Fewer Seymour seventh and eighth grade students met district writing goals on the Connecticut Mastery Test in 2010 than in 2009.
Schools officials are now trying to delve deep into the test score data to determine if the drops were the result of staff and curriculum changes — or something else.
“There’s so many different variables, that until we do some research, I couldn’t offer anything (to explain the changes),” said Mary Lavoie, the district’s director of instruction, when questioned by Board of Education members on Tuesday.
“Data teams will look at this,” Lavoie said. “Look at the teachers. How many changes in instruction were there? Were there changes in materials?”
Background
Connecticut students in third to eighth grades take the Connecticut Mastery Tests, while 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 proficient level on tests.
Seymour has decided to set its own benchmark at the higher “goal” level.
Different Ways To Look At the Data
The test score data can be looked at by grade — as in, how did third graders perform in 2010 compared to third graders in 2009?
Or the scores can be looked at by cohort — which means looking at how a group of students perform each year. Looking at cohorts examines how third graders in 2009 performed as fourth graders in 2010.
In Seymour, the district tries to look at “matched cohorts,” which track very specific children over their school progression.
Examining scores that way allows the district to determine how the schooling affects the same students. If new students come into the district later, they are not reviewed in the “matched cohorts.”
“This is important in our type of district because we have kids that stay with us over time,” said Board of Education chairman Edward Strumello.
What’s The Data Say?
The “matched cohort” review shows that, overall, the same kids are improving over time on reading tests.
For math and writing, the review shows that younger students appear to be doing better each year, but the seventh and eighth grade students are actually doing worse over time.
In 2007, 86.5 percent of the fourth grade class met the goal level on writing tests. By 2010, only 60.6 percent of those same students as seventh graders met the goal level in writing.
For 2010 eighth graders, 8.3 percent fewer students met that goal level as did in 2006.
In math, only 70.1 percent of seventh graders in 2010 met the goal level on CMTs, down from 84.4 percent meeting that same level in 2007.
The 2010 eighth graders dropped only 2.1 percentage points during that same time period — and actually saw a slight increase in performance between 2009 and 2010.
Editor’s note: All charts depict state cohort data, which includes more children than the district’s “matched cohort” data.
Reading
School leaders were more confident about district-wide reading scores, which have improved across all “matched cohort” groups.
“The district’s been focusing on reading for three years,” Lavoire said. “I think that’s shown very nicely here.”
CAPT scores at the high school also improved over 2009.
State Comparison
Elementary students in Seymour schools beat state averages for proficiency levels in all grades for math and writing.
In reading, all grade levels except for third and sixth exceeded state averages on the CMTS.
At the high school, Seymour students beat state averages in math and science, but were below state averages in reading and writing on CAPT exams.
