Wildwood school officials plan to boost test scores
| About 25 percent of all third- and fourth-graders here take part in the school district’s English as a second language, or ESL, programs. Those numbers are even higher in the kindergarten and first grades. “It’s a pretty steep hill to climb,” said Superintendent Dennis J. Anderson as he discussed the school district’s most recent test scores. But it is a hurdle Anderson and his staff are approaching one step at a time. One of the district’s Spanish teachers, for instance, called all the Hispanic parents and invited them to a pot luck supper at the middle school. About 200 people attended, said Susan Rohrman, supervisor of prekindergarten to 12th-grade curriculum and instruction. |  |
According to the state Department of Education’s most recent school report cards, more fourth-grade students here failed the state’s Assessment of Skills and Knowledge language arts and science sections than passed. In the math portion of the exam, 55.6 percent passed while 44.4 percent failed. Third-grade students did significantly better, but the number of students passing still trails behind neighboring elementary schools on Five Mile Beach. The district must cope with the high rate of ESL students as well as Wildwood’s high mobility rate, meaning the number of students who move in and out of the district in a given year. The state average is 11 percent, while Wildwood’s mobility rate is 40 percent, Rohrman said. The school district’s status as being among the state’s poorest school districts is another challenge, Anderson added. More than 80 percent of the elementary school students here are considered economically disadvantaged.
search for : English as a second language, ESL
