Report card is good

Dingman — There is work still to be done, but on the whole, Delaware Valley schools rated well on their latest report card. Dr. Bill Riker, district director of curriculum and instruction, made a graphic presentation of the annual report card to the board of education at its Oct. 25 meeting at the Dingman-Delaware Middle School. The report card is mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Student testing for proficiency in math and reading are required, third through eleventh grades. To meet Annual Yearly Performance targets, every measurable subgroup in the school must have at least 45% of the tested students achieve proficient or higher on the mathematics assessment and 54% of the tested students proficient or higher in reading. Critics charge these state proficiency levels are too low and do translate well to achievement on other national testing criteria, such the SAT exams. In addition to assessments, each school must meet or exceed attendance and graduation targets, 90% attendance for elementary schools and an 80% graduation rate for high schools. Riker reported that each of the six Delaware Valley schools met all of these targets, some 98 different categories. Only the schools in one other district, Wilson, met all the targets in the 13-district, regional Intermediate Unit 20 area this past year.