Dorchester Times: DPS REPORT CARD: Writing

Thursday, September 27, 2012

DPS REPORT CARD: Writing

Today, the Dorchester Times concludes its comparison of the performance of our own school district to surrounding schools -- to see how our kids and our teachers are faring.

To gauge performance of our students and educators, we have utilized data from the Nebraska Department of Education and its most recent State of the Schools Report (2010). What you are about to read is official information.

Today we focus on writing -- an area in which U.S. students are falling behind due to texting, informal e-mails and other modern means of communicating.

4th Grade Writing Percentage Proficient

Dorchester -- 94.12%
Milford -- 92.31%
Friend -- 92.00%
Wilber -- 85.37%
Crete -- 78.43%

11th Grade Writing Percentage Proficient

Crete -- 98.04%
Dorchester -- 89.47%
Friend -- Not Reporting
Milford -- Not Reporting
Wilber -- Not Reporting

9 comments:

AnonymousSeptember 27, 2012 at 10:00 AM
After seeing all this information your blog has posted it may be best if Dorchester and Milford combine academics since they seem to be the area leaders, on average.
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AnonymousSeptember 27, 2012 at 12:49 PM
Sure

Combine academics and you are going to have a four million dollar building sitting empty

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AnonymousSeptember 27, 2012 at 12:53 PM
I have a challenge for the blogsters

Run a story on the condition of the new school.

Rumor has it , that the walls and footings are cracking and the school has needed extensive structural repair.
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AnonymousSeptember 27, 2012 at 1:11 PM
I think a lot of blame can be placed on texting, informal emailing and other modern forms of written communication that technology has offered. I don't think they provide a good explanation of why we would be falling behind other countries in writing skills, however. The particular countries that have surpassed the U.S. in academic performance are either right with us or beyond us in the use of these modern technologies for written communication. I think most developed countries share a similar problem with this.
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AnonymousSeptember 27, 2012 at 3:29 PM
Let's just stick to combining football teams with Milford. That makes sense and would be good for all involved. No consolidation of school talk, please! At least not until ag land values fall to half of what they are now, which will happen sometime down the road, trust me.
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cynical richardSeptember 27, 2012 at 3:35 PM
............................interesting stuff here ..................... maybe dorchester needs a new rule ......................................... teachers who get tenure need to live in the school district ...................................................... at the very least they need to send their kids to dorchester if they have them.................................. its like a fund manager ............................... invest in what you oversee ................ have skin in the game or go elsewhere.................................
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AnonymousSeptember 28, 2012 at 10:04 AM
To cynical Richard

Maybe we should look at the hole picture

The school board should be doing a better job promoting the school. We put ads in local papers and send a bus to pick them up and still can't make it work

There mut be. Reason that kids are opting out. Just talk to the general public and the Redon are obvious
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AnonymousSeptember 28, 2012 at 6:19 PM
I think the last person needs to go back to school and learn to spell.
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AnonymousOctober 1, 2012 at 12:10 AM
Sooooooooooo tired of hearing about one particular educator who is constantly tearing down Dorchester school and its children while she takes a paycheck from us, the district taxpayers. How can you keep working for a boss you hate and don't respect?
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."