Not even half of Derby High School sophomores hit state benchmarks for math on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT) in 2011.
Only 42.6 percent of the 68 Derby High School students who took the test reached the “proficient” level, state data shows.
That’s only about 29 students.
The Derby math results stood out among the Valley CAPT numbers released by the state Department of Education this month.
The math results were the lowest in the Valley and were lower than several large cities with historically lagging scores — including Hartford, New Britain and Waterbury.
The percentage of students who hit proficient levels on math tests in Hartford was 53.2, in New Britain was 44.1 and in Waterbury was 44.5.
“This is something the principal and I are going to have to address,” said Derby Superintendent Stephen Tracy. “Having less than 50 percent of the kids being proficient in math is not something we can accept.”
In education speak:
Proficient = good
Goal = better
Advanced = best
In Derby, only 16.2 percent of the sophomores who took the math test met the “goal” level — a higher benchmark typically used to determine the quality level of a school.
Derby saw downward movement in almost every test subject and achievement level. The only improvement Derby saw in 2011 was in writing — a subject where more students hit the proficient level, but fewer met the higher goal level.
Ansonia and Shelton also saw several dips in the number of students hitting important benchmarks.
In Oxford and Seymour the results were more mixed — with some improvements, and some decreases in achievement.
Understanding Test Scores
Sophomores around the state take the CAPT exams each spring.
There are five levels of achievement on the test. From lowest to highest they are: Below Basic, Basic, Proficient, Goal, and Advanced.
The numbers provided show the percentage of students who reached each level.
Educators often focus on the goal and proficient levels.
Looking at goal helps determine the quality of education at high schools in the state.
The proficient level, which is a lower benchmark than goal, is used to see if schools are meeting “Adequate Yearly Progress” under the federal No Child Left Behind act.
Here, the Valley Independent Sentinel is comparing how Valley towns fared against each other.
But typically, school districts compare themselves to other schools in their “District Reference Group,” a classification of schools with similar budgets, income levels, and populations.
Valley Districts
The data shows that Oxford and Shelton consistently rank the highest out of the Valley towns — beating state averages across the board.
Seymour schools come close to, and sometimes surpass, the state averages.
Ansonia and Derby fall short of state averages in all subjects.
In most cases, Ansonia is the lowest performing district for CAPT results. That is, except for the math exams, where Derby students performed the lowest.
Valley vs. State
Across the state, high school sophomores have improved on the tests over the past five years.
Between 2007 and 2011, the state data shows more students are reaching the proficient level in all subjects, and more students are reaching the goal levels in all subjects except for reading.
The same state-wide increases also appear over the short-term, from 2010 to 2011.
But in the Valley towns, that trend is not always mirrored.
Ansonia
In Ansonia, for example, fewer students met goal and proficient levels in all subjects, except for writing, in 2011 compared to 2010.
Writing results improved from 2010 to 2011 — from 71.7 percent to 74.3 percent in proficiency, and from 28.3 percent to 33.1 percent in goal.
The long-term results were also concerning.
Over the past five years, Ansonia has seen decreases in proficiency and goal in math, science and reading.
Fewer students met the goal level in writing during that same time period. The only area where Ansonia saw long-term improvement was in writing proficiency levels — where the achievement went from 69.8 percent in 2007 to 74.3 percent in 2011.
Ansonia’s Assistant Superintendent Tony Gasper said the high school will start offering extra classes to students to help them improve math and English skills.
Gasper said the students in need will go to their five regular English and math classes, and then two or three extra classes each week.
“This is the first time we’ll be doing it in this way, with students having so much extra time,” Gasper said.
Gasper said the district will also start testing freshmen when they get to the high school — something that is not required, but is often done in other districts.
Based on the incoming freshmen test, the district will decide if students need the extra classes to catch up to what they are expected to know as ninth graders, Gasper said.
The extra lessons will mean larger class sizes in some cases, Gasper said.
“We have had to really become much more shrewd about how we assign teachers to classes,” Gasper said. “We need a teacher to teach the extra classes. Some other classes which might have been fairly small will have to be combined with other sections of the same course.”
Gasper said, for example, instead of splitting 50 students up into three courses as was previously done, the district might split 50 students up over two courses instead.
That will free up the extra teacher to work with students to catch up on math and English skills.
Derby
While Derby saw dips across all subjects in 2011, the district has seen some improvement over the long-term.
