Everton Students Earn MAP Test Recognition
April 25, 2008
A recent Missouri state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education press release named the Everton High School 11th grade communication arts class as one of the top ten in the state, based on their scores on the 2007 MAP tests. According to DESE data 71% of Everton juniors scored in the proficient or advanced categories on the 2007 11th grade Communication Arts MAP test. That was fourth highest among schools with enrollment of less than 250 students and sixth highest among all high schools in the state. These high achieving students are now Everton seniors preparing for graduation.
The Everton High School communication arts department consists of just one teacher: Mr. Kip Spalding, who has been teaching at Everton for fourteen years. His English students have earned other awards during his tenure at Everton, including winning the small school championship at the Pittsburg State University English Festival in both 2000 and 2001. Most recently Mr. Spalding’s students have experienced considerable success in the Ozark Electric Cooperative’s Youth Tour essay competition. Everton students have won trips to Washington D.C. four of the last five years, including one of this year’s winners: Everton junior Emily Pendergrass.
When asked about his students’ on-going success, Spalding said, “The credit goes to my Everton students. They are great. Each and every day in class they work hard and allow me to help them fulfill their potential. I am a firm believer that there is no substitution for extensive reading and writing practice, so that’s what we do every day in my classes. My students work hard and succeed.”
A 1994 graduate of Drury College, Spalding is no stranger to English / literature success. He was selected as one of thirty U.S. university students to participate in the Honors at Oxford program through Edinboro University of Pennsylvania. While at Oxford University, Spalding studied “The Literature of Mystery and Detection” under award-winning detective novelist Elizabeth George. Following Spalding’s third year of teaching at Everton High School in 1997 he was awarded a National Endowment for the Humanities fellowship to study Beowulf at the University of North Carolina at Asheville under renowned Beowulf scholar Dr. Robert Yeager.
