Posted: Jan. 18, 2010

Muskego — Already last year, Bay Lane Middle School was within striking distance of meeting the reading and math goals administrators set for the school for this year. School officials are hopeful that Bay Lane is now closing in on those goals.

By the end of the school year, the goal is for 96 percent of all students to be proficient or advanced in reading. The overall percentage was 92 percent as the last school year ended. Similarly, the goal for math is 92.3 percent proficient or advanced by the end of this year. The percentage stood at 89.7 percent as of the end of the last school year.

How well the school is doing on reading and math goals is just part of the data on how Bay Lane, W16399 Hilltop Drive, is doing on its scorecard of goals for 2009-10.

The only area on the scorecard that needs work is bringing up the proficiency of special education students in reading and math, Bay Lane Principal Erik Olson told the Muskego-Norway School Board.

As of the last school year, 57 percent were at least proficient in reading and 48 percent in math. That must come up to 100 percent by 2013, under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, Associate Principal Jeffrey Petersen said.

All year, the school is focusing on how to bring those scores up, Olson said.

"We're confident we can get there," Petersen said.

About the only concerns brought up by the School Board were that fewer students are taking an algebra class. The number of students taking the course dropped to 43.7 percent this year compared to 54.7 percent in 2008-09.

But Peterson said that although the school has no specific data on that, the total number of students is probably very small, so the percentage can fluctuate greatly. Olson added that sometimes students go into a more accelerated course instead.

In the several goals relating to the whole student, Bay Lane passed the attendance goal for this year already. School officials hope it is on its way to catching up to the Oconomowoc schools which are the leaders in the area.

To get the school to its academic goals, teachers and administrators are taking several measures.

Among other things, teachers are having students assess and monitor their own learning; using tests to target instruction to the individual needs of students; using motivational triggers; and are sharing ideas with one another.

Vocabulary has been a special emphasis this year. Teachers are administering pre- and post-vocabulary tests and using the data to adjust their teaching. They also are trying to use the same vocabulary words in various subjects.