The most notable change was in writing. In 2007, only 34 percent of Derby sophomores met the goal level in writing. By 2011, that number had increased to 49.3 percent.
“We tend to do relatively well compared to state averages in the area of writing,” Superintendent Stephen Tracy said. “Why that doesn’t translate through to the subject of reading is a mystery to me.”
In other subjects, Derby has roughly the same percentage of students meeting proficiency levels as the district had five years ago.
But math results have sagged in Derby, dropping from 59.5 percent to only 42.6 percent over the past five years.
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Tracy said he will be working with the incoming high school principal and teachers to determine how they can help students do better.
One thing the district will look at is how individual students have progressed over the years, he said.
Tracy said some of the sophomores might not have been with the district in middle school, and the district likes to see if the same students are getting better over time. They have purchased a new software to help them evaluate those trends, Tracy said.
“We’re just looking at these numbers,” Tracy said. “We will certainly have to develop a plan. Not just in the high school but in the middle school.”
Oxford
The CAPT results in Oxford were overall positive.
More Oxford students hit Proficient and Goal levels on math and science tests in 2011.
But achievement dipped on reading tests.
For the writing tests, more students met proficient levels, but fewer met the goal levels.
Almost every student — at 98 percent — met proficient levels in writing. And the achievement levels have steadily gone up since Oxford High School opened in 2008.
Superintendent Edward Malvey said he had not reviewed the results.
Seymour
For the most part, Seymour saw fewer students meeting the goal level, but more students reaching the proficiency level on the 2011 tests.
The one exception was math, where fewer students — at 76.3 percent — hit the proficient in 2011. In 2010, 79.4 percent of students hit the proficient level in math.
In science, 84 percent reached proficient levels, and 37.7 percent hit goal.
In reading, 79.6 percent met proficient levels, while 38.3 met goal.
And in writing, 87.6 percent met proficient levels, while 54 percent met goal.
The long-term results were mixed.
Writing performance on the tests has increased since 2007.
But science and reading performance has declined over time.
In math, over the past five years, more students are reaching the goal levels, but fewer are reaching the proficient level.
Superintendent MaryAnne Mascolo did not return calls for comment about the CAPT scores last week.
Shelton
Shelton sophomores also saw dips in achievement in 2011 — although, they remained above statewide averages in all subject areas.
Superintendent Freeman Burr said the district is reviewing the drop in achievement, and the lack of improvement over the past five years.
In 2011 compared to 2010, fewer students met the proficiency level in all subjects. And fewer students hit the goal level in reading and writing. The district saw some improvements on the number of students who met goal in math and science.
The scores took a large dip in 2009 — the year the high school had a fire and was disrupted in the months before the exams. The student performance has been improving over the past three years since that major dip, Burr said.
But, even with that recent upward climb, the performance levels are now only back to roughly the 2007 level.
That is, except for two subjects — writing and reading — where fewer students are reaching goal levels than in 2007.
“We don’t want to see scores shooting up, but rather positive growth and increases in student achievement overtime, steady,” Burr said.
Burr said he was happy with the improvements made in science. In 2009, only 37.6 percent of students met the goal level in science. By 2011, 52 percent of the sophomores met the Goal level in science. The proficient level results saw a similar bounce back from 2009 to 2011.
“The reason goal in particular in science was a concern was because we dropped below 40 percent,” Burr said. “Even the state in a bad year didn’t go that low.”
“When you’re five or six points below the state, that obviously causes some attention,” Burr said.
The focus is now on reading and writing. Fewer students hit the goal level in both subjects over a one-year, and five-year comparison.
In 2007, 56 percent of Shelton sophomores met the goal level in reading. By 2011, only 47 percent hit goal in reading.
The same pattern happened for writing scores. In 2007, 69.6 percent of sophomores made goal in writing. By 2011, only 60.1 percent did.
Burr said the district, which just finished up its accreditation review, will look at ways it can improve its curriculum in the upcoming year.
He said by the end of the summer, he will review the test scores with the high school staff and talk about ways they can help improve the performance.
Nice article Jodie. Informative, well laid out and interesting.
Very informative data presented here.
Regarding Derby’s CAPT scores, w/o having seen this data before now, it honestly does not surprise me given my experience, knowledge and conversations with those involved. This data is exactly why I expressed my concern over the low priority of education w.r.t Dan Foley’s nomination. But now that this data has been made available to the public, it is very clear to everyone that education in the Derby Public School system needs to be a top, if not the top, priority for the next BOE, BAT, BOA and mayoral administrations in Derby.
