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Palo Verde and Rincon high schools show marked success in turnaround effort

AIMS math scores reveal improvement in student achievement

Posted on: December 14, 2011
Contact: Cara Rene, Communication Director, (520) 225-6101, Cara.Rene@tusd1.org

Newly released AIMS fall math test scores reveal significant success toward improving student achievement at Tucson Unified School District's Palo Verde and Rincon high schools.

Each spring, high school sophomores take the high school version of the AIMS test for the first time. In addition to completing the necessary credits, high school students must pass all three AIMS subject tests – mathematics, reading and writing – to graduate.

Students who do not pass the initial spring test are provided subsequent opportunities to take the test. Both Palo Verde and Rincon – designated in February 2011 as "Turnaround" schools by the TUSD Governing Board due to low achievement ­– have shown impressive double-digit percentage improvement in math scores for the Class of 2013. Principals, teachers and students worked together in the turnaround effort. For more information about the turnaround process, see the Turnaround Schools web pages.

"The math scores reflect what we already know, high expectations yield great results," says Janna Acevedo, principal at Palo Verde. The staff's commitment to excellence and the students connection to the staff made a great outcome."

Here are the encouraging results:

Palo Verde High School

  • In April, 35.3% of Palo Verde's sophomore class passed the AIMS math test. A larger percentage of these same students passed the reading (63.5%) and writing (56.3%) sections of the test.
  • In October, students had their second opportunity to pass any remaining subject tests if they previously failed. An analysis of those fall scores shows that an additional 22.2% of this class passed the math test, resulting in a cumulative passing rate of 57.5%. This improvement increase was the largest among all TUSD high schools.

Rincon High School

  • In April, 48.2% of Rincon's sophomore class passed the AIMS math test. A larger percentage of these same students passed the reading (67.2%) and writing (59.3%) sections of the test.
  • In October, an additional 11.3% of this class passed the math test, resulting in a cumulative passing rate of 59.5%. This improvement increase was the third largest among all TUSD high schools.

"We are delighted at our Rincon students' significant improvements in math and writing on the fall AIMS," says Catherine Comstock, principal at Rincon High. "We implemented a school-wide writing method to improve our students' writing skills and we provided our students with after school math tutoring to improve their math skills."

TUSD's cumulative passing rate increased by 10.1% for the fall math test. By more than doubling the District's rate of improvement, Palo Verde closed the math gap in comparison to the District average. Rincon's improvement also closed the gap with the District average.