Valley Independent Sentinel

TEST SCORES: ANSONIA

by Jodie Mozdzer | Jul 29, 2010 8:47 pm

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Posted to: Ansonia, Education

In a district where too few students are hitting state and federal education benchmarks, Ansonia sixth graders stand out.

Over the past five years, the sixth graders have steadily improved their test scores from so-so to impressive levels.

New test score data released by the State Department of Education this month show that the Ansonia sixth graders continue to improve.

“I believe the sixth graders had a stellar performance,” said Superintendent Carol Merlone.

Background

Connecticut students in third to eighth grades take the Connecticut Mastery Tests, and high school sophomores take the CAPT exams each year.

The percentage of students who reach different levels (Basic, Proficient, Goal or Advanced) affects the school and district’s standing for No Child Left Behind requirements.

Specifically, the state requires that all students eventually meet the Proficient level on tests, and those are the scores that Ansonia schools focus on, Merlone said.

Ansonia has been identified as a district that is “In Need of Improvement,” meaning that overall the students have not met the goals outlined in the No Child Left Behind act for more than two consecutive years.

Shining Stars

But in the Ansonia sixth grade classrooms, students are quickly catching up to, and sometimes surpassing, their peers across the state.

In 2006, only about 40 percent of Ansonia sixth graders met the “Goal” level on math exams.

This past year, almost 76 percent of sixth graders reached that same “Goal” level in math, according to test results released by the state Department of Education this month.

The sixth-grade improvements appeared across the board — in math, reading and writing tests, and for both “Goal” and “Proficient” achievement levels.

It’s the second year in a row that sixth graders have exceeded the state average in math exams.

“We’re going to look to that grade level to see what exactly transpired there, and to focus it in the fourth and fifth grade levels,” Merlone said.

One possible impact on the sixth grade scores is the restructuring of schools, Merlone said.

In 2009-10, the sixth graders were housed with the elementary students for the first time, instead of with the older middle school students.

In the new setting, the sixth graders spend more time in one classroom, Merlone said, although she wasn’t sure if that had any impact on the test scores.

“At the middle school level, they change classrooms for everything,” Merlone said.

The sixth grade improvement was a glimmer of light in an otherwise mixed batch of test results.

Dips

Student achievement — the rate at which students are hitting state goals on the tests — dipped in several places in 2010.

The district’s biggest concern, Merlone said, was the fourth and fifth grade results.

To view Merlone’s full report on the test scores, view the document below.

Article continues after document.

AnsoniaTestScores

In fourth and fifth grades, “proficient” achievement levels in math and reading took sudden dips.

Fifth grade science scores also dropped, from 84.2 percent meeting proficient levels in 2009 to only 74.1 percent hitting the same benchmark in 2010.

Also, fewer third grade students met “Proficient” levels on math and writing tests.

While seventh grade performance stayed steady in Math and Reading, the seventh grade writing scores also saw large drops.

While 80.8 percent of seventh graders in 2009 met the proficiency level, only 70.8 percent met the same benchmark in 2010.

The number of students hitting the “Goal” level also fell, from 59.6 percent in 2009 to 49.4 percent in 2010.

Upward Movement

But in other places, scores held steady or increased in 2010.

The uptick was most noticeable in the high school, where CAPT scores had previously fallen for consecutive years.

In 2010, the CAPT scores saw improvements in every subject.

In 2009, for example, only 12.5 percent of the sophomores hit the “Goal” level on math tests. In 2010, 27.4 percent hit the “Goal” mark.

The number of sophomores hitting both goal and proficiency levels in reading, writing and math also increased, in some cases by more than 10 percent.

For example, only 63 percent of sophomores met the proficient level in reading in 2009.

In 2010, that number increased to 77.5 percent.

However, the high school students are still performing behind their peers statewide, Merlone noted in a newsletter to parents this month.

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