Gateway tests now the gateway to graduation
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Students are anxious for a couple of reasons, namely because passage of the algebra I and biology Gateway exams is now a graduation requirement for all Tennessee students, beginning with this year’s freshman class. Of concern to all students taking these subjects, freshman and upperclassmen alike, is the fact their Gateway exam scores will be taking the place of their final exam, which constitutes 25 percent of their second semester grade.
The Gateway concept was passed by the General Assembly several years ago as a measure to make teachers, schools and school systems more accountable by raising academic expectations. As a consequence, school and system administrators across the state have had to take steps to ensure students would be adequately prepared.
In Warren County, a number of measures were taken which officials feel will ensure the success of county students.
Among the steps taken were to send all teachers of the Gateway subjects to multiple summer institutes sponsored by the state Department of Education. At these institutes the teachers were made familiar with the “performance indicators,” or content that would be tested on the exams, as well as Gateway teaching strategies.
Teachers of Gateway subjects created calendar-based curriculum maps which have served to keep all teachers of a particular subject teaching the same material at the same time. By creating these curriculum maps, students, teachers, administrators and parents can know exactly what will be learned, and when, during the school year. The maps include all of the Gateway performance indicators.
To assist teachers, the high school purchased a new software program designed to diagnose students’ strengths and weaknesses after taking practice exams in both algebra I and biology. The result of the program is a streamlined study program for each student based on those same strengths and weaknesses.
The school also offers extended contract teachers certified in algebra and biology who can assist students in the school’s computer lab before and after the school day.
These tutorial sessions are taken by students on a voluntary basis.
“We’ve done everything we know to do to prepare our students for success, but the proof will be in the results,” said high school curriculum and evaluation principal Dr. Haskell Greer.
School system director of ESOL, equity and testing Dianna Zadeh said the system should have the results back around May 20. Though the state promises a 72-hour turnaround once it has the exam score sheets, Zadeh said the state gives each system a grading appointment based on the date that system gets out of school. As the Warren County school year ends later than most, it was given a later date.
The results of Warren County students on the Gateway exams will be made available in a future edition of the Standard.