Maud fifth-graders celebrate passing STAAR math exam
Laura Bolick’s fifth-grade math class at Maud Elementary has something to crow about. Her whole class, all 32 students, passed their STAAR math exam recently.
“They all passed. 100 percent passed the test on their first attempt. We have one who made 100 (on the test), which is very rare,” Bolick said. “It doesn’t happen very often, I don’t think. So I’m excited for them. In reading, they did awesome too. So, that’s excellent too. They did well overall.”
Micah Bishop is the smart-as-a-whip student who aced the math exam, with several others running close behind him.
Bolick is in her 16th year of teaching, 10 of which have been at the Maud school. She knows these children. She’s been teaching, preparing and helping them to improve their skills for quite a while.
“I’ve had these kids for three years now. Most all of us (teachers) have. I taught third grade when they were in third grade. So they were my babies then. And then when they moved to fourth grade, (the school) moved me to fourth- and fifth-grade math,” she said, beaming over being able to teach these same students for three straight years.
The STAAR test is the State of Texas Assessments of Academic Readiness exam given to the students near the end of each school year to determine whether they have improved their skills and learned what they were taught. It also determines whether they are equipped to pass into the next grade level.
Bolick’s kids shone. And she couldn’t be more proud of them.
“It’s a joint effort, for sure,” she said.
Kali Epperson, a Response To Intervention tutor, is Bolick’s right hand in educating the students and the results of the STAAR test testify to her effectiveness.
When Bolick teaches a new series of math problems, along with the skills needed to comprehend them, and some students are struggling, Epperson goes the extra mile to ensure they grasp the formulas and operations of those math problems.
“Miss Epperson is what we call an RTI person with me with the fifth-graders,” Bolick said. “In the afternoon, she pulls my fifth-graders (who) are having trouble. She pulls them during PE (physical education) or music and works with them. She is a key ingredient to their success. It’s a remediation, which is basically helping and tutoring them.”
Scott Sanders, the school’s principal, has made some changes to the school’s time policies that are beneficial to both students and teachers.
“He has changed the schedule so we can have more time,” Bolick said. “He really protects our work time from interruptions. Any kind of stuff that’s not essential, that’s extra, he’ll do it during PE or music.
“Because they really cannot miss their class time. So he protects our work time. Which is very important. If he didn’t, we would be short and we wouldn’t be able to get it all done. I’m just thankful that he sees the value in that.”
Fifth-grade math is not as easy as one might think, as evidenced by the television game show “Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader?”
“They start algebra early,” Bolick said. “They have been learning to multiply and divide fractions, add and subtract fractions, and that’s all easy except when you throw in different denominators. They have learned the place values like the tenths, hundredths and thousandths and their relationship to each other.
“A lot of things changed about three years ago, like what and how we teach the third- and fourth-graders. We’re trying to make it make more sense so they can think and reason things out. Because if they know this, then they know the next thing. Math builds on itself from one year to the next.
“The focus is not just showing them what to do, it’s letting them discover it on their own because of the relationships of the numbers, fractions and place values.
“The goal is to teach them to think mentally and to break things down so that they make sense.”
Bolick says that focus is the main thing. If the students are having learning or concentration problems, it could affect every subject in school. They need to learn that early.
“Even at the little age. They have to be able to focus long enough to do small tasks and then it just builds and builds as each year goes by,” she said.
Bolick’s fifth-graders did very well on their reading STAAR test as well as the math exam.
“Ms. Frost teaches reading. I feel like math can go a little bit faster because each is an isolated problem,” Bolick said.
In reading, there’s a selection that the student reads and then answers questions testing comprehension abilities. They are allotted four hours for the test and most of the students take the full amount of time.
“It is really grueling for them to stay focused that long and to do all the things that they’ve been taught to do, to pull out all the details they need,” she said. “And they did really, really well in reading. Ms. Frost has been teaching for 30-something years, so she knows what she’s doing.”
The students initially take their math and reading tests at the end of March. If they are unable to pass, they get a second chance a month later, with extra tutoring to help them get through the items they may be having difficulty with.
But Bolick’s math students are done. It’s over. They passed the test on the first go-around.
Fifth-graders are required to pass both the math and reading tests to advance to the sixth grade. They do, however, still have one more test before summer vacation.
“They take their science test on May 10. Monday the fourth-graders will do their math. Tuesday, they’ll do their reading. And Wednesday, the fifth-graders will do their science. And then they won’t listen to anything else we say the remainder of the semester. They’ll be done. It’ll be a wild house after that,” she said laughing.
To celebrate passing their exams, Bolick asked her students what kind of end-of-year party they would like to have.
They batted around ideas of going to a theme park or the trampoline park. But the more they talked and thought about it, they realized they would have to spend a lot of time waiting in lines for the rides and would have to share their celebrations with students from other schools.
Instead, this tight bunch opted for a wet-n-wild party to be held at the school. Just for them. By themselves. A day full of water rides, fun and pizza. That says a lot about their maturity and community with each other.
Maybe it’s the result of being raised in a small town. Maybe it’s a combination of small-town living, their parents and their families. And. of course, their awesome teachers.
Regardless of who gets the credit, everybody won.
“A lot of things changed about three years ago, like what and how we teach the third- and fourth-graders. We’re trying to make it make more sense so they can think and reason things out. Because if they know this, then they know the next thing. Math builds on itself from one year to the next. The focus is not just showing them what to do, it’s letting them discover it on their own ... ” —Laura Bolick