As a district, we increased our passage rate from 65.3% in 2010 to 71.0% in 2011. In addition, as a district, the percent of students in the advanced category (the highest possible category) rose from 17.2% in 2010 to 25.7% in 2011. This is a clear statement about the hard work of all of our PreK-3 teachers and our 3rd grade students. Way to go!

There are also a number of building level celebrations to be had.
• Central -- The overall percent of students passing the test rose 3.6%, and the percent of students in the advance category went from 10.5% to 22.9%.
• East -- The percent of students in the advance category rose 2.8%, and the percent of students in the basic category (the second to the lowest category) dropped 1.7%.
• North -- The overall percent of students passing rose to 80.8%, and the percent of students in the advanced category increased by 3.8%.
• South -- The overall percent of students passing increase from 54.4% in 2010 to 73.6% in 2011, and the percent of students in the advanced category went from 12.3% to 28.7%.
• West -- The overall percent of students passing went from 62.4% in 2010 to 72.8% in 2011, and the percent of students in the advanced category rose from 18.4% to 25.8%.

Congratulations to these teachers and administrators! What a great start to our school year's testing cycle. Thank you for all your work. Let's keep up this tremendous effort -- our kids are definitely worth it.