By Alan Van Ormer
Tribune editor

Preliminary reports show that students attending Dell Rapids, Dell Rapids St. Mary and Baltic have met adequate yearly progress after taking the Dakota STEP last year.
Under the No Child Left Behind Act, 100 percent of students must be proficient or advanced in math and reading by 2014. The adequate yearly progress is based on scores from the South Dakota State Test of Educational Progress (Dakota STEP) taken by elementary third and fourth grade students, middle school students in the fifth through eighth grade, and high school juniors.
In the Dell Rapids School District, school superintendent Tom Ludens said the students exceeded the target set. The Dakota STEP test is based on content standards developed by teachers and administrators to test what students need to know.
“In the elementary we have made AYP every year and have been a distinguished school since 2004,” Ludens said. “At the middle school, we have met AYP every year except for two years when we were on Alert. The junior students have met AYP every year and have been on the distinguished school list for the last three years.”
Last year, the school district was put on Alert in middle school reading. This year, the target was 69 percent. Middle school students hit 85 percent. The elementary school target was also 69 percent. The students reached 88 percent. The high school score to reach was 62 percent. The juniors hit 78 percent.
In math, the goal was 72 percent at the elementary level. Students made 89 percent. In the middle school, the target was 72 percent. Middle school students exceeded that goal with 86 percent. The high school juniors needed to reach 63 percent. They finished at 73 percent.
Dell Rapids St. Mary principal Kelly Neill is pleased with the way the students’ test scores look.
“The classes testing are staying consistent from last year,” she said. “We aren’t seeing any shifts of students’ falling behind.”
In reading, 121 students were tested with 93 percent being proficient or advanced. In math, 121 students were tested with 88 percent being proficient or advanced.
“In reading and math, our scores improved or remained the same from last year,” Neill said.
At Baltic, students also exceeded the target scores. In addition, the Baltic elementary and high school have been designated as distinguished schools.
In elementary math, 85 percent of the students taking the test were either proficient or advanced. In reading, 86 percent were either advanced or proficient. At the middle school level, 82 percent of the students were either proficient or advanced in math and 75 percent of the students were either proficient or advanced in reading.
Seventy-five percent of the juniors were either proficient or advanced in reading and 75 percent were also either proficient or advanced in math.
Baltic Superintendent Bob Sittig said the school district was pleased with the test scoring and saw definite improvement in the junior class. Last year, only 48 percent were advanced or proficient in math and 52 percent advanced or proficient in reading.
“This gives us a benchmark to go by,” he said. “Test scores are only a snapshot. It is how your kids do on one test in one day of the year. It gives us a goal to meet. It is something we want to meet.”
However, Sittig said the test does not tell the whole story. “We have to acknowledge it tells part of the story,” he said. “That is why we do work hard to do well on the test, because it is one of the measures we are judged by.”