Herald and Review from Decatur, Illinois • Page 46

1 Go. Page A4 Central Illinois- Decatpr, Illinois, Friday, October 17, 1186 iher homes to improve scores ffi Grading our schools what the statistic means. The district's rate is the lowest in the county- "We're doing a fine job as a cheap education, but could we do better?" he said. "For taxpayers, that's fine, but for the kids, I don't know if that's good." grade in the middle school has decreased to about 1 percent from 6.4 because most passed after summer school. As is true of most schools in the area, the expenditure per pupil for 1984-85 was $1,187 less than the state average.

Wisher was unable to say He also said administrators will be studying the scores of last year's eighth-grade class from first grade on to try to understand why larger numbers of the class fell in the bottom 25 percent in all achievement test subjects except reading comprehension. "We are going to track their growth and see if the scores are just unique to that group of kids," he said. "It bothers me. The scores are skewed too much to the left." Other troubling statistics include the student mobility rate at the elementary school, which is 32.2 percent, well above the state average of 20.8 percent. The administrators also will study the high school attendance rate of 92.7 percent, which falls .9 percent below the state average.

Wisher said both of these problems will be addressed with more attention to each student, a trend he feels will be statewide. "We need to do more individualization of instruction to make school real for them," he said. "I think the trend will be towards an individual education program for every student." He said he will be checking to see whether the amount of time district students spent each day on various subjects, which falls below the state average in all ares, was a reporting problem. "What are they counting we aren't counting?" he said. "Our scores show we're not doing that badly." He said class sizes, which are higher than the state average in grades 3, 8 and 10, have been lowered by adding teachers since the statistics were reported.

The percent of students not promoted to the next By KATHY BECKER HrsM A Review Staff WrHvr WARRENSBURG Release of the state-issued report card means the start of homework for the War-rensburg-Latham district administrators. Administrators and the board will be looking for ways to improve some of the district's statistics. For instance, the ACT composite for 56 seniors taking the test last year was 17.9, compared with a state average of 19.1. But Superintendent Ron Wisher said in reporting the statistics, he found that the scores do not reflect scores of district students who took the test at another testing center. "Whether they were the top or the worst we don't know," he said.

"But with 64 percent of the senior class taking the test, it could have an impact and lower the number." differences Maroa, Forsyth schools show in all subjects than the Maroa Grade School. "There could be an ability of one class to be strong," said Superintendent Steve Stenger. "Why (Forsyth) appears to be higher than Maroa I'm not sure there is a clear-cut answer to that. We'll have a better idea of why after two or three years." A committee will be studying high school graduation requirements and curriculum. The average ACT composite score for 45 students who took the test was 18 compared with a state composite of 19.1.

By KATHY BECKER HiriM 4 Rsvltw Staff Writer MAROA Administrators aren't sure why one grade school in the district scored consistently higher than the other grade school in achievement tests. But in future years as report Report card Here are highlights from the Maroa-Forsyth district report card: Percentages of third-graders at Maroa Grade School and Forsyth Grade school falling in the upper and lower quarters of national norms for math achievement: Maroa, 12.5 percent top, 10.4 percent bottom; Forsyth, 30.3 percent top, 9.1 percent bottom. highlights Minutes per day devoted to subjects in third grade: math, 37 district, 48 state; science, 18 district, 25 state; English. 93 district, 125 state; social studies, 18 district, 26 state. Class sizes for third grade averaged 25.3 to 23.7 statewide; sixth grade averaged 21.3 to 24.3 statewide; eighth grade averaged 23.3 to 22.7 statewide; and tenth grade averaged 21.4 to 20.3 statewide.

sense when feeder schools like the two elementary schools have 10.7 and 6.4 percent low income students. He said percent of high school enrollments and minutes per day devoted to certain subjects are inaccurate for the school because of reporting differences. The report card shows minutes spent on English in third grade as 40 compared to the state average of 125. Stenger said the district could have reported minutes spent in speech, spelling and language arts in this area but took a conservative approach. After including these sub Your choice of twin beds PANEL POSTER Sell little (CflSOSo 429-4353 ontticello teacher reprimanded.

Editor's note: This month, school districts in the state and parents of schoolchildren will be receiving report cards based on state statistics submitted to the State Board of Education. The purpose of the report card, which is being distributed for the first time this year, is to standardize information and to provide a tool to gauge each school's performance. Statistics regarding student characteristics and performance, instructional setting and school finances are included on the card, which provides data for each building, the entire district and the state. jects, the minutes per day for the district in English would have been 160. He said the district's percent of high school enrollment in certain subjects, which is below the state average, cannot be accurate.

