South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Learning Report shines a spotlight on academic success of Lindbergh

Lindbergh Board of Education members recently learned exactly what goes into re-ceiving Distinction in Performance for the fifth year in a row.

During a special meeting Nov. 29, board members received the district’s Learning Report, a comprehensive review of assessment results presented by the Curriculum and Instruction Division.

Highlighting the report was Lindbergh’s designation by the state of Missouri as a district that achieved Distinction in Per-formance.

“We are very proud to say that we have met the requirements on all 12 performance standards and earned a perfect score of 100 points,” Assistant Superintendent for Cur-riculum and Instruction Nancy Rathjen stated in a news release. “Lindbergh actually re-ceived eight perfect scores in a review of the seven district schools and the district as a whole.”

The district’s Annual Performance Report is issued by the state Department of Ele-mentary and Secondary Education. The APR covers 12 categories of performance indicators, including Missouri Assessment Program scores, attendance, honors courses, dropout rates and more.

“This is the fourth year in a row that Lindbergh earned a perfect score,” Rathjen stated. “This also indicates that we are on track for our 2006-’07 MSIP (Missouri School Improvement Process) accreditation.”

In the five years that DESE has awarded Distinction in Performance, only 27 K-12 districts in the state and only eight districts in the St. Louis area have earned the award each year.

While the majority of the data in the Learning Report was generated by the Missouri Assessment Program, it also contained other achievement information.

In presenting Lindbergh High School’s ACT results, Director of Curriculum and Student Programs Chuck Triplett noted, “The ACT composite score has risen to an all-time high, 22.5. We also had a record percentage of seniors, 75 percent, take the test. We are above state (21.6) and national (20.9) composite averages and have been for 10 straight years.”

The high school honors program, including Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate also were summarized.

Triplett stated, “Once again we had an impressive increase in the number of AP exams taken, 531 exams, up 33 percent from last year. We also increased the number of students (285) sitting for AP exams and the percentage of tests which scored a three or higher. The number of AP scholar awards earned last year increased significantly. These awards are earned by taking multiple exams and having increasingly higher scores on them. The total of 43 awards earned last year was only two fewer than the total number earned in the previous four years combined.”

The IB program awarded diplomas to all 12 of its diploma candidates in 2005.

“This is the highest number of diploma recipients in 10 years,” Triplett stated. “For the last four years, every IB diploma candidate has successfully completed the program.”

The accomplishments and success of Lindbergh High School students also were reaffirmed by Newsweek magazine last spring when Lindbergh was listed as one of the best high schools in America. Lindbergh made the list after being judged on a Challenge Index, comparing the number of Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate exams with senior enrollment. Newsweek uses this standard because it is a good measure of a high school’s success at challenging all students to perform at a high level, the release stated.

On the MAP assessment, communication arts was tested at grades three, seven and 11, and math was tested at grades four, eight and 10. Scores fall into five categories. The goal is to decrease the percentage of students in the bottom two categories — Step 1 and Progressing — and increase the percentage in the top two — Proficient and Advanced).

In communication arts, all three grade levels tested decreased the percentage of students in the bottom two categories. The third and seventh grades also placed the highest ever percentage of students in the top two categories.

In math, fourth grade increased the percentage of students in the top two categories and decreased the percentage in the bottom two. Eighth and tenth grades saw a small increase in the percentage of students in the bottom two levels, but also had increases in the percentage of students in the advanced category.

“Lindbergh students outperform the state averages in all categories,” Superintendent Jim Sandfort stated. “The Learning Report confirms that Lindbergh students are doing very well academically. Lindbergh is a solid district that continues to make gains on almost every academic indicator and on every form of assessment. We are a district that performs with distinction, year in and year out.”

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