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.
