Park City schools take pains to beef up math

PARK CITY — One of the most common weaknesses for Utah school districts on last year's Criterion Reference Test was the math 7 test.

Statewide, the percent of students posting scores of mastery or near mastery on the test was 40 percent. In some districts, fewer than 10 percent of students scored at or near mastery, levels that are considered proficient.

In Park City School District, however, 84.7 percent of students taking the seventh-grade math test showed proficiency.

District director of curriculum Merry Haugen said one possible reason for the district's success with the subject is that administrators take pains to make sure students are taking math classes well-suited to their level of understanding. Schools use class grades as well as placement test scores to make sure students are in the right classes.

Deseret News graphic Park City Test Scores Requires Adobe Acrobat.

"We have worked very hard at our middle school math placement process," she said. "We have a group of students that are where they belong — it's not too easy, it's not too hard."

Overall, the district's math, language arts and science scores were above the state average, with 83.6 percent of students taking math exams scoring at or near mastery. In language arts, 86.8 percent of students showed proficiency, and in science, 83.7 percent of students had such scores.

"It's very validating for some of the programs and things that we're doing well," Haugen said.

Special education students and students who have learned English as a second language also had higher scores than the state average.

Haugen said schools look closely at scores from the CRT test to see what areas and which students need the most attention. They then use test data to help establish individual school goals.

At Jeremy Ranch Elementary School, for example, a school with more than 90 percent proficiency overall in every subject, test scores prompted the school to focus more on writing.

"It will be interesting to see how their scores improve this year," Haugen said.

At Park City High School, scores lagged in geometry, with fewer than half of students taking the test showing proficiency.

To improve scores the school is scheduling how and when teachers teach certain concepts. The school is also doing periodic assessments to measure progress throughout the school year instead of waiting to measure proficiency when it's too late to do anything about it.

"If the kids missed a concept, they can go back and teach it," Haugen said.

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