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NHCS' Students Show Improvement in Writing Skills

The North Carolina Department of Public Instruction has released the writing test scores for the 2007-2008 school year. New Hanover County Schools’ students continue to demonstrate growth and improvement in writing skills based on the North Carolina General Writing Assessment for Grades 4, 7 and 10. All three grade levels that were tested showed improved scores overall and most schools showed improvement from the previous academic year.

Results showed that 57.9 percent of NHCS fourth graders scored proficient in writing in 2007-08, up from 48.7 percent from the prior year’s results.

For seventh graders, 62.2 percent of NHCS students scored proficient in writing, up from 56.4 percent from the prior year. Overall, the middle schools’ scores of 62.2 percent proficient exceed the state level of 58.3 percent proficient.

Tenth graders improved at the highest rate with 69.7 percent of NHCS students scoring proficient, up from 49.6 percent in the previous year.

“We are encouraged by the growth in writing that New Hanover County Schools’ students have demonstrated at all grade levels tested,” said Superintendent of Schools, Dr. Alfred H. Lerch, Jr. “NHCS will continue to emphasize the writing process in all areas of the curriculum. I anticipate that our writing scores will continue to improve.”

The State Board of Education announced changes yesterday in the way writing testing will be done including testing students each year on every grade level, K-12. NHCS already has strategies in place that focus on the writing process at every grade level.

On the third grade level, NHCS has implemented a local writing assessment with a common prompt to help strengthen student writing. Additionally, elementary school teachers emphasize writing through the use of “Thinking Maps” and a writing program based on the NC Standard Course of Study entitled, “Write from the Beginning.” Middle school and high school teachers use “Write for the Future.”

Other programs and practices designed to improve student writing skills in NHCS include:

• Writing Portfolios - fifth through ninth graders write essays in the required modes for the writing test including expressive, informative, argumentative, critical, and literary response or free writing.

• NC READS professional development courses with writing components are provided to teachers.

• Student writing groups.
   

 

News/Announcements

6/06/08