Middle School State Assessment Principal Reflections

Pagosa Springs Middle School students outperformed the state in academic growth in six out of eight assessed areas.  This consistent growth over the four middle school years has resulted in our 8th graders outperforming the state in academic achievement in all subject areas - math, science and English language arts.  

 

Specifically, I'd like to highlight our efforts in personalized learning.  Last year, we hired an additional teacher at both the 7th and 8th-grade levels to target students' academic needs in math and English language arts.  The additional reading plus, math plus and advanced reading classes provided extra targeted support to all our students and resulted in the highest academic growth we have ever seen.  Our 8th graders grew academically at the 85 percentile in English Language Arts.  We are scaling this concept to 6th grade this year to address our academic growth and achievement gaps.

 

Finally, I'd like to commend our students for their strong science performance.  Both 5th and 8th-grade science made strong improvements with 5th-grade scoring right at the state average and 8th-grade scoring five points above the state average.  Please review the graphs below for detailed performance and growth results from 2016-2018.  

 

Chris Hinger

Pagosa Springs Middle School Principal