DCSC pleased with ISTEP but seeking improvement

Delphi Community School Corporation Superintendent Ralph Walker said in a Jan. 12 Comet interview that he was "very satisfied" with the latest round of ISTEP testing, but has higher goals for future results.

"We will work hard to become the number one school in the state," he proclaimed.

Camden Elementary principal Carol Coon reported all students scored above the state average in English language arts.

Most students scored above state average in math. Those who did not were only slightly below according to Coon.

She went on to say science results were improved from previous years.

"There has been more emphasis placed on science in the last two or three years," Coon commented. "We expect to continue to see higher scores there."

Walker said gender, ethnicity and free and reduced lunch subgroups, defined by 10 or more representative students, scored close to state averages. Special education was significantly lower.

"I feel like we can do a lot more with special education," said Walker. "We will focus more attention on these students, possibly including additional in-service with the staff."

Attention to students is a key element of success for Hillcrest Elementary according to principal Bill Shidler.

"We are pleased with our students' results and will be finding ways to improve even more over the next couple years," he commented.

Middle school principal Robert DeLaRosa said the new retention policy should help make a difference.

"We've used the policy for the first time recently," he said. "We are excited to see results from our efforts."

High school principal Barry Stone agreed with Walker's goal.

"We want to be number one in the state," began Stone. "Our first goal is to get into the top third. Remediation and articulation will be key, and block scheduling will help provide what we need."

Coon echoed the sentiments of her fellow administrators.

"Every school had some areas where they really did well and we all have areas where we need to improve," she explained. "We are going to be analyzing the appliedskills portion during the next halfday in-service. We will be able to look at students' test and scoring guides and find key areas of mistakes being made."

"We can then decide what best practices, instructional strategies and assessments we can use to meet students' needs and help them improve their scores," she concluded.

Walker's statements of confidence concerning the corporation's future ISTEP ranking come on the heels of several programming and scheduling adjustments set into motion during the past few months. Full-day kindergarten, block scheduling, new reading programs, retention policies and corporation-wide renovations top DCSC plans.