Continental students do well on AIMS

Students at Green Valley’s Continental School District are improving in reading and writing and generally meet or exceed state standards on the AIMS test.

The Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards testing measures the success of Arizona students in grades 3-8, in reading, writing and mathematics. Most high school students have to pass the test to graduate.

Test results released last week represent the 2008-09 school year.

In reading, every grade met or exceeded the state average, with Continental eighth-graders scoring 17 percent higher than the state average.

Every grade also met or exceeded the state averages in writing except third grade, which was down by 1 percent.

In math, fifth- and sixth-graders scored slightly lower than state averages, but fourth-graders scored 10 percent higher than the state average. In addition, Continental fourth-graders scored 11 percent higher than their peers in writing.

Compared to the Continental’s AIMS test results from the 2007-08 school year, fifth- and eighth -graders showed more than a 10 percent improvement in reading; sixth-graders showed the same significant improvement in writing.

Continental Superintendant Jim Nelson said the scores reflect the hard work and high quality of his staff.

He said it’s difficult for small schools to consistently keep up with larger schools, because while Tucson Unified School District might have 2,000 or 3,000 students per grade level, with Continental’s average grade size of around 60 kids, a handful of underperforming students can skew scores dramatically.

Nelson said the problem with AIMS testing, and the federal No Child Left Behind Act that produced it, is that it pits schools against each other and sets individual students up to unreasonable standards. He says the act has good intentions, but is flawed.

In the Sahuarita Unified School District, AIMS results are also improving, with the percentage meeting or exceeding state standards continuing to rise. Some SUSD schools are showing clear signs of improvement in certain subjects, such as reading at Sopori School in Amado.

jrichardson@gvnews.com | 547-9726