Duplin schools perform on ABC report
By Catharin Shepard
Published in News on August 8, 2010 1:50 AM
KENANSVILLE - All but one Duplin County school made expected growth, and seven of the county's 16 schools achieved high growt,h according to the ABCs of Public Education report released this week.
Duplin County Schools as a whole made expected growth in the 2009-10 school year for the fourth year in a row, and for the first time, with at least 60 percent of students meeting their individual growth targets, the county schools also earned the high growth designation.
Superintendent Dr. Austin Obasohan said he is very pleased and encouraged by the school community's hard work reflected in the test results.
"We have already set high expectations to continue on this successful path for the coming school year. With the dedication and hard work of all of the people in Duplin County, we will once again show great improvement," he said.
Duplin Early College High School and East Duplin High School were named Schools of Distinction, the second-highest performing label associated with the measure of academic success. Both achieved high growth.
B.F. Grady Elementary, Beulaville Elementary, Kenansville Elementary, Wallace Elementary and E.E. Smith Middle were named Schools of Progress and met the expected growth. Chinquapin Elementary, North Duplin Elementary, Charity Middle, James Kenan High, North Duplin Junior/Senior High and Wallace-Rose Hill High earned the School of Progress label and made high growth.
Warsaw Elementary and Warsaw Middle were named Schools of Priority, or schools that are in need while Rose Hill-Magnolia Elementary did not meet expected growth, and was listed as No Recognition ABCs status.
The results reflect student performance in reading and math in third through eighth grade, science in grades five and eight, a writing assessment in grade ten and the eight End-of-Course assessments given at the high school level.
Overall, Duplin students improved test results from 66.1 percent composite score in 2008-09 to 72.4 percent in 2009-10, an increase of 9.5 percent.
The students' scores went up in several categories. Reading proficiency for students in grades three through eight increased by 5.6 percent, while math proficiency for the same group increased by 2.7 percent. Overall, the county rated a 61.2 percent proficiency rating in third through eighth grade reading and 78.2 percent proficiency rating in math.
End-of-course tests improved by 20.7 percent for an overall proficiency of 80.4 percent. Some of that can be attributed to new guidelines allowing the schools to include retest scores in the final calculations of ABC and AYP performance.
Duplin students also did much better on the science end-of-grade tests in grades five and eight, with scores showing a 21.3 percent increase in proficiency. Tenth-graders' writing skills improved over 2008-2009 scores by more than 11 percent. Instructional management (formerly voCATS) testing also showed improvement.
However, high school cohort graduation rate continues to be a concern for the school system, and the schools will place additional emphasis on reducing the number of drop-outs, officials said. The cohort graduation rate dropped slightly from 71.9 percent in 2008-09 to 71 percent in 2009-10.
The state Department of Public Instruction also approved the final Adequate Yearly Progress, or AYP numbers for North Carolina schools. Eight of 16 Duplin County schools achieved AYP in 2009-10.