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FREMONT STUDENTS' TEST SCORES
SHOW SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER RATINGS IN READING, MATH

By Beverly J. Lydick/Tribune staff

Fremont Public School students are improving in reading and math.

In 2005-06, students tested at or above grade level in both reading and math, with scores improving in 75 percent of the grade levels since 2000, when baseline data was established. The FPS board of education learned those facts Monday when presented with the results of Iowa Test of Basic Skills and Iowa Test of Educational Development given to students in grades 3-11 this school year.

The presentation by curriculum and assessment director Terry Snyder indicated third- and fourth-grade level scores have improved the most in the past five years. Students in grade four ranked at the 52nd national percentile in math in 2000. By 2005, that average had risen to the 68th percentile.
"(A gain of) five points or greater is considered significant," said Snyder. In reading, fourth-graders moved from a collective rank of 57 in 2000 to a 68 in 2005.

FPS third-graders tested between 2001 and 2005 moved from percentiles of 49 to 64 in math and from 60 to 64 in reading. Least improvement was shown in eighth grade, where math percentile rank dropped from 56 in 2000 to 50 in 2005, and in ninth and 11th grades where reading ranks stayed at the 55th and 56th percentiles, respectively. Snyder also presented the progress of classes as they moved through the school system from 2000 to the present. The class of 2009, for example, moved up in math from the 52nd percentile to the 55 percentile, and down in reading from the 57th to the 55th. "Typically, a class (as a group) stays at about the same percentile as they go through," said Snyder.

Home environment, parental education level and what takes place in the classroom all can affect students' test scores, he said. Board members also learned the cumulative results of American College Testing scores earned by the Fremont High School Class of 2004-05 ranked above state and national averages. One hundred seventy of 256 seniors (66 percent) took the ACT that year, and averaged 22 as a group. The state ACT average in 2004-05 was 21.8, the national, 20.9. ACT scores are used by most colleges and universities in the Midwest to determine admittance and scholarship awards. Categorically, FHS seniors scored 21.5 in English (state average was 21.4, national average was 20.4); 21.7 in math, (21.6 and 20.7); 22.3 in reading (21.9 and 21.3); and 22 in science (21.7 and 20.9). Essay writing was not part of the ACT in 2004-05.