All three school districts exceeded the state average with Ira scoring 100 percent passing.
Hermleigh ISD had 94.4 percent of its third graders pass, while Snyder ISD obtained 92 percent.
Supt. Larry Devitt at Ira said he was “tickled to death with the results.
“Our students, and third grade teacher Stacie Westmoreland, worked very hard to obtain these results,” said Dr. Devitt.
Those words of praise were repeated at Hermleigh where Supt. Marvin Beaty said all the kids did a “great job.”
“Our students did a great job,” said Beaty. “”I give credit to the students and our third grade teacher, Joyce Lionberger.”
Dr. Ronny Collins, SISD superintendent, also praised the work of the students and teachers at Central Elementary where third graders attend class in Snyder.
“A marvelous job,” said Dr. Collins. “The teachers and kids all did a great job.”
Principal at Central is Pam Hart and third grade teachers who teach reading are Paula Bowden, June Holcomb, Magdalena Jaimes, Deborah Judah, Melissa McNeil, Liffin Molter, Shana Robbins, Edilyn Smith, Kathy Spoor and Esther Stansell. In addition, Kathy Brooks is a reading specialist and Sue Gressett is a reading tutor.
“We’ve very proud of our students and all our teachers,” said Hart. “We feel our entire school contributed to our success on the test.”
Hart said 48 students reached the commended level at Central where students must answer 34 of the 36 questions.
“We had several students who aced the test,” said Hart.
At Ira, six third graders reached the commended level while three did at Hermleigh.
According to the Texas Education Agency, in the spring of 2003, 89 percent of Texas students passed by being required to correctly answer 20 out of 36 questions.
This year, students had to correctly answer 23 out of 36 questions.
Any student who failed the test will be provided with additional instruction material to boost their reading skills. Each of these students also will receive a TAKS study guide from the state.
According to the Texas Education Agency, the performance of each student group improved significantly from last year when applying the higher standard required in 2004 to the 2003 results.
The following shows the gains achieved when comparing the 2004 results to the 2003 results at the same level or passing standard that was required in 2004.
•Eighyt-six percent of African-American students met the standard in 2004, an increase of nine points.
•Rates for Hispanic third-graders increased from 80 percent last year to 88 percent this year.
•Rates for white students improved from 94 percent to 96 percent.
•Economically disadvantaged students earned passing rates of 87 percent, a nine-point increase.
•Rates for limited English proficient students increased to 82 percent, up from 70 percent last year.
• The passing rates for special education students rose from 80 percent to 86 percent.