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Show Cyan Magenta Yellow Black A8 Sanpete Messenger / Sanpete Messenger-Gunnison Valley Edition SCHOOL BRIEFS ... Compiled by Kathy Lin Eggleston EPHRAIM ELEMENTARY SCHOOL The annual Junior Genius Fair, being held Thursday, gives students an opportunity to be awarded the rank of Specialist, Expert or Genius on a topic of personal interest. Kindergarten through third grade students will be displaying their projects from 9:30- 10:30 a.m. Fourth and fifth grade students will be displaying their projects from 1:30-2:30 p.m. Parents are invited to help their students with set up half an hour before fair times multipurpose room. Fourth graders are attending Watershed Education Day at the Sanpete County Fairgrounds in Manti on Friday. PTA Arts Night is next Friday, April 15 at 7 p.m. in the multipurpose room. Information is being sent home concerning student signup for this event. GUNNISON VALLEY ELEMENTARY SCHOOL 2005-2006 school year kindergarten registration will be Thursday from 3-6 p.m. All children who turn five by Sept. 1, 2005 are eligible to enroll in kindergarten. The school nurse will provide immunization shots, and eye screening will be available at the site. Parents must bring their student’s birth certificate, social security number and up-to-date immunization records. Please register now so your child is on the list for the kindergarten readiness evaluation administered in June. GUNNISON VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL in the morning and the chorus in the afternoon. Students involved in Educational Talent Search sponsored by Snow College will be going to a Stingers game on Friday at 1 p.m. On Wednesday the Gunnison Valley High School chorus and band will travel to South Sevier High School to participate in a day-long large group music festival. The band competes GUNNISON VALLEY MIDDLE SCHOOL The Gunnison Valley Middle School band will be presenting a concert at 7 p.m. on Thurs- day. The public is welcome. NORTH SANPETE HIGH SCHOOL North Sanpete High School Sterling Scholars Night of Honors will be Wednesday at 6:30 p.m. in the auditorium and commons area. NORTH SANPETE MIDDLE SCHOOL North Sanpete Middle School is having a third quarter trip on Friday to Utah’s Hogle Zoo for students who earned a C- or above with no Us or no more than one N on their report card. Centerfield girl named national winner in English By Kathy Lin Eggleston Staff writer CENTERFIELD—The United States Achievement Academy announced that Kelsey Nay of Centerfield has been named a U.S. national award winner in English. Kelsey is the daughter of Rodney and Joann Nay of Centerfield. Grandparents are Eugene and Bernetta Nay of Gunnison, and Gene and Renon Reed of Richfield. Kelsey attends Gunnison Valley High School and was nominated by Jo Lynn Camp. The Academy selects USAA winners based on recommendations from teachers, coaches, counselors and others, and on the student’s academic performance, interest, aptitude, leadership, responsibility, citizenship, attitude and cooperative spirit. 435-623-7083 Office 801-592-1278 Mobile • New construction, reroof repairs, strip-offs, free bids, • Insurance claims welcome. Family owned and operated. • If you are looking for a high quality professional job, call Anderson Roofing. LICENSED & INSURED Serving all Sanpete! www.friendlyroofers.com DRIVERS ENGLAND TRUCKING JOB FAIR! Learn To Drive With The Best! C. R. England Trucking is conducting FREE Career Fairs explaining their Truck Driver Training Program. These FREE Fairs will be held EVERY WEEK IN APRIL from 4:00 PM to 8:00 PM Tuesday: Provo, Holiday Inn, 1416 S. University Avenue Wednesday: Salt Lake City, C.R. England Olde English Grill, 4701 W. 2100 S. (West end of C.R. England general offices) Thursday: Ogden, Holiday Inn Express, 2245 S. 1200 E. Get your CDL and learn to be a professional truck driver! Low, Low Tuition! Special discount for attendees! Financing available through our pay-as-you-earn-plan. No credit check or co-signers needed. Guaranteed job with England Trucking upon successful completion. If you want a career with a real future, you owe it to yourself to attend one of these Job Fairs! Min. age 21 Free Refreshments! DON’T MISS THIS EVENT! 866-887-4937 www.crengland.net ROGER HUFFMAN FLOORS 50 S. State, Ftn. Green 445-3225 1-800-391-4723 “Your local floorist!” Carpet, Vinyl & Laminate • Sales and Installation Kelsey Nay Wednesday, April 6, 2005 In the Interest of Children Have tests results for two years This is the second year that the Utah Basic Skills Competency Test has been administered to high school sophomores. The Utah Legislature mandated that all students must pass the test—referred to as the UBSCT—in order to receive a Basic High School Diploma. The test consists of three portions, Reading, Mathematics and Writing, all of which must be passed. Students who do not pass one or more sections can retake those sections up to five times prior to the end of their senior year. If a student does not pass all subtests after repeated attempts but still meets all of the other requirements for graduation, they will be awarded an alternate high school diploma. Examples of what that diploma will look like are still under consideration. The UBSCT is administered by teachers under the direction of High School counselors and each subtest takes about two hours to complete. To give the entire test requires portions of three schooldays. Retakes require additional days. Counselors report that administering the test, keeping track of results, helping students who need to retake the test, and then administering those retakes, consumes a great deal of time from an already overwhelming responsibility. They report that students generally take the test very seriously, and that for most students it is not a difficult test. Students having learning disabilities or those from non-English speaking backgrounds experience greater difficulty. We now have two years of data from the UBSCT test that the public may find of interest. District wide last year 94 percent of sophomores passed the reading section, 77 percent passed the math, and 83 percent passed the writing. This year 92percent of sophomores passed the reading section, 72 percent passed the math, and 76 percent passed the writing. All subtest passing-rates were higher than statewide averages for 2004. 2005 averages were not available at the time of this article. After retakes we still have eight junior students (last year’s sophomores) not passing reading, 26 not passing math, and 20 not passing the writing section, but all of those students still have the opportunity for further remediation and additional retakes. Both South Sanpete high schools have offered a number of remediation options for stu- dents not passing the test. In many cases remediation has enabled students to pass the test. Some stuJim Petersen dents have opted to South Sanpete retake the test withSuperintendent out remediation (just try harder) but usually they found they needed additional instruction and practice in order to be successful. In addition to remediation options at the school, the Utah Electronic High School offers a UBSCT preparation class over the internet. When the test was first being considered I was very concerned that students not passing it would become discouraged and quit high school. Fortunately, I have been wrong so far because neither counselor in South Sanpete District high schools reports any students dropping out because of the UBSCT Test. In a number of instances students have scored in the155 -159 range, which is just slightly below the passing score of 160. I give much credit to parents, counselors and teachers for keeping kids in school, reinforcing student persistence and encouraging them to not give up. It is too early to determine if the test is helping or hindering students. For me it is a mixed bag. For most students it is of little concern; for others, though, it will be a setback of some consequence. A high school diploma is an entry-level requirement for many forms of employment. I would like to see alternatives or accommodations for students with handicaps such as passing a course or completion of an assignment specific to the content needing to be mastered. Possibly the test will motivate students to be more serious about their high school experience, but most already are very serious. For teachers the message is clear that curriculum covered needs to give students skills and information needed to pass the UBSCT. I worry that with the number of high stakes tests being required, UBSCT, CRT, SAT, ACT, etc, etc., that teachers can never cover all that is tested; and, often the most important learning can never be measured by any test. |