Mary Johnson Photo
Branford’s standardized test scores for 2012 show improvement for several grade levels, but decreases for fifth and 10th grade students. In three cases, the results are lower than state scores.
The fifth grade scores may be noteworthy because that is when students enter middle school, where parents have been rallying for interior walls to decrease the noise level at the open-concept school. Issues about the functionality of Walsh Intermediate School were discussed Monday night at the first meeting of a new committee tasked at making recommendations for Walsh and the aging Sliney Elementary School.
Frank Carrano, who chairs the BOE, told the Eagle that a preliminary look at data for grades three through eight shows “some very steady improvement” in several areas. When asked about the fifth grade scores, Carrano said he hasn’t had a chance to examine all the components of the data released by the state. “It does beg a question about what some of the reasons might be,” he said.
Carrano said that fifth grade in Branford is “a transition year from a small elementary school to a large intermediate school,” unlike many districts where sixth grade is the transition year. He also mentioned concerns expressed by parents about the need for soundproofing in fifth grade classrooms.
In regard to the scores for 10th graders, Carrano said the district will “focus on the areas where students are underachieving,” especially in Math, where local percentage scores fell below the state level.
The State Department of Education (SDE) released data late Thursday from the Connecticut Academic Performance Test (CAPT), which is administered annually in 10th grade; and the Connecticut Mastery Test (CMT), which is administered in grades three through eight. Student performance is viewed at five levels: below basic, basic, proficient, goal and advanced. For comparison purposes, the data in this story is based on percentages of students scoring at or above goal. Comparison data is available since 2006 for the CMT; and since 2007 for the CAPT.
LOWS AND HIGHS FOR BRANFORD
—- The percentages of 10th graders who scored at or above goal in 2012 in Math, Science and Reading were the second lowest since 2007. In Math, 46.6 percent of 10th graders scored at or above goal, compared to 55.4 percent in 2011. Branford’s test results in Math this year were less than the state outcome of 49.3 percent.
—The highest scoring 10th grade category this year was Writing at 69.8 percent, but that score was a decrease from the two previous years.
—According to the State Department of Education (SDE), statewide 10th grade performance this year increased over the baseline year of 2007 in all areas, but that is not the case in Branford, where outcomes in 2012 were below the local 2007 baseline in Science, Reading and Writing.
—In fifth grade, the percentages of students scoring at or above goal in 2012 decreased from the previous year in all categories, with the lowest Writing and Science scores in several years. This year’s outcome for writing was 66.9 percent, which fell below the state’s outcome of 68.1 percent.
—The highest percentage for fifth grade in 2012 was in Math, with 85.3 percent scoring at or above goal. That was down from 91.2 percent the previous year.
—In grades three, four, six, and eight, the percentages of students scoring at or above goal increased in all subjects over the past few years. The math results for those grade levels were the highest since the base year of 2006. This year’s math results in Branford were 82.4 percent in third grade; 82.3 percent in fourth grade; 85.8 percent in sixth grade; and 77.4 percent in eighth grade. Branford surpassed the statewide results, which were less than 70 percent for those same grade levels.
—In grade seven, there were drops in Math and Reading from the previous two years. The highest outcome was in Reading with 82.8 percent. In Writing, 60.3 percent of students scored at or above goal this year, which falls below the state outcome of 65.6 percent.
LOCAL AND STATE ANALYSIS
Superintendent Hamlet Hernandez told the Eagle that scores in grades three, four, five and six reflect Branford’s new Math program, Investigations, which was phased in to the elementary schools in 2008. Test results in those grades were very strong in Math.
Hernandez said he is still analyzing the CAPT and CMT test data, but that in general terms, there were gains seen in many areas, while others were flat or declining.
There are infinite ways to compare the scores and interpret the data. In Branford, the superintendent and administrators typically analyze the data and make extensive presentations at Board of Education (BOE) meetings in the fall.
Click here to read a story about the 2011 test scores.
Stefan Pryor, Connecticut Commissioner of Education, released an extensive accounting of the CAPT and CMT scores last week. He said that statewide performance on the CMT tests administered in grades three through eight showed increases in several areas, but the CAPT results for 10th grade students were mixed.
The state legislature recently enacted several education reforms as part of Gov. Dannel Malloy’s focus on education. In addition, the state received a waiver in May releasing it from some of the federal provisions of the No Child Left Behind mandate. Pryor said this means that Connecticut will be using new metrics for measuring performance of students across all performance levels.
Click here to see a complete listing of test scores for the state and all school districts.
###