The Basics: Working toward continuous progress for all students

Our nation, state, and district are focused on ensuring that every student is proficient in reading and math. In Nampa, we provide an instructional program to support teachers and students in reaching this goal. In the past, our students demonstrated continuous progress each year. Last year, the state changed its reading and math tests making them more rigorous and more closely aligned to standards. Because of this our results and those of other districts changed.

Monitoring Student Progress
% of students proficient & advanced		Reading	Math
New test	2007	73%	71%
Old test	2006	79%	76%
	2005	76%	72%
	2004	75%	68%
	2003	67%	58%
In 2007, the state changed its tests. Our goal is to show the continuous progress our students demonstrated from 2003-2006.

While we are pleased with our continuous progress demonstrated by our students in the past, we also know that our results look different when compared to others districts and it is important to understand why.

Among Idaho’s school districts, Nampa has no peers because of our size and diversity.

Serving a population of more than 14,000 students means we are the state’s third largest school district. Yet we don’t rival the size of No. 1 ranked Meridian and No. 2 ranked Boise that serve more than 16,000 to 10,000 more students. The No. 4 ranked Pocatello serves at least 2,000 fewer students than we do.

Treasure Valley School Districts % of students proficient & advanced in reading
	Nampa	State	Boise	Caldwell	Meridian	Vallivue
2007	73%
2006	79%	84%	88%	74%	90%	75%	Old test
2005	76%	83%	85%	73%	90%	75%
2004	75%	81%	85%	73%	89%	74%
2003	67%	75%	81%	61%	84%	65%
Why are the results for Canyon County school districts so different from Ada County school districts? The students are different. Canyon County school districts serve more students who don’t speak English and more students who live in poverty than their Ada County counterparts.

The larger and smaller districts ranked near us also serve very different populations from those living in poverty to those with different ethnic backgrounds and those with limited English skills.

Why do we highlight these differences? Because it is part of the context in which our teachers and administrators work. We don’t see these factors as excuses, rather as indicators to help guide our effort to customize our instruction to ensure success for all children. We see that our intentional effort reflected in our results.

While our diversity impacts how Nampa’s results compare each year to our neighboring districts, our achievement growth outpaces most in the area of reading and math.

Treasure Valley School Districts % of students proficient & advanced in math
	Nampa	State	Boise	Caldwell	Meridian	Vallivue
2007
2006	76%	83%	86%	75%	86%	74%	Old test
2005	72%	78%	82%	69%	83%	67%
2004	68%	76%	80%	70%	82%	64%
2003	58%	67%	75%	63%	75%	60%
Why are the results for Canyon County school districts so different from Ada County school districts? The students are different. Canyon County school districts serve more students who don’t speak English and more students who live in poverty than their Ada County counterparts.