Havasu achieves better AIMS results than county, state averages

The Lake Havasu Unified School District schools achieved results consistently better than county and state averages on the Spring 2008 Arizona Instrument to Measure Standards, or AIMS, according to results released by the state Department of Education today.

The percentage of students passing the three sections of the test was in the 70s and 80s through the 10th grade. Those percentages were in the 50s and 60s at the state and county levels.

For 11th and 12th graders who retook portions of the test, the passing rates ranged from a low of 23 percent, for 12th graders retaking the reading test, up to 68 percent, for 11th graders retaking writing.

Passing is constituted by earning a score that "meets" or "exceeds" the state standard.

"The good news is we continued to outperform the state and the county by a pretty much whopping margin," said Education Services Director Wes Brownfield.

Eighty-seven percent of district fourth graders passed the reading and math tests. Among fifth graders, 86 percent passed math and 84 percent passed reading.

In Mohave County as a whole, 75 percent of fourth graders passed math and 70 percent passed reading. Seventy percent of fifth graders passed math and 69 percent passed reading.

Four of the six district elementary schools achieved passing results in reading at 90 percent or more in some grades. At Starline Elementary School 97 percent of fifth graders and 95 percent of fourth graders passed the reading test.

District students also performed better than county and state averages in writing, though not at the margins seen in the other two tests.

"Our writing scores weren't as strong as we like," Brownfield said. "I have a problem with writing. The scores are up one year and down the next. It's a very difficult standard."

Part of what makes it problematic is that, unlike the reading and math tests, the writing test is scored subjectively. The question asked in the test can also vary greatly from year to year, so it's difficult for students to be prepared, Brownfield said.

Though this year's AIMS results were good overall, Brownfield said a larger concern looms: The district will be required to pass 100 percent of its students by 2014.

"(It's) the 800-pound gorilla in the room. The real concern that all districts have is meeting that requirement," Brownfield said.

After next year, Arizona districts will be required to show 10 percent improvement each year until the deadline. Because LHUSD's scores are so good now, it wouldn't have to demonstrate further improvement until the 2012-13 school year, Brownfield said.

"Our challenge is to wring the hardest growth — that last 15 percent — out of the district. That's going to be the hardest to get. You've pretty much remediated everyone you can remediate," he said. "That's the challenge we're trying to get our arms around."

Wednesday: District school AIMS results at a glance and charter school results.

You may contact the reporter at dparker@havasunews.com.