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Sisters, Oregon
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The contents of the on-line edition of The Nugget represent a selection among the stories that appear in the weekly print edition.

Sisters students shine on state tests
By Jim Cornelius

Sisters students gave local educators something to smile about amidst all the gloom associated with looming budget cuts.

Just-released state test scores from last year indicate that Sisters students are outstripping their peers in Central Oregon and statewide in reading, math, writing and science (see scores below).

Sisters schools have more students meeting or exceeding state standards in both reading and math. At the elementary school level, Sisters students performed especially well in reading.

In third grade, 89 percent of students met or exceeded state standards, compared to 85 percent statewide, 87 percent in Bend and 87 percent in Redmond.

In fifth grade, Sisters had far more students exceeding the standard (42 percent) compared to the state (26 percent) or Bend (29 percent) or Redmond (25 percent).

Sisters' curriculum director Lora Nordquist attributes these scores to a strong focus on reading at Sisters Elementary School.

"The elementary school has done tremendous work on their reading program," Nordquist said.

That work includes early intervention to keep students from falling behind and a consistent emphasis on reading skills in each grade.

The only area where Sisters students did not perform well was in eighth grade math problem solving, where 59 percent of those tested failed to meet the standard

According to Nordquist, students have a choice of problems to solve and the test hinges on a single problem. Many Sisters eighth graders chose the same problem and made a critical mistake, failing to make a conversion into square inches.

Nordquist said she plans to look at those student's local work samples to see if the poor score was just a single bad performance or indicates a deeper problem.

In Sisters and everywhere else, scores tend to decline as students get older. According to Nordquist, that is at least partly attributable to the increasing difficulty of the tests.

The tests themselves become more challenging and score requirements to meet the standard get higher.

By 10th grade, for example, the math test is quite tough.

"It's not a basic skills test," Nordquist said. "It's a difficult, challenging math test."

The school district's assessment analyst Karen Withrow is working on tracking student's scores from year to year, which will give educators a better picture of how students are progressing.

Reading/Literature
Performance standard (%):	Does Not Meet	Meets	Exceeds
3rd Grade
State	15	36	49
Sisters	11	32	57
Bend	13	33	54
Redmond	13	42	45
5th Grade
State	21	53	26
Sisters	09	49	42
Bend	16	55	29
Redmond	15	60	25
8th Grade
State	36	30	34
Sisters	30	34	36
Bend	40	37	23
Redmond	35	34	32
10th Grade
State	47	35	18
Sisters	27	52	21
Bend	49	37	15
Redmond	48	36	16
Mathematics
Performance standard (%):	Does Not Meet	Meets	Exceeds
3rd Grade
State	23	43	34
Sisters	16	38	47
Bend	21	41	38
Redmond	26	48	26
5th Grade
State	25	53	22
Sisters	06	43	51
Bend	24	55	21
Redmond	21	55	24
8th Grade
State	44	24	33
Sisters	35	27	38
Bend	47	31	22
Redmond	41	23	35
10th Grade
State	56	27	18
Sisters	46	36	19
Bend	55	28	16
Redmond	52	31	17
Writing
Performance standard (%):	Does Not Meet	Meets	Exceeds
5th Grade
State	31	67	02
Sisters	17	77	06
Bend	27	70	03
Redmond	29	70	01
8th Grade
State	34	64	02
Sisters	24	70	07
Bend	36	62	01
Redmond	44	55	01
10th Grade
State	21	75	04
Sisters	06	87	07
Bend	17	78	05
Redmond	26	70	04
Math Problem Solving
Performance standard (%):	Does Not Meet	Meets	Exceeds
5th Grade
State	38	58	04
Sisters	17	72	10
Bend	38	57	05
Redmond	30	65	05
8th Grade
State	48	44	07
Sisters	59	37	05
Bend	51	42	07
Redmond	63	33	03
10th Grade
State	51	45	05
Sisters	36	57	07
Bend	45	47	08
Redmond	48	45	06
Science
Performance standard (%):	Does Not Meet	Meets	Exceeds
5th Grade
State	26	48	26
Sisters	11	41	48
Bend	23	52	25
Redmond	20	55	24
8th Grade
State	38	45	17
Sisters	37	55	08
Bend	35	47	18
Redmond	32	48	20
10th Grade
State	38	41	21
Sisters	25	48	27
Bend	39	40	21
Redmond	31	45	24

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