Orangefield TAKS math scores near top in OC

Tommy Mann, Jr.
The Orange Leader

ORANGEFIELD May 10, 2009 10:05 pm

— Once again the Texas Assessment of Knowledge and Skills mathematics scores for fifth and eighth grade students in the Orangefield Independent School District are some of the highest in Orange County.
Area school districts recently received preliminary results for the mathematics portion of the TAKS test for students in fifth and eighth grades. Students in third, fifth, and eighth grades are required to meet standard on their specific test subjects of the TAKS in order to move on to the next grade. Students in eleventh and twelfth grades have five opportunities to meet standard on the exit level TAKS test in order to graduate.
A campus must have at least 55 percent of its fifth or eighth grade students meet standard in math in the 2008-2009 school year to be an “Academically Acceptable” campus. To be “Recognized” a campus must have 75 percent of its students meet standard in each subject, and 90 percent must meet standard in each test subject to be considered “Exemplary.”
According to Dr. Stephen Patterson, Orangefield ISD director of curriculum and instruction, a majority of the students have met standard on this year’s TAKS math at Orangefield Junior High.
Patterson said 86 percent of fifth grade children met standard on the first administration of the TAKS math test. Although this is down from the 93 percent which met standard in 2008, it is still above the state average of 84 percent.
Eighth grade scores improved by two percentage points from 2008 as 88 percent met standard this time. This is nine percentage points above the state average for eighth grade students in TAKS math.
“We are very proud of our students and our teachers with these results,” Patterson said. “But we still have work to do to help the remaining students who need to meet standard.
“We have already started an intensive remediation program for these students as we prepare for the second administration,” Patterson continued. “We will do our best to present them with every opportunity we can to be successful and meet standard on the TAKS math test.”
The second administration of the TAKS math is scheduled for Tuesday, May 19.

Tommy Mann Jr. is a reporter for The Orange Leader. He can be reached at 409-883-3571, Ext. 2619 or tmann@orangeleader.com