JG-TC.com > News > Cumberland High School receives academic improvement award

TODAY'S HEADLINES

SPECIAL SECTION

ONLINE POLL

ONLINE EXTRAS

SITE TOOLS

OTHER LINKS

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Lee Enterprises

Tuesday, March 18, 2008 2:58 PM CDT
Cumberland High School receives academic improvement award

By NATHANIEL WEST, Staff Writer
nwest@jg-tc.com

TOLEDO — As Cumberland High School juniors prepare for the Prairie State Achievement Examination next month, school officials are excited for several reasons.

“We’ve had a good run the last couple of years, and we’re hoping to continue it this year — and hopefully we’ll win another award,” said Principal Todd Hall.

The high school south of Toledo has received an Academic Improvement Award from the Illinois State Board of Education and was named to the Illinois Honor Roll following last year’s performance on the standardized test.

To earn an Academic Improvement Award, a school must have demonstrated an improvement of at least 7.5 points in both reading and math between the 2006 and 2007 testing cycles or an increase of at least 15 points in reading and math between 2005 and 2007.

Cumberland juniors last year beat the 2006 and 2005 scores in math by 6.2 points and almost 20 points, respectively, according to Hall.

In reading, the the 2007 marks showed improvements of 7.4 points from 2006 and 19 points from 2005, he said.

Hall cited two factors in the noteworthy spikes in scores.

“I attribute it to the kids (who) work really hard at doing well on the tests,” he said. “And I attribute it to the work the teachers have done.”

He said the school has undertaken curriculum revisions and course “sequencing” changes to align with state standards and “better prepare the kids for the test.”

Hall noted these efforts are particularly important in a school in which there typically are less than 100 students per grade. That means each Cumberland junior accounts for more than one percentage point on standardized tests, for which the minimum district-wide requirements are increasing every year.

“I think it’s a team effort, and I think the team is the kids and the teachers,” Hall said. “And when you’re a small school like us, every kid counts so much.”

One hundred percent of students must meet or exceed learning standards by 2014 as part of the federal No Child Left Behind Act.

“We’re just proud of the accomplishment our kids have made, and we’re hoping we can keep the trend going,” said Hall.

“But it’s not getting any easier.”

Contact Nathaniel West at nwest@jg-tc.com or 238-6860.

Add your comments

*Member ID:
*Password:
Remember login? (requires cookies)
	Forgot Your Password?

Not already registered?
Then click Here.

Comment policy:

JG-TC.com encourages readers to engage in civil conversation with their neighbors. Comments that are submitted are not posted to the site immediately. They go into a queue to be moderated and may take several hours to be reviewed. Comments posted on Saturday may not be reviewed until Sunday afternoon.

In order to keep the page a set width, long lines (mostly long links) will be chopped. Try putting spaces in your links or consider using tinyurl.com to make a smaller link that you can include.

We will never edit or alter your comments, but we do reserve the right to remove comments that violate our code of conduct.

No comment may contain:

* Potentially libelous statements; such as accusing somebody of a crime, defamation of character, or statements that can harm somebody's reputation.
* Obscene, explicit, or racist language.
* Personal attacks, insults, threats, harassment or inciting violence.
* Commercial product promotions.

If you have any questions, please contact our moderator.