State Issues MCAS Scores for Vineyard

Island Educators Will Evaluate Results of Sixth Annual Testing Round
in Island Public Schools

By ALEXIS TONTI

Results are in from another year of MCAS testing, challenging school
leaders yet again to sort through the statistics and evaluate where
teachers are getting it right and where they may be coming up short.

Superintendent of schools Dr. Kriner Cash said yesterday it will
take time to wade through all the numbers, which were released Wednesday
by the state Department of Education. He meets with principals from the
Island schools today to begin their assessment.

"Our goal is not to compare schools," Mr. Cash said.
"We look for themes. We see if there are particular areas
Islandwide that have made continual improvements or which need to make
improvements."

(Click on Chart to Enlarge)

He added that identifying trends allows them to determine how to
improve the school system. "There are implications for how we may
adjust curriculum and instruction at individual schools and
Islandwide," he said.

The MCAS was first administered in 1998. Last year, however, was the
first time the high-stakes test served as a requirement for high school
graduation. Mr. Cash pointed out that the high school is ahead of the
state average graduation rate. "The bottom line is helping kids to
succeed," he said.

This year the state switched its method of posting results.
Previously they used average scaled scores, which allowed
number-crunchers at newspapers such as the Boston Globe to develop
statewide rankings for schools. That kind of overall comparison is
difficult for 2003 because of the new proficiency index. Now the state
only lists scores as percentages that fall into four categories:
advanced, proficient, needs improvement and failing.

The change is designed to bring the testing system in line with the
federal government's No Child Left Behind Act. The federal law,
passed two years ago, requires all students to reach the proficient
category by 2014. Each state has to develop its own index to ensure
schools and students are making progress.

Students, however, do still receive raw scores, so educators can
pinpoint areas of weakness in a school curriculum.

Students in third through eighth grades and in grade 10 all took at
least one portion of the MCAS test last spring. Fifth and eighth-graders
were tested for the first time in science. Tests in just one subject can
last up to three days, requiring students to sit for more than 20 hours
of testing in some cases.

At the elementary level, results were not prepared for every Island
school. More than 10 students must take a test for the numbers to be
statistically viable.

Comparing the results from one year to another is tricky, because a
different set of students takes the test. Nor is it possible to compare
one elementary school to another due to differences in enrollment and
curriculum. But the overall trend for Vineyard schools is easy to see:
strong numbers in English and more anemic performances in math -
right in line with last year's results.

Fourth-graders had significant difficulty with numbers, with 14 per
cent of Edgartown students failing; in Tisbury 10 per cent failed and in
West Tisbury six per cent. None of the Oak Bluffs students fell into the
lowest tier, although the school joined the others in posting a high
percentage of students who need improvement. In both Edgartown and West
Tisbury, that number topped 50 per cent.

Those numbers are particularly striking when put next to the same
students' performances in English: No one failed at the
down-Island elementary schools, and only three per cent of West Tisbury
students did.

In seventh grade the English scores continued strong. The
down-Island schools, West Tisbury and the charter school all had more
than 60 per cent of their students test as proficient.

But for eighth-graders testing in math, the results again were
shaky: In Oak Bluffs, 20 per cent of students failed the exam, while in
Tisbury 10 per cent of students fell into the lowest tier. The charter
school, which had no results for fourth-graders, saw 27 per cent of its
class fail.

At the high school where the pressure is on, only 11 per cent of the
195 sophomores tested failed the math exam, with 21 per cent needing
improvement. That's about even with the 10th-grade performance in
English: only nine per cent of the 194 students tested failed, with 24
per cent needing improvement.

For those who need remedial work, there's still plenty of
time. Juniors have four more chances to pass the test to receive their
diplomas by 2005.

"They're doing a great job up there, especially
considering that the results are comprehensive," Mr. Cash said.
"Each year the failure rate decreases and the number of advanced
and proficient students increases. That's really
commendable."