POCATELLO — State Superintendent Sherri Ybarra named the Pocatello-Chubbuck School District’s Rulon M. Ellis Elementary School an Idaho recipient of the National Title I Association of Distinguished Schools Program Award.
The award recognizes annually two Title I schools per state for “outstanding achievements in education.” Clearwater Valley Elementary School in north-central Idaho’s Mountain View School District also received a Title I award Monday.
“Regardless of their students’ backgrounds, economic status, or prior performance levels, these two schools recognize that every student can achieve,” Ybarra said.
In order to qualify for the award, a school must have at least a 35 percent poverty rate and meet state-determined criteria based on two or more consecutive years of achievement data.
Ellis received the award for being among the top 5 percent of Idaho schools striving to meet these standards. Specifically, the school’s most recent ISAT scores reveal that economically disadvantaged students outperformed their statewide counterparts by 25.9 percentage points. Ellis’s learning-disabled students also surpassed the state average by 29.9 percentage points.
Earlier this year, SDE state Assessment Coordinator Nancy Price took note of Pocatello-Chubbuck’s improved ISAT scores, which:
- Surpassed state averages in every grade level.
- Improved in student proficiency in every grade level.
- Doubled the average state improvement in average improvement per grade.
(Click here for a detailed report on Pocatello-Chubbuck’s strategies for improving standardized test scores.)
