Every year, sophomores and juniors are required to take the Kansas State Assessment (KSA) in math, reading and science. Last year, for the first time, LHS received a standard of excellence on the test.

The Standard of Excellence

   A Standard of Excellence is awarded if 15 percent of the students who took the assessment scored exemplary and less than 10 percent received an academic warning.

   Students are placed into one of the five categories listed below from highest to lowest.

• Exemplary
• Exceeds standards
• Meets standards
• Approaches standards
• Academic warning

   Not only did LHS receive a standard of excellence on the test, but so did all of the Lawrence schools.

   “Not a lot of schools receive a standard of excellence, and there are certainly not very many districts who can say all of their scores have received this,” Assistant Principal New said, “It is a great honor.”

How AYP relates to KSA and why it matters

   Adequate Yearly Progress establishes the percentage of students who need to pass the KSA.

How LHS is graded as a whole

   A passing score on the KSA is scoring at a “meets standards” level of 68 percent.

All schools are required to increase these percentages each year, and by 2014 all schools will be required to have 100 percent of their students passing.

   The AYP percentage that LHS is required to meet does not only pertain to the students who take the test as a whole, but also to their subgroups.

Key testing areas

  When looking at the AYP scores, no matter the department, LHS usually meets its target. Meeting these target scores is especially vital for students in the math and reading portions; this is because the No Child Left Behind Act only applies to these two portions of the test.

   Out of the three tests, the reading scores are usually the lowest. This has prompted the English Department to work harder to prepare its students for this part of the test.

What the English Department did to improve scores

   Two years ago the English department started a program called Reading Initiative to improve these scores. The Reading Initiative incorporated reading strategies into the core class curricula. Most classes have started to use DR-TA (Directed Reading-Thinking Activity) worksheets and graphic organizers to accomplish this task.

   About five years ago members of the English department got together and decided they were going to review the state standards for the test and teach these standards throughout students’ sophomore and junior years in preparation for the test.

   “By the third quarter of a student’s junior year the English department should have covered all of the standards,” department chair Michael Carriger said.

   Last year the AYP target for the reading portion of the KSA was 76.7 percent. LHS as a whole received an 82.4 percent. This contributed to LHS’s standard of excellence rating.   

   The English department has made strides to improve the test scores and is working hard to prepare its students for the test.

   “The students were able to pass the reading part of the assessment this year because our English teachers rock,” reading committee co-chairman Jack Hood said. “Also the students took it more seriously.”

  However, in the case of the KSA the junior high teachers have done their part.

   “The junior highs have had good success with the state assessments,” Carriger said. “They seem to be doing something very well to get a majority of the students to pass.”

Why these results matter

   The LHS AYP results matter because they tell the state whether LHS students are improving.

   Each year the AYP target increases, and the LHS faculty has to work harder to help students pass the test. Though this test is not recorded on transcripts or for a grade, the test is still important to students and to the school.