State Schools Superintendent Richard Woods visited four schools in Liberty County on Oct. 30, delivering banners signifying their growth in literacy and math proficiency.
Getting banners were Midway and Lewis Frasier middle schools, awarded the Outstanding Middle School title; Taylors Creek Elementary School, recognized for third grade literacy growth and math growth in third, fourth and fifth grades; and Waldo Pafford Elementary, honored for fifth grade math growth.
“To get the banners, there are a few qualifiers we look at,” Woods said. “We had to see performance at the third grade. For middle schools, we wanted to see literacy scores for the sixth grade. For math, we have to look at fifth grade.”
Awarding middle schools is a new effort by the state Department of Education.
“This year, we wanted to up the ante,” Woods said. “So we’ve added middle schools to the mix and we’ve added high schools to the mix.”
Woods cited Lewis Frasier for its eighth grade students passing high school algebra at a 100% rate, and bestowed a banner and ribbon at the bottom to Midway Middle for its eighth graders taking the high school test passing at a 100% rate.
Waldo Pafford’s fifth-graders showed a 17.2-point increase in math, and at Taylors Creek got banners for both math and literacy. For math, its third graders showed a 14.9% growth in proficiency while fourth graders improved at a 22% clip and fifth graders had an 11.8% improvement.
“This is one of a few schools that had a ribbon that represents third, fourth and fifth grades,” Woods said. “They also received the literacy banner as well. That is extremely rare across the state, a school get both banners.”
Liberty County Superintendent Dr. Franklin Perry commended the schools and their leadership for their rewards and achievements.
“This is what we are aiming to do,” he said. “This is a joint effort.”
Woods pointed out each banner has seven holes on the bottom for ribbons.
“You don’t want to be a school with one ribbon and one banner,” he said. “You can keep adding to it. I want to keep coming back to Liberty County and adding ribbons to the bottoms of the banners.
And when you fill that up, you can get another banner and start all over.”
Woodssaidthereisroom for improvement across the state, and the state needs to have all schools recognized for better scores.
“This starts in pre-K, kindergarten, first grade and second grade,” he said. “It doesn’t happen in third grade by accident.”
The state is introducing what will be known as the John Hancock banner, indicative of the number of third graders who can write in cursive. To get such a banner, 90% of a school’s third-graders must write their names in cursive and to get a distinguished ribbon, they also have to write the preamble to the U.S. Constitution in cursive.
Next year, the state will introduce a graduation rates banner for high schools, Woods said, and the state Department of Education is looking at similar accolades for CTAE and perhaps rewarding schools for ACT and SAT scores.
