Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Massac County Schools Earn State Recognition
MASSAC COUNTY-- In southern Illinois, only three elementary schools earned academic excellence from the state. That means for at least three years, more than 90% of their students met or exceeded state standards. The schools honored include: Jefferson and Franklin Schools in Metropolis and Cypress Elementary in Cypress. Two of those three schools are in Massac County.
Jefferson Elementary near Metropolis is definitely a rural school. "Just had our 7th grade teacher hit a deer coming to school last week," says Principal Randall McDearmon. "We do have internet, but you can see we had to actually construct a tower out beside our gym in order to have internet access," says teacher Melissa Gallip. If you looked around a classroom you'd notice technology doesn't play much of a role. Students don't have ipads or laptops and teachers don't have smart boards. The most sophisticated teaching tool is an over-head projector. But the small, county school beat most others. This year 95% of students met or exceeded state standards. "We know we can compete with other schools," says Mrs. Gallip. But how? It's not smaller class size. Some classes have more than 30 students. Principal Randall McDearmon says the district has created an aggressive continuous improvement program called benchmark testing. "We try to make them as similar to the ISAT test as we can," he says. Four times before the ISAT test in March, students take benchmark tests. It identifies weaknesses and gives them a chance to improve before the ISAT test. "That keeps us accountable as teachers. It also makes sure we are getting that information out to them," says Gallip. "This is sort of a school report card see how we're doing," says McDearmon. 7th grader Natalie Hosman says she's now comfortable taking tests and is excited about how it will help her with her college goals. "They really push testing. They're already trying to get us ready for the ACT in high school," she says. Teachers say there's only one worry, how do they keep improving? "It does make us nervous, because once you start at such a high level, it's very hard to achieve higher than that," says Gallip. |
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