The results of the Iowa test of basic Skills and test of educational development are in for the Lake Tahoe School, and its students tested in the very upper echelon.
Headmaster Steve McKibben said that while the results of the state and nationally issued test are impressive — his third through eighth grade students were all in the 97th percentile or above — they don’t define the Lake Tahoe School.
“I think it’s a good representation of our school’s emphasis on academics, but it isn’t what we define ourselves by,” McKibben said. “We try to focus on the whole child, developing them socially and emotionally as well as academically. We want them to conduct themselves as members of a community.”
Students were tested in three categories— reading, language and math. Every class between third and eighth game, except the sixth grade, did better than 99 percent of students nationally, while the sixth grade scored in the 97th percentile.
McKibben pointed to the co-curricular classes offered at Lake Tahoe School, including Spanish from Kindergarten through eighth grade and the school’s music and arts classes as a key to overall academic success.
“I think there is a clear correlation between achievement in math and foreign languages. I think it’s disappointing there is such a focus on math in testing that leads schools to increase their focus on math classes at the expense of others,” McKibben said. “There are many ways to learn math, through music instruction and other creative outlets.”
Students were tested in three sub-categories for math — concept/estimation, problems/data and computation; four sub-categories for language— spelling, capitalization, punctuation and usage; and two categories in reading— vocabulary and comprehension.
McKibben said that while his teachers do not focus on the test, they can use the information to pinpoint weaknesses and strengths in the curriculum.
“We don’t teach to the test, and judging a student based on the test is absurd. They could just have a bad day and take one bad test,” McKibben said. “But, we can use the data from the results constructively. We can see where a certain student struggled and try to slot him in with a certain teacher who is strong in that subject. The data can also be used on a wider basis, since I saw we were a little weak in spelling we’ll be able to put a greater emphasis on it next year.”
McKibben said the results are also helpful in assessing and evaluating teachers if a segment of their class needs extra help in a certain subject.