Eudora schools earn nine Standards of Excellence
Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2006
As a measure of continuing success, Eudora schools were awarded nine Standards of Excellence by the Kansas State Department of Education, including three building-level awards for Eudora High School and Eudora Middle School. Every school and the overall district also achieved AYP — adequate yearly progress — on the Kansas Assessments as mandated by the No Child Left Behind Act.
The Standard of Excellence is awarded to schools where a larger percentage of the students score in higher performance categories and fewer score in the lower tiers. Eudora schools received recognition for math in the fifth and tenth grades and for reading in the fifth, sixth, eighth and eleventh grades. The middle school was recognized with a building-level Standard of Excellence in reading, and the high school was recognized building-wide for both reading and math.
“This is absolutely cause for celebration,” said Don Grosdidier, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction. “While test scores are only one part of the story, they do illustrate the incredibly hard work that our teachers and students put in every day.”
This is not the first time the Eudora School District has been recognized by the state department for excellent achievement. Most recently in 2005, the district achieved the Standard of Excellence in 11 out of 13 categories. This year's tests were completely new, and there was a large increase in the number of students tested for this year's results. Additional categories and higher standards also are added each year, adding an increasing challenge for districts to find excellence, Grosdidier said.
“Our teachers are constantly pushing their students — and themselves —to find greater success and to extend that success to even more students,” Grosdidier said. “The main key to our accomplishment is the time and expertise that our teachers spend on defining our curriculum, aligning it with state standards, collaborating with their colleagues and preparing their students.”
He added that, even in grades or subject areas that did not receive the Standard of Excellence, test scores indicate that the district is performing exceptionally well above the state and national averages. State assessments are not used in kindergarten, first or second grade. As a result, Nottingham Elementary (K-2) does not report data. Instead, the state measures the school's AYP is based on the performance of third graders at West Elementary.
| District location | State
AYP requirement |
School scores: Math |
School scores: Reading |
| Eudora West Elementary (3-5) | 60.1% | 86.4% | 83.8% |
| Eudora Middle School (6-8) | 60.1% | 82.5% | 87.8% |
| Eudora High School (9-12) | 46.8% | 85.2% | 87.6% |
On the district level, 84.5 percent of students met or exceeded the standard in math, and 86.2 percent met or exceeded the standard in reading. Schools across the nation are expected to hit 100 percent in both areas by 2014.
“While the idea of 100 percent of students at or above the standard is daunting,” Grosdidier said, “the idea of continuous school improvement is a priority for everyone in our district. We are committed to the individualized student learning that can take place in a district of our size, and we feel like the quality of education we bring to our students is always improving as our exceptional teachers are encouraged to grow as professionals.”
