By LISA SIMPSON STRANGE
GLASGOW — Test scores for eighth-graders used to predict the students’ performance on future exams have been released and both local middle schools are showing gains.
Recently released results from ACT Inc. show both Glasgow Middle School and Barren County Middle School scored better than previous year’s results and the national average on the EXPLORE exam, a test used as a predictor of how successful the students will be when they take the PLAN exam in the 10th grade and the ACT exam in 11th and 12th grades. The ACT is used by colleges and universities as one of the parameters for admittance to their programs.
Glasgow Middle School eighth-graders outperformed the school’s overall composite score from the last school year. In the 2008-09 school year, students scored 13.5 in English, 14.3 in math, 13.9 in reading and 16 in science. Their composite score was 14.5, compared to a state average of 14.7 and a national average of 14.9 last year. The EXPLORE test is scored on a scale of 1 to 25.
In 2009-10 testing, GMS students in the eighth grade raised their scores significantly in every category of the exam: 14.8 in English, 16.0 in math, 14.8 in reading, 16.8 in science and 15.9 in composite score. State averages have not been released and the national averages available are unchanged from last year.
Mike Vaught, GMS principal, said during Monday night’s district board meeting at his school that he was very pleased with the results of this year’s EXPLORE exam and proud of his students and faculty for all their efforts and hard work.
The students were tested in September.
Eighth-graders at Barren County Middle School also improved on their scores from last year.
Last year’s BCMS results were: 13.5 in English, 15.3 in math, 13.8 in reading, 16.2 in science and 14.8 in composite score. With the exception of the math result, which remained at the same level, everything else increased over the previous year.
BCMS students this year achieved scores of 14.5 in English, 15.3 in math, 14.8 in reading, 16.5 in science and 15.4 in composite score.
Cortni Crews, principal at Barren County Middle School, said her students have been taking the EXPLORE exam the whole time she has been principal at the middle school and they are “incorporating high levels of understanding with mathematic and complex problem solving” to help increase their test results.
“That says a lot for an eighth grade student,” she said in a district release.
The state of Kentucky now requires all middle and high school students to take the EXPLORE and PLAN tests, but that isn’t the case in all states.
Officials from both districts stressed that these results don’t happen overnight and that students and teachers can’t just show up and expect these outcomes. It takes a cumulative process and a district wide effort beginning in kindergarten and going all the way through high school to make these scores a reality.
As students see the results, they’re realizing what they’re capable of doing, according to Benny Lile, director of instruction/technology for Barren County Schools.
“We’re hearing kids say they can do this (after taking these tests). They see they can go to college,” Lile said.
EXPLORE scores 2009-10 (8th grade)
BCMS 2009 2008
English 14.5 13.5
Math 15.3 15.3
Reading 14.8 13.8
Science 16.5 16.2
Composite 15.4 14.8
GMS 2009 2008
English 14.8 13.5
Math 16.0 14.3
Reading 15.6 13.9
Science 16.8 16
Composite 15.9 14.8
