New teaching strategies, higher test scores for Wapato
WAPATO - The news has been good out of Wapato schools; more kids passing state testing across the board. It's a big change from the past when more kids were failing.
"It's really changed...even since our freshman year, we've gotten new books and there's different ways of teaching," said senior Jennifer Cruz.
This different way of teaching is largely credited to grant money.
Over a three year span, more than a million dollars was spent to teach the teachers, by letting staff find new ideas from other districts.
Teachers also collaborated with each other to support kids throughout their education.
"All the way up to high school, so that we have the students ready for any and all tests that are thrown at them and all learning standards," said Karissa Lawrence, a teacher at Wapato Middle School.
This has even led to blending parts of math and reading together.
They're calling it the "Wapato Way" of teaching; a pool of techniques and teaching strategies tested over the last three years and proven effective here in Wapato school district.
The "Wapato Way" seems to be working; 14% more sophomores passed the state reading test and 9% more eighth graders.
For math, the district has seen improvement from the eighth graders and the fourth graders on that testing.
Teachers credit new strategies like checking student progress three times a year and also programs to give kids more help in math and reading if they've fallen behind.
And it might be just as important to find the programs that don't work and toss them.
"Everything from the Summit initiative, it's all in a bowl ready to be mixed and used," said Lawrence.
So now that the money has run out and teachers have to just keep this plan going, we're told a small dip in scores is expected, but teachers are confident test scores will only continue to improve.
The one area that has been weak for the district is science.
We learned a new curriculum was recently added to hopefully bring up science scores for Wapato students as well.
"It's really changed...even since our freshman year, we've gotten new books and there's different ways of teaching," said senior Jennifer Cruz.
This different way of teaching is largely credited to grant money.
Over a three year span, more than a million dollars was spent to teach the teachers, by letting staff find new ideas from other districts.
Teachers also collaborated with each other to support kids throughout their education.
"All the way up to high school, so that we have the students ready for any and all tests that are thrown at them and all learning standards," said Karissa Lawrence, a teacher at Wapato Middle School.
This has even led to blending parts of math and reading together.
They're calling it the "Wapato Way" of teaching; a pool of techniques and teaching strategies tested over the last three years and proven effective here in Wapato school district.
The "Wapato Way" seems to be working; 14% more sophomores passed the state reading test and 9% more eighth graders.
For math, the district has seen improvement from the eighth graders and the fourth graders on that testing.
Teachers credit new strategies like checking student progress three times a year and also programs to give kids more help in math and reading if they've fallen behind.
And it might be just as important to find the programs that don't work and toss them.
"Everything from the Summit initiative, it's all in a bowl ready to be mixed and used," said Lawrence.
So now that the money has run out and teachers have to just keep this plan going, we're told a small dip in scores is expected, but teachers are confident test scores will only continue to improve.
The one area that has been weak for the district is science.
We learned a new curriculum was recently added to hopefully bring up science scores for Wapato students as well.
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