(Continued from page 17)

other measurements, she said.
• "The whole point was to allow states flexibility to create accountability systems that make sense. That's what we've tried to do with our new systems, is to create that broader look at how schools are performing," Smith said.
• Jamie Nold, principal at Washington High School in Sioux Falls, said he welcomes the change in performance grading, so it's not based on one test taken on one day, and also time to develop an accurate way of checking schools.
• "I'd rather take time and get it right and ask for extensions," he said.
• Factoring in whether students are improving over time will help because as it is, a student can grow each year but still be marked as non-proficient, Nold said.
• He'd also like to see the tests changed to account for more diverse schools like Washington that have a higher number of English-learning and special education students. Such diversity is a good thing but can hurt scores, Nold said.
• "Our students graduate here having had contact with people from all over the world. But when it comes to purely testing, it does not paint a very accurate picture whatsoever," he said.
• In a letter to South Dakota Education Secretary Melody Schopp, the U.S. Department of Education said its decision to grant the waiver was based on its determination that the flexibility has helped the state reform student achievement.
• The five other states granted an extension were Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Nevada and Virginia.
•

• SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- The South Dakota Corrections Department says a maximum-security inmate tried to escape from a Sioux Falls hospital.
• The agency says Alonzo Young was taken by ambulance Sunday from the Jameson Annex of the State Penitentiary in Sioux Falls to a hospital after claiming to have taken a substantial amount of medication.
• The DOC says that while using the bathroom in the hospital room Monday morning, Young pulled out an 8-inch metal object and waved it at staff members, who wrestled it away from him.
• Nobody was injured and Young was returned to prison.
• He was sentenced in Minnehaha County to more than 26 years for first-degree robbery, attempted first-degree robbery and simple assault on a law enforcement officer, though some of the time was suspended.
•

(Continued on page 19)