Exams suck! Most school kids would agree but it’s even harder for kids that have fallen behind their class.
Debbie Valette’s special reading program for just such school kids in Boulder, Colorado, is one of our favourite charities here at Catalyst Exhibits and she’s been in touch to let us know how her students have fared in the state reading test, or CSAP (Colorado Student Assessment Program). We are delighted to report that the news was very good indeed.
Debbie said:
“They were very good. Our test is called the CSAP. Our kids receive two scores: one that tells them if they are Unsatisfactory, Partially Proficient, Proficient, or Advanced and another one that tells them how much they grew.
The growth score is calculated as follows: a student’s progress on CSAP is compared with the progress of students who scored like that student the previous year. So apples are being compared to apples. The district is happy if students have a growth score of 50 or more. A growth score of 50 means that a student scored better than 50% of the students that scored like him/her the previous year. If a student has a growth score of 99, it means that he/she scored better than ALL of the students (thousands and thousands in the state of Colorado) who scored like him/her the previous year.
Anyway, the average growth score for my 7th graders was 73 and for my 8th graders it was 60. On an individual basis I had some incredibly high scorers–99, 84, 95, 89, 86, 87, 91, 99, 86, 98. Seven out of 35 kids did not score to my liking, but I had no single-digit growth scores.
Anyway, while I’d like to think that I’ve got the “Kavorka” (Seinfeld reference), I really need to credit a lot of my success to Catalyst Exhibit’s (sponsors’) contributions. Because of you guys, my students were never without books at their level and they had a comfortable environment in which to read. Please pass on the good news.”
Debbie’s program always needs new books and funding so you can help out by contacting us here.