And keep in mind, this is essentially only showing specific data versus other Valley towns. It would be even more enlightening and most likely very intimidating to see how Derby, Shelton and the other 5 towns compared to the rest of CT on a district by district basis vs. CT average, so hopefully that kind of big-picture/detailed data will be made readily available at some point as well.
I’m also actually very impressed with Oxford’s scores. Though I know that Oxford has a very good school system, I was always under the impression that Shelton was tops in the Valley in this regard, so it surprised me to see Shelton below Oxford, if only slightly. Clearly though, both of these districts are in much better shape w.r.t. being above the CT average than Ansonia, Derby or Seymour.
It’s also very encouraging to see that, at least in Oxford and Shelton, the data shows increases in the STEM subject areas. From the students’ perspectives, it makes them much more marketable for future college and key impacting career choices. From the teachers’ perspectives, it means that technology and computers are being implemented and ingrained into the psyche of their students as we would all hope. And, from the state’s, nation’s and even the global perspective, it’s very exciting to see improvement in these areas as science, technology, engineering and math dominate the job creation initiatives and many of the available grant efforts.
Great Stuff! 🙂
PS BTW, where’s data for Beacon Falls and Naugatuck? The title does say “Valley CAPT Scores…” after all? 🙂
These are “The Valley” towns!
mgweissmann your miss guided on how local governments work…the mayor, and the tax board have little say over the education budget or what happens once the monies are allocated. the failure falls squarely on the shoulders of the BOE. You do realize that in the last 2 months the BOE has randomly found or give back to the city like 220k right? These scores are the failure of Dr Tracy and the BOE, the city is pour gas into a car with a drunk driver. I understand you didn’t give an endorsement to any one candidate but your post implies that all agencies have a say, when in fact that isn’the case.
Jodie,
Thank you very much for presenting this extremely eye-opening data on Valley schools, particularly Derby’s shortfall.
As the publicist for Dan Foley’s campaign, I would also like to address mgwessman’s concern about Dan Foley not prioritizing education for his campaign.
Dan Foley’s platform has no specific sequence, and as a former educator, Dan values education very highly. Dan Foley will work as hard for education as he will for the other three platform issues. He believes fully in supporting education to the fullest, not only because he was a teacher, but because he believes in the value of educating our city’s youth.
As crashbandit has pointed out, the mayor’s office is indeed autonomous of the Board of Education. However, Dan Foley intends to meet monthly with department heads from around the city, including Dr. Tracy. Even though the mayor’s office cannot directly instruct Dr. Tracy and the Board of Education how to operate, I’m certain they will value Dan’s input and gladly accept any constructive criticism as it pertains to educating our children.
Again, just because education appeared fourth of his agenda items on his platform during his acceptance speech, education is no less important than public safety and quality of life, municipal finances, and economic development.
Here we go again. Empirical evidence for Derby proving their educational standards need to be improved but finding fault in other areas.
Let’s say you buy a 100 year old house. It needs new siding, a new kitchen, a new bathroom, new heating system, etc. The realtor says to you ‘A coat of paint and it’s as good as new!’. That’s the Derby educational system. Schools need money to run and Derby’s City Hall refuses to pony up. The NEASC folks point out areas of concern regarding per student spending, but Derby knows better? Derby High is running on a skeleton crew, I have reason to believe the other schools are as well. Yes, I know money is not the end all, be all answer – if it were New Haven would have the highest test scores in the state. But there comes a time when too much cost savings does mean lower test scores. Being in the lowest 10% of state per student spending is not a badge of honor with these scores.
And as someone before me pointed out, your home resale values will reflect these scores as well.
Did Tracy pledge no return pay if scores didn’t go up? Am i remembering that correctly?
@CB – 1st off, I certainly am well aware of how local gov’t works, esp. in Derby. 2nd, although on paper and in their official job descriptions, the mayor, BOA and Tax Board do not necessarily “preside” over the schools, there is absolutely no way on Derby Green’s Earth that you can convince me that these groups cannot and do not influence what the BOE and schools end up deciding to do going forward. If not, then why would any of them, not just Mr. Foley, talk about education as an issue to address in the first place? Of course they can affect change. Indirectly, but still affect it nonetheless by: a) what they put on their agendas and b) how they vote on BOE requests, waivers, etc. and city issues in general that affect parents and kids who to school in Derby. I mean, why is the BOE Monthly Report even on every BOA agenda if they have no regard for the schools? To keep the BOA informed in case a discussion/decision/vote they do have jurisdiction over could ultimately affect the schools, that’s why.
