No Child Left Behind Standards Assert Reed Intermediate School Needs To Improve

By Laurie Borst

The scores are in. Reed Intermediate School students’ scores on the Connecticut Mastery Tests in reading show 89.6 percent of fifth graders and 92.3 percent of sixth graders performed at proficiency. Excluding the scores of special education students, 94.7 percent of fifth graders and 96.5 percent of sixth graders scored at proficiency.

Only 58 percent of special education students scored a proficiency levels in reading. Currently, federal No Child Left Behind (NCLB) standards require 68 percent of special education students reach proficiency. Therefore, Reed Intermediate School has been cited as needing improvement by federal education officials.

A number of other area school districts find themselves on the “Need to Improve” list. Any school with a special education population of 40 or more students will have separate scores reported for the subgroups.

“Our overall population is doing well,” said Alice Jackson, assistant superintendent of Newtown schools. “We will try to improve. This may affect how we deliver services. We will be looking into the need to change for these children. We can look at the individual students to determine what’s been done right and what needs to improve.”

As more and more students are identified as having special needs, schools are required to provide for them. The 2006-07 budget has added a sixth grade team and a part-time reading position at Reed.