"How can the percentage in English be 99.3 when less than 50 percent of the high school students in the state take English senior year?" he said. "We're not going to get excited about any of (the scores). We had problems reporting ours and (the state) had problems reporting theirs." PANEL Bolt-on rail bunk beds that will NOT wobble! $29988 TO 50 BEDDING TWIN SIZE FULL SIZE EACH PC. $9088 REG. $199.95 FREE DELIVERY! LAY-AWAY NOW FOR CHRISTMAS! 00 BOY fctoWDV, its ABOUT TifAE SoMoOY THOUGHT 80UT D0lrT SorAETVUNkS foR THE KlWf muwuz idiwcjt.

All mis WKk eVrSfcXTMlNG INStfeRe FO.VD$ SPECIAL1. Soys. (EtfeClAUY WANfc), CftlSS, jorr eve w-w nnxtM Report card Here are highlights from the Warrensburg-Latham District report card: Achievement test scores for 92 eighth-graders last year in top and bottom quarters nationally were: Reading, 25 percent top, 13 percent bottom; math, 14.1 percent top, 22.8 percent bottom; language arts, 22.8 percent top, 25 percent bottom. "The ACTs are a little less than we'd like to see," Stenger said. "We encourage as many as possible to take the ACT.

Maybe if we raise expectations, the scores might increase." Stenger questions some of the figures in the report card and said the document will become a better indicator of how the district is doing as reporting methods are refined. For example, Stenger said he thinks the percentage of low income students in the district should be higher. He said 3.2 percent at the high school doesn make mucn Sleep, Study Storage CHEST '16988 DESK S16988 America's most popular French Provincial canopy bed TWIN SIZE $9988 CANOPY FRAME $3988 BROADWAY your Car with a SPINDLE TESTER cards are issued for the Maroa-For-syth district, they will be looking for trends in this area. In achievement test scores in the report card, third-and sixth-grade students in the Forsyth Grade School consistently had more students in the upper quarter of national norms highlights Minutes spent in English for grades 6 and 8 were: sixth, 45 district, 98 state; eighth, 50 district, 80 state. Percent of high school enrollment in subjects lower than the state average was science, 37.2 percent to state 55.7 percent; English.

85.9 percent to state 99.3 percent; social studies, 35.7 percent to state 68.2 percent. said she is a single parent, several students witnessed the incident three weeks ago between Kinser and her 11-year-old son, Paul. Cody said her son told her he was yelled at and manhandled and his "head somehow butted the blackboard a couple of times" when he failed to produce homework assignments after being out of school a few days for an illness. Cody said when she learned of the incident she went to State's Attorney Hugh Finson. The incident was investigated by a policeman and the school principal and findings were presented to the school board.

She said parents should have been asked before their children were interviewed for the investigation, but some were not. About 50 parents from the school met Tuesday night with Pratt, she said. Parents compared notes and found many had complained about Kinser's conduct in school toward their children. But his record up to that point "was completely clean," said Cody. Cody's lawyer, Jim Ayers of Monticello, said he was "evaluating the situation." Cody said the matter was probably resolved and that she was "pleased" with the outcome of the board meeting.

She said she hopes her son is not harassed in school, where he has two classes with Kinser. This Week: Doctors Family Practice By CHERYL FRANK HraM Rtvtew BurtM CMf MONTICELLO A sixth-grade Washington Elementary School teacher, found to have violated the district's corporal punishment policy by knocking a student's head against a blackboard, has received a written reprimand and may be fired if he does it again. Jack Kinser of Monticello, who has been a teacher with the district 24 -years, was found guilty of the violation at the school board meeting Wednesday evening, said Superintendent Donald Pratt. Kinser declined to comment on the charges. Pratt said Kinser "did violate the policy.

I don't think there's any question about that." The board also said if Kinser violates the policy again, he may be fired, said Pratt. "This is a remedial situation in which a written warning must be given." The district policy says corporal punishment "does not include striking of the head, face or ears, and does not include prolonged or excessive shaking of a student." policy states that before corporal punishment, school personnel "shall give the student oral notice of the charges which constitute the student's gross disobedience or misconduct." According to Charlotte Cody, who TV LOFT-BED $OAQ88 0 TRUNDLE SKIPPER'S BED $22988 What little girls dream in If" (Q)p)jfQ EACH PC. SAVE UP ON BEMCO NORTH STREET No appointment needed Open 8 to 8 every day 2975 North Water 877-9096 PARK FREE! ON OUR LIGHTED LOT NORTH OF STORE.