OVERACHIEVING!
Besides many individual and team athletic and activity successes, our schools are experiencing what one researcher has called “overachieving”.
CHALLENGE AWARDS
Congratulations to the staff and students at Central Elementary and at Lyons Middle School for being recognized with the Challenge Award. The Challenge Award is given to schools whose state assessment results significantly exceed their predicted outcomes.
In other words, based on the buildings’ demographics, both schools had better than predicted results on the 22-23 state assessments. This is doubly exciting, because both schools also received recognition last year for the 21-22 assessment results.
Park Elementary does not give state assessment and therefore does not qualify for the Challenge Award program because state assessments are not given at that grade level. Even though LHS did not receive the award, its scores are improving, and with the consistent results from the next few classes entering LHS, we can expect the results to follow the students.
BEST ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS IN AMERICA
Recall that earlier this school year, Central Elementary was also recognized by US News & World Report on their Best Elementary Schools in America list for the second year in a row.
EFFECTIVE AVERAGE
USD 405 was also recognized by KSDE for having an Effective Average that was significantly higher than its predicted effectiveness rate. KSDE uses similar metrics to the Challenge Award to make those comparisons.
OVERACHIEVING DISTRICT
The good news kept coming this past week.
Mark Tallman, who has spent about 30 years as a lobbyist and legislative liaison for the Kansas Association of School Boards also identified USD 405 as a district that is overachieving. He visited Lyons last week to interview the administration team as part of his research project to identify the practices among overachieving districts that are setting them apart from their peer districts. Mr. Tallman’s report will be released in several months, when the research is completed and the report is published.
Lyons schools’ administrators reported that a renewed emphasis on standards-based curriculum and instruction and a strong desire among teachers and other staff members for continuous improvement have been the catalyst for the consistent accolades. Thanks to each of you for doing your part to create the best possible educational opportunities for our students!