AIMS Scores Are In....

...and I am one happy camper! Aside from the fact that I absolutely HATE teaching to a test, let's take a look at what the scores tell us.

Gee, I am a really good teacher....and even though I despise the test and everything it stands for, right now I could use a little validation on my teaching skills. So....the seventh grade math and reading scores at my middle school, and the eighth grade math scores were the ONLY ONES to see an increase. Let's focus in on math - 51.9 (let's call it 52) percent of our seventh graders met or exceeded the standards for math - a considerably large change overall, keeping in mind that this has been an underperforming school.

Now, about my two classes - my one math class (fondly referred to as my "class from hell") had 59.6 percent (rounded to 60) meet or exceed. Yea me!!!! This class was a challenge all year! I had two students fall far below - one is a language barrier, coupled with the fact she changed schools and was absent a lot. The other was a student who again was absent a lot and did nothing in class - literally nothing. Four of my students who were listing as Approaching the standard were only about 4 points from Meets the standard. One of my special ed students made another HUGE jump to Meets - I'm really proud of her! Two students who are pretty bright blew off math in favor of fooling around this year, and so were listed as Approaching the standard. My ELL students did pretty well all across the board - none in the failing area.

My second class (gee, imagine what I could have done if I had two more math classes and no art to take away my planning...) did even better - a 68.4 percent (68) who met or exceeded that standards, with four of the kids exceeding. Again only two who fell far below, and both of those were only a few points away from Approaching. One student did very well in math class all year, because so much of it was oral, so I think it was a reading issue, since he is a second-language learner. The other person was absent with ditching most of first marking period, and then used every excuse she could think of to be out of class.
Two of my students who failed all year, were absent a lot, and did little if any work made it on the Approaches level - so something stuck with them. My English language learners were all at Approaches or higher.

So I am thrilled. Now the next thing to do is compare my scores to the seventh grade average. 60 and 68 Percent, compared to a 52 percent for the whole grade. Hmmm - guess I really did my job this year. Good thing I was there....

More on how I think I did it later.