Whitefish students score above state average in testing

Whitefish students scored well above the statewide average on the state’s Smarter Balanced assessment and the national ACT test for high school juniors.

The state Office of Public Instruction in August released the 2016 results of the new Smarter Balanced tests and last week released the ACT scores.

The Smarter Balanced test measures a student’s level of understanding in two main areas for students in grades three through eight.

In English and language arts, 65 percent of Whitefish students scored proficient and advanced. The state average was just 41 percent.

In math, Whitefish students who scored proficient and advanced was 67 percent. The state average was 50 percent.

Whitefish Superintendent Heather Davis Schmidt said the data is a springboard for even more questions about what the school district is doing right and how it needs to improve.

“The test is an opportunity to look at whether we are ensuring our students are ready for college and career,” Davis Schmidt said. “This tells us what we can do to improve and helps us identify what we’re doing well so that can be replicated.”

Nearly 98 percent of all Montana public school students took the Smarter Balanced assessment last spring, just the second year of participating in a computer adaptive test aligned to Montana’s more-rigorous math and English/language arts standards.

Eleventh grade students took the ACT instead of Smarter Balanced test. Whitefish High School juniors scored above the state average on the ACT test with a composite score of 21.4. The state average composite score was 20.

“We are pleased to see Whitefish juniors perform so well in these tests, ranking us in the top three overall scores for medium to large high schools in Montana,” Davis Schmidt said. “We owe a lot of thanks to our teachers who continue to prepare Whitefish students for exceptional success in college and the world beyond.”

The Smarter Balanced test corresponds to the Common Core Standards, adopted by Montana in 2011.

Whitefish Schools Curriculum Director Ryder Delaloye said the results are positive for Whitefish.

“These tests are a benchmark to the Common Core and it gives us a chance to see how we compare on a state and national level,” he said. “There are certain threshold levels that are measured for the students. One of the important benchmarks in the test is looking at college success and career readiness — that proficiency is one of the greatest indicators for future success.”

Delaloye said 65 percent proficient and advanced for Whitefish in the English category is a good score.

“That number is one of the highest in the state,” he said. “That number is something to be very proud of.”

Whitefish’s score of 67 percent for math was also one of the highest scores in the state, he noted.

Twelve percent of Whitefish students scored at the novice level for English proficiency and 13 percent scored at the novice level in Math. Both of those percentages were still below the state average at 28 percent for English and 26 percent for math.

“That’s a powerful indicator that those students need help and interventions,” he said. “These tests are a snapshot for each student. Once we figure out where students are at, we can then evaluate the student and we can use this as a basis for multiple measures to help them to improve.”

There are four achievement levels in the Smarter Balance assessment: novice, nearing proficiency, proficient and advanced.

When compared to other schools in the Flathead Valley, Whitefish also did well.

In English, only students in Kalispell scored higher at 69 percent in the proficient and advanced level. Columbia Falls students were at 63 percent, Bigfork students were 61 percent and Evergreen students were 49 percent.

In math, Whitefish students were well above the other schools. At Kalispell 54 percent of students were proficient and advanced, Columbia Falls was at 43 percent, Bigfork at 40 percent and Evergreen at 37 percent.

In a selection of school districts around the state with communities of populations about 7,000, Whitefish once again was at the top. Only Lewistown was close at 60 percent in English and 46 percent proficient and advanced in math.

“You can really see the strength of Whitefish when compared to these schools,” Delaloye said.

High school juniors are not part of the results because they took the ACT instead. In February, the Montana Board of Public Education approved the ACT for high school juniors instead of Smarter Balanced to meet national testing standards.

For the ACT, Whitefish scored higher than the state average in all four categories — math, reading, science and English — of the test.

The four tests are scored on a scale of 1 to 36. The composite is the average of the four scores.

According to OPI, the ACT is a curriculum-based achievement exam and tests what students have actually learned in school, not their aptitude for learning. The ACT also measures what students need to know to be ready for first year credit-bearing college courses based on ACT college readiness standards.

As part of the ACT results, only 30 percent of Whitefish high school juniors were considered to meet college readiness in the four areas of college composition, algebra, social science, and biology. Only 22 percent statewide met all four areas of college readiness in the same categories.

The students who take the test are juniors and still have another year of high school to complete, Delaloye noted.

“Ensuring that our students are ready for college and career is our responsibility,” he said.