County schools making progress towards goals

By Staff
Leada Gore, Hartselle Enquirer
Nine of Morgan County's 16 schools met all of their state-mandated goals this year.
That alone is enough to bring a smile to Morgan County school officials.
Cotaco School, Danville-Neel Elementary, Eva School, Falkville Elementary, Lacey's Spring Elementary, Priceville Elementary, Ryan School, Union Hill School and West Morgan Elementary School each met their annual yearly progress goals. The AYP includes an array of indictors, including standardized test scores for reading and math as well as indicators such as attendance, drop out rate and performance on the high school graduation exam.
Morgan County third graders scored higher than the state average on every category, with the best results coming in math. Fifth graders also performed well, beating the state average on the composite test by some 4 percent. Sixth graders out-performed the state average by some 8 percent.
Seventh and eighth graders beat the state average in all categories except math. Seventh graders posted an average math score of 46, one point lower than the state average. Eighth graders averaged a 44 in math, down four points from their counterparts throughout the state.
None of Morgan County's high schools met AYP goals, though several missed in just one category.
Brewer High School met its test score goals, but fell short in its drop out rate. Brewer showed a drop out rate of 26.3 percent, up 21.3 percent last year. To meet its goal, Brewer would have had to show a decrease from last year. Drop-out rate was the problem for Danville and West Morgan, too. Danville's drop out rate was 16.3 percent, up from 13.9 percent last year. West Morgan's was 22.42, up from 19.35 last year.
Priceville High met its drop-out goal, decreasing its percentage from 5.33 percent to 2.47 percent, but missed math and reading proficiency goals for special education students. Falkville High missed two goals: one in test participation among students receiving free lunches (94 percent of those students participated in testing, 1 percent short of the requirement); and in its drop-out rate. Falkville's drop-out rate was 24.31 percent, up from 17.49 last year.
The county system beat the state average on all categories of the graduation exam. Ninety-six percent of 12th graders passed the language portion of the test; 97 percent passed science; 96 percent passed reading and math; and 98 percent passed social studies. Ninety-five percent is the state average for all divisions of the test.