Sheridan students in top 10% in ILEARN biology assessment

Submitted by Sheridan Community Schools

Every spring, current students taking biology take the state-mandated ILEARN test.

At Sheridan High School (SHS), students enrolled in biology prepare all year for this assessment. The teachers behind the biology courses are Kurt Olsan and Ryan Kelleher.

“We prepare all year long for this assessment by ensuring students have access to rigorous curriculum and hands-on experiences that bring the content to life,” Kelleher said.

Students partake in labs, experiments, activities, and projects to be able to understand the core concepts of biology. During one of the most exciting experiments, students create their own self-contained ecosystem within a two-liter bottle. This bottle, filled with earth matter, fish, plants, and worms, creates an environment where students can see Earth’s carbon, nitrogen, and water cycles in action and observe biology come to life.

Photo by Allison Waitt

Photo by Allison Waitt

Through these projects, students are better able to comprehend and understand the core of biology, which they were then able to demonstrate on the state assessment. SHS students truly demonstrated their understanding and performance, ranking 27th out of 290 Indiana public school corporations – a placement within the top 10 percent.

The test measures students’ understanding of key biology concepts and skills, and 65.5 percent of students at SHS scored at proficiency or above, significantly above the state average of 46.8 percent. This test highlights the district’s improvement and the continued work that Sheridan students and the science department are doing to strengthen learning and achievement.