Despite some fluctuations in Connecticut Mastery Test and CAPT scores, Oxford students last year continued to outperform their peers across the state in every grade level, on every test.
The test scores were released by the state Department of Education last month.
The percentage of students who reach different achievement levels (Basic, Proficient, Goal or Advanced) affects the school and district’s standing for No Child Left Behind requirements.
The goal is to eventually have all Connecticut students meeting proficient levels.
Highlights
In 2010 in Oxford:
- Fourth grade achievement dropped across the board.
- Fifth and seventh graders did better in every subject.
- Last year’s third grade class did worse than the previous third graders.
- Performance on math, science and reading tests at the high school fell since last year. High school writing achievement was about the same as last year.
In-Depth
The raw data can be looked at two ways: by comparing grade levels, or by comparing cohort groups.
Grade level comparisons show how students in one particular grade perform each year.
Cohort comparisons evaluate how a group of students performs each year — for example looking at how sixth graders perform in 2009, and then how they performed as seventh graders in 2010.
COHORTS
A look at cohort groups shows that last year’s seventh and eighth graders have inconsistent track records on the tests.
While they generally remain above the state performance average, the test scores dip and rise throughout the years.
In 2010, the seventh graders made large gains on their achievement from the previous year. But that gain came after that group of students saw three years of declining scores.
The sixth grade cohort has steadily improved over the years, but then in 2010, fewer students hit proficient levels in math and writing tests.
The fifth grade cohort has shown the most steadfast improvement — making small gains in achievement since the students were third graders in 2008.
GRADE LEVEL
The third grade class in 2010 did worse than the previous third grade class.
Last year, 93.9 percent of third graders met proficiency levels in math, 89.1 met proficiency levels in reading and 97 percent met proficiency levels in writing.
But in 2010, only 89.3 met proficiency levels in math, only 83.1 met the level in reading and only 82.6 met the level in writing.
That means student achievement in third grade writing fell by almost 15 percent.
In other places, there were large increases in achievement — for example, with sixth and seventh grade math and reading scores.
In 2010, 94.8 percent of the sixth graders met proficient levels in reading, and 94.3 percent met proficient levels in math.
That’s an 11 percent and 2.4 percent increase, respectively, over the previous year’s sixth grade performance.
In seventh grade, achievement increased by 6.3 percent in reading, and by 4 percent in math.
The number of students who met “Goal” levels — a higher standard than proficient — in those two areas also went up.
For example, in 2010, 90 percent of seventh graders were reading at the “Goal” level.
Transition
Staff changes in the school district have resulted in little review of the test scores as of this week.
Superintendent Judith Palmer did not return repeated calls for comment on the test scores. Palmer was on vacation two weeks ago, and completed her last week working for the district last week.
Board of Education chairwoman Rose McKinnon referred questions on the test scores to Palmer, and said the board would likely review the results soon.
New interim superintendent James Connelly said once he was settled into the new role, he would review the scores and make a presentation to the board of education.
