Two Glendora Schools Show Gains in Testing Data

Students at Sellers Elementary and Goddard Middle School have been showing steady growth in API scores the past few years.

Overall, Sellers showed consistent gains in API since 2006. In 2009, the school reached a peak score of 911, and then dropped to 891 the following year.

For 2010-2011, the school’s API rose to 910.

School-wide, over 79 percent of the students were proficient/advanced in CST ELA for 2010-2011.

The 4th grade showed significant growth in ELA testing with nearly 93 percent of 4th graders either advanced/proficient in English Language Arts last year.

“This is the fifth-consecutive year with no students in the 4th grade scoring in the far below basic range,” Bishop said.

School-wide, nearly 90 percent of students were proficient/advanced in math in California Standardized Testing for 2010-2011. In science, Sellers saw 81 percent of their students proficient and advanced.

For Goddard, their API school-wide was 872 in 2010-2011, two points down from 874 the previous year.

Their 6th grade experienced slight drops in their ELA and math, with an eight point drop to 70 percent proficient in ELA and a six point drop to 68 percent proficiency in math on the STAR tests last year.

“We are working on analyzing our curriculum to move more of the basic students … to proficient and/or advanced,” Jacobsen said.

Compared to the state average, Goddard’s 6th grade fared well in word analysis testing last year, with 79 percent proficient/advanced. The state average was 73 percent.

In reading comprehension, Jacobsen said growth is needed; with 65 percent of 6th graders proficient/advanced with the state average close behind at 61 percent.

In 7th grade math, 71 percent of students were proficient/advanced, while an impressive 100 percent were proficient/advanced in Algebra for 2010-2011.

The 8th grade saw positive gains in History/Social Science, Science and in ELA.

Both schools outlined their action plans for further growth in student successes.

Sellers wants to continue engaging student learning from a variety of aspects, including increasing SMART Boards, projectors and document cameras.

“As funding permits, we continue to add more SMART technology to our classrooms,” Bishop said. “My goal is to have them all by the end of this year.”

For Goddard, the approach is to increase proficiency in grade-level reading and language arts and math standards.

“We’ll continue to exam the rigor of math placement for our students,” Jacobsen said. “This past year our students were successful with the increased rigor.”

Jacobsen also wants to implement the Accelerated Reader and STAR diagnostic programs to aid in comprehension of those subjects.