2001 Annual Report - Town of South Windsor

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T O W N O F S O U T H W I N D S O R
B O A R D O F E D U C A T I O N
curricula. To accomplish this, the school board
requires several reports concerning curriculum
throughout the year. During the 2000-01 school
year, reports on the math and physical education
curricula were provided by staff who reviewed
and assessed the effectiveness of the instruction
in these areas throughout the previous year.
From time to time, the school board also
requests special reports. Among the special
reports provided to the school board were a
review of the efforts made to date aligning our
science curriculum to the Connecticut Academic
Performance Test (CAPT) standards and a follow-up
report on what is being done to improve
the physical education test results.
To ensure that the curriculum stays current,
changes were approved for the South Windsor
High School Program of Studies. Added to the
high school Program of Studies were courses in
personal finance, advanced placement studio art,
Russian III, advanced placement statistics, transitional
math, jazz improvisation, music theory and
tonal harmony, digital audio editing, advanced
placement physics, advanced placement chemistry,
and advanced placement world history, to
mention a few. To accommodate the addition of
these courses, the school board also authorized
the elimination of several courses.
One of the major goals of the school board is the
expansion of the number of advanced placement
courses that are offered. This was reflected in
the curricular changes approved at the high
school. In fact, one of the special reports which
the school board also reviewed was a report on
advanced placement additions to the curriculum.
Town Manager, Matthew Galliigan and Town Attorney Barry Guliano.
To monitor the effectiveness of the instruction,
the results of student testing throughout the year
are reviewed. This year was no different. The
Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT) results were
reviewed in February. It was noted that 1257
students took the test. This was the first administration
of the Third Generation of the CMT.
Approximately three-quarters of the students in
grades four, six, and eight have met, or exceeded,
the state’s goal of excellence in math.
Similar results were achieved in grade six and
eight in reading. The combined total of students
who achieved at or above the state goal or the
proficiency level ranged from between ninety-two
to ninety-eight percent. It is interesting to note
that South Windsor, once again, was the recipient
of a state achievement grant. This grant is
given to those school systems that demonstrate,
consistently, increases in the number of students
that achieve state goal standards in the CMTs.
The state also tests tenth graders. This is known
as the Connecticut Academic Performance Test
(CAPT). In 2000, the percentage of South
Windsor students who met or exceeded the
excellent standard exceeded the state average in
all tests. More impressively, within our
Educational Reference Group (ERG), the percent
of South Windsor students achieving the state
goal exceeded that of their peers in language
arts, math, and interdisicplinary. The percentage
of South Windsor students achieving the state
goal in science was lower than that of both the
state and ERG. This latter observation was a
concern to the school board and, therefore, a
significant amount of focus and attention will be
given to aligning the science curriculum to the
standards of the CAPT.
2000-2001 ANNUAL REPORT 7