Preliminary TAKS Results Indicate Newcastle School Is Exemplary!
Percentage of Commended Students Continues Rise!!
May 20, 2008
Teachers, students and administrators throughout Newcastle School, Young County, and the state of Texas have been sitting on pins and needles for the past several weeks waiting anxiously for the first glimpse of the preliminary 2007-08 TAKS results for their individual schools and districts. The Texas Education Agency tries to release these test results for all schools during the third week of May before students leave school for the summer and based on preliminary numbers the hard work of Newcastle School students and teachers has paid off big time!
“We did it!” This simple sentence was resonating throughout Newcastle School Monday morning as the word spread through each class and each grade level that TAKS scores were here and they are good! When the score percentages are summed across the grade levels (Grade 3 – Grade 11) they paint a picture that Newcastle teachers and principal, Cathy Creel, have been focused on for several years – an exemplary school and district. 98% of students passed the reading/English Language Arts TAKS test with 43% commended; 93% of students passed the math TAKS test with 51% commended; 100% of Newcastle students passed the social studies TAKS test with 67% commended; 96% of students passed the science TAKS test with 45% commended; and 100% of Newcastle students passed the writing TAKS test with 40% commended! Being an exemplary school and rated amongst the top 3-5% of the schools in the state of Texas is a wonderful accomplishment considering the increased rigor of the test each year.
Superintendent, Gordon Grubbs said, “Every year for the past three years our scores have been so close to exemplary but there was always that one little area that we would fall short. This year our students, teachers, and principals dedicated themselves individually to being the very best that each one of them could be and the positive results we are experiencing are not just as individuals but as a school, as a team!”
Newcastle School principal, Cathy Creel, was given the honor of presenting the good news to Newcastle Board Members during their regular May meeting and during her presentation she shared a very significant and promising observation related to student behavior. She told board members, “Today while notifying teachers and students of our results, students were more interested in knowing if they achieved the commended status rather than meeting the minimum standard. That individual desire within each student to be commended rather than settle on meeting the minimum passing standard is exactly what we have been working toward. It was a great, very rewarding day at Newcastle School.”
The Texas Education Agency will not release the final ratings for schools until early October 2008 but there is no reason that Newcastle School cannot go right ahead and enjoy the success of their hard work right now before students leave for the summer! “No one likes to wait 5 months to celebrate a hard-earned victory such as this!” said Grubbs.