Roncalli HS math students measure up

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - WISH-TV’s “The ZONE” tailgate takes place Friday night at Roncalli High School as the Rebels take on the Martinsville High School Artesians. While Friday night’s focus will be on players on the field, WISH-TV’s Daybreak highlights high achievers off the field. This week, high-scoring Algebra I classes at Roncalli capture our coverage.

Each year, students in the state of Indiana take ISTEP tests to measure student achievement. The ISTEP “End of Course Assessments” tests are specific to Algebra I, Biology I, or English 10. The ECA tests are designed to measure all the standards that a student should have mastered when taking the respective course.

ECA is a state graduation requirement success is measured by what percentage of kids who pass the test. If they do not pass it their sophomore year, they get two more chances during their junior year and two more if necessary during their senior year.

But at Roncalli, second chances aren’t often necessary. In 2011, 99% of kids passed the Algebra I ECA.

“Our school's scores on the Algebra 1 ECA are the second highest in the state behind one other school,” says Roncalli High School Principal, Chuck Weisenbach.

“Our teachers do a great job,” says Angela Toner, Math Department Co-Chair. "But also we have great feeder schools. But the biggest thing is we have great kids here."

Based on response from Roncalli Algebra I students, they think their teacher is equally as great.

"Its kind of hard to do math at times,” says student Brendan Hartnett “But Ms. Toner makes it easy because she's a good teacher."

Roncalli consistently has between 93% and 96% of students pass the Algebra 1 ECA. The one school that outscored Roncalli in 2011 was Brebeuf Jesuit.