FILIPINO-descent students got the highest scores in reading among students who took the reading test last spring, the Public School System said.
The children are classified either as Chamorros, Carolinians, citizens of the Freely Associated States or Filipinos, according to the Public School System reading test summary report.
Rita Sablan, deputy education commissioner for curriculum and instruction, said Filipinos in the 4th grade showed the highest score on standard 1, which determines if students are engaged in the reading process.
“It appeared that Filipino students performed better than other ethnic subgroups on benchmarks 1.4.1, 1.4.3, 1.4.5, 4.4.2 and 5.4.1,” Sablan said.
However, she added, “Chamorro students performed better than other ethnic subgroups on benchmark 1.4.4 and all other students performed better than other subgroups on benchmark 1.4.2 and 4.4.1.” Eight grade Filipino students outperformed other ethnic subgroups in terms of engaging in the reading process as well as writing and speaking.
“Filipino students performed significantly better than other ethnic subgroups on all benchmarks assessed in grades 8 except for benchmarks 4.8.3 and 5.8.3,” Sablan said.
This summary is derived from the first standards based reading tests developed in accordance with the CNMI Language Arts Standards and Benchmarks in reading. Only three grade levels participated in this test: grades 4, 8 and 11.
Education officials said they are not trying to single out Filipinos but added that it is also necessary to determine the performance of ethnic subgroups in terms of reading.
Board of Education Chairman Herman T. Guerrero said the findings should serve as an inspiration to other students to perform better this coming school year.
He said the data would make students more “competitive” and make them perform better.
Local education officials are focusing their attention on the reading ability of the students following President Bush’s signing of the law that requires all public schools to ensure that their students could read by 3rd grade.
