Southern Schools Superintendent Defends Teachers, Test Scores

By Gordon Hopkins At a public forum intended for a discussion over a proposed new gym earlier this month, Interim Superintendent Dr. Virginia Moon found herself needing to defend the school’s teachers and student performance, which came under attack by those opposed to the gym.More than 90 people attended the forum on November 6, which was held at the Wymore Legion Hall. Among those in attendance was State Senator Myron Dorn, who was there to explain tax policy and school aid.One member of the public who spoke was Terry Acton, who is opposed to the new gym. He asked, “How do all these other school districts come up with way better test scores than what we're doing if they're all under the same restrictions?”When it was suggested to him by Dr. Moon that test score were a discussion for that meeting, he responded, “It has everything to do with it because you can’t merit a practice gym if you ain't accomplishing three ‘Rs’ going out the door.”Acton accused students of “getting soft” and blamed the school, “That's because you allowed it to happen.” Dr. Moon told the crowd, “I do want to say that I have been in a lot of districts, and I've seen a lot of staff, and I don't want us to continue to beat up our teachers, who are very good, and I have seen them work and work and work to try to work on those test scores. There are reasons that our test scores are low, but it is not because the district hasn't put the resources there and that our teachers don't work really hard at that we've got a couple things going on in the district that make those test scores lower than I would like to see, and certainly lower than the board.”The superintendent believes there is a problem with the way Special Education students are tested, noting that tests are not tailored to individual abilities.“In part, it is about the fact that we have an unusually high Special Education rate, and our special ed students all have to take the same test,” said Moon. “twenty percent of our kids have an IEP (Individualized Education Program), maybe a little higher than that. And then the other thing that you look at, if you look at our test scores, over the last three years, they have come up from 19 percent proficient to 29 percent proficient to 30-some percent proficient, a steady, steady growth in achievement.”

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