By Diana Whittle
Traditional wisdom says that students are not especially excited by taking tests.
Yet, the score for Kyrene kids on the new state standardized test, known as the AzMERIT, was better than the state average.
District results on the assessment tool showed that Kyrene schools are performing substantially better than the average school district in Arizona, with 51 percent of Kyrene students passing the English language arts section and 54 percent passing the math section.
State averages were 34 percent in English language arts and 35 percent in math.
In addition, 15 Kyrene schools achieved scores that were in the top 10 percent of all schools, including: Sierra, Cerritos, Monte Vista, Cielo, Mirada, Waggoner, Kyrene Traditional Academy—Sureño Campus, Brisas, Estrella, Mariposa, Milenio, Lagos, Esperanza, Altadeña and Aprende.
“Teachers in the district have been working really hard over the last four years to get this assessment tool off the ground,” said Lorah Neville, executive director of Educational Services for the district.
“AzMERIT differs from AIMS, which was multiple choice questions, by requiring that students demonstrate reading comprehension and problem-solving skills. They not only have to provide the right answer, but also must be able to explain why it’s correct.”
The increased complexity of the test required that teachers receive some training on new ways to teach. The district offered professional development to make the instructional shift and to become comfortable with a computer-administered standardized test, explained Neville.
The AzMERIT is based on Arizona’s College and Career Ready Standards. It stands for Arizona’s Measurement of Educational Readiness. Students who pass AzMERIT prove that they meet higher expectations and are on track for college or a career after high school graduation, which is important to the business community.
When compared to the results of other East Valley schools, Kyrene is tied in first place for math scores and in second place in English language arts. Chandler schools demonstrated they are closest competitor of the Kyrene district.
In math, Sierra ranked in the top 10 percent, and Cerritos and Monte Vista ranked in the top 25 percent among all schools in the peer group.
Another positive for Kyrene families is the emphasis on early childhood readiness, which is supported by all-day kindergarten classes not offered in other districts, said Neville.
“We are extremely proud of how well our schools and our students performed on the AzMERIT assessment,” said Kyrene Superintendent, Dr. David K. Schauer.
“While we celebrate these schools’ achievements, we recognize that these numbers represent a benchmark from which we hope all schools may improve,” said Dr. Schauer.
“We will now use these results to identify areas for improvement and work with our principals and their staff on developing plans to provide students with the support they need to improve and grow.”
The next AzMERIT exam will be administered in Spring 2016.
In the meantime, Kyrene will continue to use other assessments throughout the district to monitor student mastery of the standards.
For more information on Kyrene schools and AzMERIT, visit the Kyrene website at www.kyrene.org.
