Green Country Students Are Making The Grade

Wednesday, August 15th 2007, 8:22 pm

By: News On 6

New test scores are out for Green Country schools. Tulsa Public Schools is touting gains on instruction tests, and the state claims steady increases for a college entrance exam. News On 6 education reporter Ashli Sims reports TPS is claiming big gains, but there may be more to the story.

On first glance it seems like Tulsa Public Schools made staggering gains in Algebra I. In 2006, the performance was dismal, some high schools had as few as 3% of Algebra I students passing the state exam. The highest percentage was 18%. In 2007, things look much better with the range rising dramatically, 25% to 86% of Algebra I students passed this year.

But that's misleading. The News On 6 spoke with a representative from the state Department of Education. She says this year's test is completely different than last year's. They actually redesigned the test to fall closer in line with what students are actually learning. So you really can't compare the two, and you can't really call it improvement.

Plus, if you look closely, seven of nine Tulsa high schools have 50% or more kids failing. Edison and Booker T. Washington had the highest percentage of passing grades with 55% and 86%. Central had the lowest with 25% followed by East Central with 35%, Rogers came in with 36%, Hale and McLain with 37%, Webster had 42% of students who passed and Memorial had 50%.

The state also released ACT scores Wednesday, and for a third straight year students have made gains on the test.

The average is now up to 20.7 out of a possible 36. That's slightly below the national average, but Oklahoma students definitely seem to be closing in on their peers.

Jenks is leading the pack with an average of 23.1, that's two points above the national average. They're followed by Booker T. Washington, Union and Broken Arrow which all average about a 22.1, still above the average.

Watch the video: Green Country Schools Improve Scores

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