Date: Fri 26-Jan-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: STEVEB

Quick Words:

Mastery-Test-scores-schools

Full Text:

Mastery Test Scores Show Progress By Local Students

B Y S TEVE B IGHAM

This year's Connecticut Mastery Test results indicate a steady progression of

learning by Newtown students from the elementary school into the middle

school.

The sixth and eighth grade scores continue to rise from previous years,

ranking among the state's elite in some areas. However, fourth grade scores

indicate more work needs to be done in the lower grades.

The state's mastery exams are given each September to 105,000 students in

fourth, sixth and eighth grades to test academic learning in reading, writing

and mathematics. The state released the test results late last week.

While school officials had hoped the fourth grade scores would have improved

over last year's, they remained positive about the overall performance of the

district. Administrators say the steady upward progression of scores is a

tribute to all the hard work being done in the schools.

"We see a real progression from fourth to sixth to eighth grades," explained

Assistant Superintendent of Schools Bob Kuklis. "The high results reflect the

quality of instruction in our schools. The low results remain a mystery

because we feel we're doing the job."

Dr Kuklis, who will present the results to the Board of Education February 13,

said the school district tries to judge the mastery scores over a long period

of time, not just on one year.

"I would be much more concerned if the scores were going down as the students

progressed through the school system rather than up," he said.

The biggest improvement in scores came in this year's sixth grade writing

where 64 percent of the students reached the state goal. Two years ago as

fourth graders, the class had only 39 percent of its students achieve the

goal.

Writing has been a thorn in the school district's side in recent years, but

scores continue to rise.

"We're doing a tremendous amount of work on writing," Dr Kuklis explained.

In recent years, Newtown teachers have been trained in how the state scores

the mastery tests' writing portions, allowing them to explain to students what

is expected of them when they take the test.

The school system recently received a $26,000 state grant to improve writing

in K-12.

In addition to releasing average scores for each town, the state also shows

the mean scores of all the towns in Connecticut and of the seven Educational

Reference Groups (ERG). ERGs provide a fair comparison of towns, by grouping

communities together based on income, education and unemployment.

Newtown is in ERG 2 along with towns like Brookfield, Farmington, New

Fairfield, Monroe, Madison and Sherman. In general, with some exceptions,

Newtown students did as well, and in some cases better, than students from

similar towns in its reference group (see charts).

Newtown's fourth grade scores, as in 1993, remain ranked somewhere in the

middle of the state. Writing scores continue to improve, while math and

reading figures are at or below the average of other comparable schools from

around the state.

Dr Kuklis said pinpointing the reason for the low fourth grade scores is not

easy.

"Whenever you have a snapshot test, it's very hard to determine the problem,"

he explained. "The results are tricky. That's why we have to give it careful

analysis."

Of this year's fourth graders, 68 percent scored at or above the state's goal

in math, 54 percent reached goal in reading, and 57 percent were up to state

standards in writing.

Tom Murphy, a spokesperson for the State Department of Education, said the

statewide results of this year's test show that Connecticut students have

mastered the basic skills in the three areas, but applying those skills to

complete a task is where the challenge is.

Of this year's sixth graders, 64 percent reached the state's goal in writing,

while only 39 percent reached goal when they fourth graders two years ago.

Eighty percent of the sixth graders achieved goal in reading, a significant

increase from the 62 percent reaching goal when the class was in the fourth

grade. However, in math, only 68 percent of Newtown's sixth graders managed to

reach goal as opposed to the 75 percent reaching goal as fourth graders.

In writing, the eighth grade had 71 percent of the class reach goal (23rd in

state). Only 60 percent of the class reached goal in 1993. Seventy four

percent of eighth graders achieved goal in math this year (13th in the state),

a big leap from the 66 percent who made goal two years ago. The eighth grade

had 85 percent of its students reach goal in reading this year (sixth in the

state), a five percent increase from its sixth-grade performance two years

earlier.

Dr Kuklis points out that the mastery test scores don't always tell the whole

story about a student's academic learning and some studies have shown that all

they really do is correlate test performance with family wealth.