And please, do NOT even go there by blaming Dr. Tracy for these scores. I can’t even begin to post how much credit he deserves for actually improving things in Derby and who is ultimately responsible for these low scores because it will just turn ugly.
@Golfer: Last I checked, The “Valley” consisted of 7 towns: Ansonia, Beacon Falls, Derby, Naugatuck, Oxford, Seymour and Shelton. If not, then, among other things, someone needs to call up the National Civic League in shame and return the well-deserved 2000 All-American Cities Award given to this region of CT…oh yeah, and the signs, too. 🙁
Rob good response…but you really should say Press Secretary. Publicist are for high paid athletes and companies that need to cover up stories…just teasing…
To Mom, The Tax board and Mayor aren’t the problem. As i mentioned earlier the BOE found 220k of unused funds in the last few months. How is that the mayors fault or the BOT fault?? You mention spending..all Super and BOE responsibility?
@Rob – Duly noted, great to hear and my point exactly on how hopefully Dan and other non-BOE agencies can and do affect change in the schools. Thanks so much for that insightful info. 🙂
FYI — The Valley Independent Sentinel covers Ansonia, Derby, Oxford, Seymour and Shelton.
@Eugene: That may be, but if so, you should either a) consider changing the name of this site or b) explain why Naugatuck and Beacon Falls are glaringly absent or c) at the very least, the title of this particular article could’ve been altered somewhat to reflect that as the case.
Not a big deal, of course. Just some things to keep in mind. 🙂
MG you may be familiar but your also assuming too much. First off, both Tony and Dan made education a bullet point but both men understand they cannot make promises because 100% of the decisions are made by the BOE and the Super. Take the last 4 years the Dems have had control of the BOE how can Tony and the GOP control what they do as you seem to believe happens? And you said how they vote on BOE requests..you mean the budgets? So you want a blank check for the BOE? I noticed you glanced over the 220k…who’s mismanagement is that? How can you demand more money for next year stating book shortages when you have 200k in surplus?? IF Dr Tracy’s theories of no discipline and lack of responsibility with the students isn’t to blame what is?? Don’t be shy? If it isn’t the BOE and it isn’t the Super who is it?
@mgweissman We cover the same area as the old Evening Sentinel. We’re a non-profit. We secured our grant by focusing on the towns where there was a perceived lack of coverage. Naugatuck didn’t fall into that category. In addition, we launched with two full-time employees. Including Naugatuck and Beacon Falls with two or three staffers would be no different than what the print papers have done (work employees to death, give a writer 19 beats).
There’s no need to change the name, because the communities we cover are clearly stated on the homepage — and, at this point, if you’re reading this, you know!
We’d love to cover Beacon Falls. I think the residents would appreciate it and the town is more tied to the ‘Valley.’ PLEASE DONATE!
Beacon Falls and Naugatuck were added to the All-American application only after the first application failed and they needed more representation to qualify. Many were not happy about that decision. “The Valley” has always been the 5 Towns served by this news organization.
Really???? i am not sure Oxford would agree
why don’t we stop playing politics with our kids’ future and look at what really is happening in education!
this is not a forum for politicians to state their case or their interests’ case!
the problem is that parents’ no longer take or want resposibility for their kids’ education! they are too busy working to support their $500 Iphone, I pads, or whatever and expect the schools to raise their children!
the kids also need to take onus and stop believing that they are entitled to whatever they want, without putting in any effort!
The City clearly does not invest enough in education – that point cannot even be argued. That being said, the Board of Education (not the Superintendent – he works for the Board not the other way around)has not done well with the money they have. They cut programs and keep administrative staffing levels at high levels. It’s a school system of about 1300 kids – the assistant principal in both the middle school and high school should have gone before programs. It wasn’t that long ago you had one principal for grades 7 – 12 and that was the only administrative full time position you had for that grade level – now you have 4….and the test scores were better then !! Put money into programs not positions when money is scarce. Perhaps if the money was better spent – the Board could justify getting more money….its a catch 22.