AIMS tests show improvement; local schools still below state average

Arizona — On Aug. 2, after a delayed release due to revision, the Arizona Department of Education released the 2012 AIMS scores for all school districts and charter schools in Arizona. While local school districts and charter schools show improvement in math scores, writing scores dropped among sixth and seventh grade students as well as high school students.

Destiny School, which houses grades K-8, was once again able to score higher passing percentages in reading, writing, math, and science than their public school counterparts at both Globe and Miami for nearly all tested grade levels. In the subject of math, Destiny students not only earned higher percentages of passing students, but also higher percentages for students exceeding expectations. Twenty-percent of Destiny fourth graders excelled on the math portion of the test; 28-percent of fifth graders; 47-percent of sixth graders; 29-percent of seventh graders; and 14 percent of eighth graders. No percentage of students in grades 4-8 was falling far below expectations.

In reading, the percentage of Destiny students falling far below was zero, while the percentages of students excelling in the subject ranged from 14-percent among eighth graders to 4-percent among third graders. In writing Destiny students fared average. A positive statistic on the 2012 AIMS testing showed 0-percent of fourth grade students falling far behind in science.

Globe middle school students fell a little below state averages. Among sixth graders, 38-percent passed the math portion. Among eighth graders, an overwhelming 38-percent of students fell far behind expectations in math.

In the subject of reading, Globe students in grades 3-8 were average with low percentages of students falling far behind, yet very low percentages of students excelling.

In Miami, the percentage of students exceeding expectations in math increased this year with 20-percent of third graders exceeding, 10-percent of fourth graders, 11-percent of fifth graders, 14-percent of sixth graders, 26-percent of seventh graders, and 22-percent of eighth graders. However, in writing the percentage of students exceeding expectations dropped to 0.



For the complete article see the 08-08-2012 issue.

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