Published: April 16, 2008 10:53 am            

Clarksville middle school gets IUS award

Clarksville Middle School has been named School of the Year by Indiana University Southeast’s School of Education.

The announcement was made Tuesday night during a board meeting for Clarksville Community Schools.

Clarksville Middle School Principal Pam Cooper said she was shocked when she received the letter Tuesday morning. She said she had not done anything to apply and had no idea this was coming.

“I was so excited, because we work so hard,” she said, smiling. “Every day we can get lost in the daily grind. You need a little boost every now and then, so it’s nice to have our hard work recognized.”

Superintendent Steve Fisher said the award says much about the faculty and administration.

“We may be small, but we get a lot of positive things done,” Fisher said.

Representatives from the school and administration will attend a reception at IUS on April 23.



Changes in testing

Changes are on the way in how Clarksville students are tested. The ISTEP will go from being administered once a year to three times, Fisher said. This year, students were tested in the fall. Next year, they will be tested in September, again in March — which will test their writing composition — and a final time in April, which will test students in English/language arts as well as math.

“Next year’s going to be a very testing year,” Fisher said. “There’s going to be testing, testing, testing.”

Another change involves the Graduation Qualifying Exam. That test — which is similar to the ISTEP in format — is a prerequisite for students to graduate. Those who have already taken it and failed will still have to pass to graduate. However, for those who have not reached that point yet, an End of Course Assessments test will replace the Graduation Qualifying Exam.

The end-of-course test will be administered toward the end of the year in a student’s algebra class and English 10 (sophomore level). Those tests will carry the same weight as the Graduation Qualifying Exam.

Fisher said he fears students will see it as just a class test and not think about the consequences of failing, so he is proposing to make the scores count toward each student’s final grade in the respective classes.

“I don’t know how it’s going to count, but it’s going to count,” Fisher said. “If this is the new GQE, there needs to be some teeth in it to let kids know it’s important.”



CHS gets new digital sign

Also at the meeting, the board thanked Clarksville High School Principal Tina Bennett for her work to get a new digital marquee for the school.

Fisher said the new sign was set up about three weeks ago. He said Bennett, with the help of the community, raised all the money to pay for it.

“It is beautiful,” Fisher said about the new sign. “It adds so much class to the high school.”

The old sign required people to climb a ladder to change letters. Fisher said the new sign is not only aesthetically pleasing, but also safer, since no climbing is necessary.



Saying goodbye

The board also thanked Assistant Superintendent Paul Love for his work at Clarksville schools for 40 years. He will retire at the end of this year.

“Things are how I would want to leave them,” Love said of the corporation’s finances. “I have many good memories of working here. I leave with good feelings and that’s how I wanted it to be.”

        

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