cindy Nelson was recently elected president of the Indiana Student Education Association (ISEA) at its state meeting in Indianapolis. The Indiana Student Education Association has a membership of 1,100 members. There are 40 chapters across the state of Indiana. Nelson will represent this group on the executive board of the association and will travel to Kansas City this summer as a voting delegate to the National Education Association Convention. During the next school year, she will travel to chapters across Indiana and surrounding states to encourage participation in the field of education. Nelson is a 1988 graduate of Wawasee High School. While attending Wawasee, she was an active member of student council and president of the student body. She is a sophomore at Manchester College majoring in elementary education and minoring in athletic training. She is the daughter of Nancy Nelson of Syracuse.

Erika said. "I didn't think I would win." Erika is a member of Glenn Byers’ U.S. History class at North Webster. The letterwriting project 'was designed to show - students how individuals can make their voices heard in government. Byers’ students wrote to Congressman John Hiler on a wide variety of current events issues, with copies of the letters being sent to RespecTeen for the judging process. Erika wrote about the teen-age pregnancy problem. She suggested that teen girls who have been through pregnancy should be recruited by schools to give speeches on the pitfalls of teenage pregnancy. Other topics that Byers' class wrote on included abortion, child abuse and drug abuse. Over half of the class received personal written responses from Hiler. In his responses, the Congressman wrote about legislation that would affect certain issues, and gave his personal views on those topics. Byers’ students may have had their doubts about the writing project at first but their thinking changed once they received those letters from Washington, D C. “When they began the project, reaction ranged from mild interest to skepticism," Byers said. “But I think when the letters began to come back they began to get more credibility in their attitude.” The letter-writing contest was sponsored by RespecTeen, a national organization which is designed to help parents and teens understand each other and themselves. An overall champion was chosen from each state, with each winner qualifying for a trip to Washington, DC. Erika wasn’t Indiana’s overall winner but her ideas were interesting enough to earn her top honors at the district level.

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North Webster releases honor roll

Richard Long, principal of North Webster School, has released the following names of those students who have attained honor roll status for the third nine-week grading period of the first nine-week grading period of the 1989-90 school year. Distinguished Roll Grade eight — Andrea Adkins, Jennifer Fouts, Charice Harris, Gretchen Hygema, Mia Rinehold, Erica Sincroft. Carmen Waldrop Grade sevent— Karly Biddle. Jennifer Boyer, Mackenzie Coy, Keith Galloway, Jenna Gladieux, Tim Hess, Julie Leedy, Scott Met-

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Wed., April 11, 1990 —THE MAIL-JOURNAL

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