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North Augusta High School |
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Learning and growing as a team ~ Succeeding and excelling to reach a dream |
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| School Improvement Plan |
| 2003-2004 |
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We welcome your assistance with this important process. Please send any suggestions and comments to Fran Altringer, Chair of the SACS Committee. |
| A. Student Performance Data National Measures: Student performance on the PSAT, SAT, ACT, and Advanced Placement Exams provide clear indicators of our students' strengths and weaknesses. All tenth grade students on the college prep track are encouraged to take advantage of the state funded PSAT. Approximately 65% of our sophomores and juniors take the PSAT. The number of students taking the SAT remains fairly constant, with composite scores rising forty points between 2000 and 2003. Math scores are consistently higher than verbal scores. The mean math score for senior females has increased from 458 in 2000 to 499 in 2003. The males continue to score higher than the females in math. ACT scores have remained fairly constant over the years, but the number of students participating has decreased. This decrease may be attributed to South Carolina's not paying for PLAN, the practice test for the ACT. See Table 1. Each year a majority of our graduates pursue post-secondary education. Last year, 83% of our students were accepted to post-secondary institutions, with 60% attending a four-year college. Our students have been recognized for their outstanding work in high school through scholarship awards. In 2002-2003, 21% of the graduating seniors qualified to receive the LIFE Scholarship, and 5% qualified to be Palmetto Fellows. Last year our graduating class was awarded over $3,624,600.00 in private and public scholarships. This is consistent with past years. Our students have experienced a high measure of success in college, with many appearing on Dean's Lists and President's Lists each semester. See Table 2. North Augusta High School offers Advanced Placement classes in eight subjects: chemistry, biology, physics, computer science, English, U.S. history, European history and calculus. Since 2000, NAHS has increased the number of AP test administered by 37% for a total of 124 tests administered in 2003. This may be due to our efforts to include more students in the AP experience. North Augusta High School has also added Computer Science A this year and has nineteen students enrolled. Additionally, we now offer AP Chemistry and AP Biology concurrently rather than alternately, as we did prior to 2003. Table 3 shows the percentage of students passing the AP individual exams with a score of three, four, or five. In the past four years, North Augusta High School has had increasing numbers of students recognized as AP Scholars, Scholars with Honor, or Scholars with Distinction. NAHS began the International Baccalaureate Program (IB) of study in 2001. Currently, seven seniors and twelve juniors are full diploma candidates. Thirty-four sophomores and thirty-nine freshmen are enrolled in the pre-IB program. Many students are taking IB level classes and will be able to sit for the exams in order to earn certificates in those subjects. The first round of IB tests will be graded in the spring of 2004. See Table 4. State Measure: The Basic Skills Assessment Program has been the statewide exit exam taken by sophomores for many years. This examination was designed to test minimum competency skills in the areas of reading, writing, and mathematics. On average, 88% of our sophomores pass this test on their first attempt. The percentage of those passing the math and writing tests has steadily increased over the last few years with reading percentages staying level at a 90% passing rate. When compared to schools demographically similar to ours, our students rate above the average by about five percentage points. Students who fail this test have several more opportunities to take and pass it in order to meet the graduation requirement. The current tenth graders, class of 2006, will be the first graduating class required to take the new High School Assessment Exit Examination. This examination was developed to meet both the federal No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 and the South Carolina Education Accountability Act of 1998. See Table 1. Additional Student Performance Indicators: Dropout rate, and free and reduced lunch numbers are all included in the data presented in Table 5. |
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