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Central School District 13J

Students, Staff, Families, Community

8th Grade Math

8th Grade Mathematics

Bar chart showing mathematics proficiency in OSAS for Grade 8 cohort across three spring testing periods.

Bar chart showing math proficiency for 8th-grade students across three testing periods.

What are we doing to increase math skills?

Strategies for Improvement 

  • Implementation of research-based instructional materials, strategies and interventions aligned to essential standards at each grade level
  • Continued implementation of K-12 Language Arts Curriculum / Math
  • K-12 Professional Learning Communities
    • use of data to drive success for students
    • grade-level common assessments; district-wide common assessments
    • continue to improve at effectively analyzing student data and adjust/adapt to impact student learning and growth
  • Language Development

What you can do at home 

  • Play card games, and other strategy-based games, such as learn to play chess, checkers, or other board games.
  • If you enjoy sports, look at things such as player statistics, or talk about the number of innings or downs or yards. 
  • Play counting games (ones, tens, hundreds). 
  •  Play with building blocks, such as Legos. 

TERMS

Math skills growth: This data point reflects how much students are showing flat, modest, typical or aggressive growth in their math skills.

Math proficiency: Achievement refers to scores on a test, looking at a student's proficiency at their grade level. Growth shows how much a student is learning in the math standards. Central School District believes that students must grow in their learning to achieve higher test results.

Emerging bilingual students are learning more than one language. It can take many years to become proficient in a second language.

Cohort: "Cohort" describes a group of students. For example, if we are looking at the K-1 cohort, we are looking at our current first-grade students (this year) compared to those same students in kindergarten (last year). Much of the state data that is released focuses on grade-specific results. We look at the journey of our students through data year-over-year, or by their cohort.

UNIVERSAL SCREENER VS. STATE TESTS

Both are useful data points.

Central School District staff use the Universal Screener tools to test students three times a year -- fall, winter, and spring -- to determine what help they need to get or stay on track. One major benefit of these assessments is that educators can use the data immediately to help students through interventions.

The state of Oregon uses the Smarter Balanced Assessments each spring to determine how students meet certain standards. The results of this test are not released until the following fall.  Because the results are released after students have moved to the next grade, the data is not as immediately useful. Regardless, it remains an important data point.

Goals in Math

  • We will see an annual growth in the range of 1 to 3 percentage points or more in the mathematics proficiency for all students and those experiencing disabilities, as assessed by the annual Oregon state test, 6th-8th cohort achievement data.
  • By 8th grade, 60 percent or more of all students and those experiencing disabilities will have achieved the mathematics skills expected of their grade level, as assessed by the district's Universal Screener 6-8 cohort growth data.