Managing Editor

For the first time in the more than five years that the state of Alabama Board of Education has been classifying public schools based on Stanford Achievement Test scores, all public schools in Butler County have been given academic clear status by the state.

Butler County Superintendent of Education Mike Reed said the news came as a welcome suprise to everyone in the county school system, and he said the students, faculty and administrators of each school should be applauded for a job well done.

There has been a concentrated focus over the past year on improving test scores from the central office down," he said. "The teachers have really put forth the effort and came through, so they should all be congratulated."

Reed said administrators and teachers at all six county schools have been working together to coordinate what is being taught in the classroom to the information covered on the SAT. The efforts, Reed said, produced results in the form of marked improvements in SAT scores by the students.

The biggest success was enjoyed by Greenville High School which jumped from Alert 2 status, or one step away from being taken over by the state, to academic clear.

GHS had been on Alert 2 status for the past two years, and Reed said the students combined scores represented and increase of 2.66 percentage points to bring the school into an academic clear status.

"The jump from Alter 2 to academic clear is very exciting," Reed said. "It demonstrates the dedication of the teachers and students to improve."

Students at W.O. Parmer Elementary School's combined scores increased 8.77 percentage points to move up from academic caution status to clear. Reed said the increase shows that it is not only the teachers who recognize the importance of the SAT.

"I think the students are finally becoming cognizant of the importance of these tests to their future," Reed said. "The increase in test scores shows that they are starting to take their education more seriously."

Reed said the county schools will continue to strive to improve. He said the success this year is a great morale boost for everyone, but he said there is always room for improvement.

"I told everyone in our initial meeting that even if we scored 99 percent this year that we would still find a way to find the remaining one percent," Reed said.

Reed said the schools all score at or above the national average on the SAT this year. The only decrease in scores was experienced by Georgiana High School, but Reed said the decrease was statistically insignificant and did not affect the school's academic clear status.