Newly released Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) scores for 2013 showed that the Bromfield School generally achieved the same high levels as in 2012, while the Hildreth Elementary School improved significantly in all scores except third-grade reading.
Interim Superintendent Joe Connelly gave the raw results to the School Committee last Monday. He explained that he would present a full analysis of the results at one of the committee’s Nov. meetings.
Hildreth math scores best ever
Hildreth students at third, fourth, and fifth grades all did better in the math segment of the MCAS than they have in any year for which scores are available from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education’s website, which goes back to 2007. In addition, fifth-graders did particularly well in English language arts and in science, ranking fifth in the state in both subjects.
Scores at Bromfield showed sixth– and tenth-grade results essentially unchanged from last year. Seventh-grade scores are somewhat lower. And eighth-graders improved their score in math and held level in English and science, which was enough to put them in the state’s top 10 for the latter two subjects.
Tenth-graders again put Bromfield among the top schools in the state, with 100 percent scoring proficient or advanced in English language arts. Across Massachusetts, fewer than a tenth of the schools that took part in the tests achieved that level of competency. In the other two subject areas tested (math and science), 97 percent of Bromfield tenth-graders scored proficient or advanced.
While low for recent years, the third-grade score of only 64 percent of students scoring proficient or advanced in reading is not unprecedented. Since 2007, reading scores at third grade (the first year students take the MCAS) have sometimes swung almost 20 points between one year and the next.
Good or bad day swings ranks
It is important to remember that school rankings on the MCAS can swing dramatically based on a single percentage point difference in the number of students scoring proficient or advanced in a subject area. And with roughly 80 to 110 students taking the test at each grade in Harvard, a single student having an unusually good or bad day is enough to change the percentage at any given grade, thus raising or lowering the school’s standing by many places in the rankings.
Full results of the 2013 MCAS test for all schools are available at http://profiles.doe.mass.edu/state_report/mcas.aspx.
