Preliminary standardized test scores for this school year show improvements in multiple subjects at Eastside Memorial High School – a school that has had a history of failure going back nearly a decade.
According to unofficial data presented to Eastside Memorial teachers this week, 90 percent of students passed the TAKS end of year exam in English and Language Arts. That’s a nearly 20 percent jump from last year.
Students also saw increases in Math, Science and Social Studies. Eastside Teacher Meghan Buchanan says the scores were the highest she's seen in the past ten years.
“It was really to hear my students shout, ‘I got commended on TAKS!’ So it was a great day at Eastside," she told School Board members at Monday night's meeting.
The release of this data comes as the Austin School Board approved a contract with Johns Hopkins University to work with the school. Superintendent Meria Carstarphen says the district’s work has paid off.
“That is tied to the work — and we did point that out commissioner, that we’ve been doing around TAKS camps for all juniors, those push in tutors part of high dosage tutoring piece from Sylvan working with teachers directly in classroom," she says.
Carstarphen cautioned that these numbers could be somewhat different when the final test results are released. This is the last year that 11th graders take the TAKS. Next year, all students will take the new standardized tests — STAAR.
