Pike Central High School and Otwell Elementary School are being honored again this winter by the Indiana Student Achievement Institute.  The two Pike County schools are among 34 Indiana public schools that will be receiving the prestigious "InSAI Top Gainer Award" at this year's Indiana Conference on Learning, which will be conducted in our state capital on Tuesday, February 3, 2009. 

This annual award is presented to schools that have reached a targeted gain in the percentage of passing ISTEP+ tests over a three-year period.  Both Pike Central High School and Otwell Elementary School have been named Top-Gainer award winners multiple times since 2001, the year the Pike County Schools joined the Indiana Student Achievement Institute.  The Pike County School Corporation has also received special recognition from InSAI, in 2006, for outstanding student achievement on a district-wide basis.   

Top-Gainer Calculation

The Top Gainer Award uses the percentage of passing ISTEP+ tests for a non-mobile group of students (enrolled in the school at least 126 days during the prior school year).  This year the three-year rolling-average gain or loss was calculated by averaging: 

1. The gain/loss between the 2004 and 2005 tests,

2. The gain/loss between the 2005 and 2006 tests, and,

3. The gain/loss between the 2006 and 2007 tests. 

The 2008 ISTEP+ test is not used for the 2009 Top Gainer Award because data for students enrolled 126 days from the previous year is not available from the Department of Education until March or April 2009. 

The amount of gain expected for the Top Gainer Award is based on a sliding scale.  Schools with a lesser percentage of students passing the ISTEP+ test are expected to show greater gains as follows:

% of Students Passing the ISTEP+ Test	InSAI % Target Gain
90% and up	Any gain above 0%
80% and up	1% or above
70% and up	2% or above
60% and up	3% or above
50% and up	4% or above
40% and up	5% or above
Below 40%	6% or above