Sal Corda may think he’s doing a great job but he’s frogotten to “create an understanding” of what the results of the Connecticut Mastery Tests Scores really mean. Why not talk about individual school preformance like other school disttricts do? Compare and contrast:
Stamford
Administrators will use the data to hone educational approaches, school Superintendent Joshua Starr said.
“There are a few thousand data points on the CMTs which we use to help us ask better questions about how to improve instruction for each and every student,” he said in a statement.
Students in grades 3 through 8 are tested in math, reading and writing. The state will use the results to assess schools’ compliance with the federal No Child Left Behind Act and announce the results in the next few weeks.
The district has been focusing on math because of concern that students have lagged in the subject, said Judith Singer, research director for the district.
“That’s an area we’ve really worked at,” she said. Another is achievement by black students and other subgroups.
“For the black student population, there are small gains in many areas in nearly all grades,” and big gains in grades 3 and 6, she said.
The report gives the district a profusion of scores because the test data are broken down by school, race, grade and other categories of students. Scores at the various grade levels are compared with scores of students who were in those grades last year. Among the findings:
* More students in grades 3, 5, 6 and 7 met the state goal in math. The biggest increase was among sixth-graders, 54 percent of whom met the state goal, compared with 48 percent last year. The smallest increase was among fifth-graders, from 60 to 63 percent.
* More students in grades 3, 5, 6 and 8 achieved the state goal in writing. Third-graders made the biggest jump, from 54 percent meeting the goal last year to 60 percent this year. Eighth-graders made the smallest leap, from 54 to 55 percent.
* Only third-graders did better in reading. This year, 49 percent achieved the state-defined goal, compared with 46 percent last year. The biggest drop was among fourth-graders, from 55 to 48 percent meeting the goal. Eighth-graders’ results stayed flat at 60 percent.
* Among subgroups, black students showed the greatest gain. The share of black students meeting the marks in math and writing jumped more than 10 percentage points in grades 3 and 6.
* The district found some improvements when comparing the same group of students from one year to the next. Seventeen percent more students met the math goal after moving from grade 4 to grade 5, for instance. Starr said the findings suggest that “the more time students spend with our teachers in our schools, the better off they’re going to be.”
And then here’s Norwalk.
Norwalk
The highlight of this year’s CMT test results were the district’s scores in math, school Superintendent Salvatore Corda said. The scores at or above proficiency level gained in every grade but fifth, and the percentage of students scoring at the more rigorous “goal” standard increased across the board.
“These are the biggest gains we’ve seen,” Corda said.
He credited Mathematics Instructional Specialist John Keogh, teachers and principals for the gains in scores, achieved in part through a new math curriculum, consistent districtwide standards, staff development and “just hard work.”
The largest single gains in Norwalk came in math scores in the third grade, where test results matched state scores for the first time with an increase of 8 percentage points over last year.
“I’m very encouraged by that,” Corda said.
The district’s worst scores came in reading, where five out of the six grades tested reported decreases in proficiency. The most drastic decline occurred at the sixth-grade level, with 6.4 percent fewer students at proficiency than last year. Only seventh-graders made gains in reading scores, with a 2.1 percent increase.
“Reading - we see some negatives there, but we see some negatives with the state,” Corda said.
Compared with 2006 results, writing scores were relatively stable with the largest improvement among third-graders, at 4.8 percent, and the largest decline at the eighth grade level, with a drop of 2.9 percent.
The scores released yesterday also included data for student subgroups, which consist of at least 40 students in various demographic categories designated by race, economic status and whether their primary language is English.
Under No Child Left Behind, if one student subgroup fails to make adequate yearly progress, the entire school fails.
For now, Corda said the CMT scores show the district has reached a tipping point in making gains on past scores.
“We’re seeing the kind of results we felt we’d see if we stayed at it long enough,” he said.
Which school superintendent do you have greater confidence in? Which school superintendent would you want running your schools? Oh and if you want to find out the Norwalk actual test scores by school, don’t count on Corda creating an understanding about them, he doesn’t want anyone to know anything. The web site for complete test scores is here www.cmtreports.com, a bit overwhelming if you’re not a data junkie, but here’s a sample report I ran showing that Norwalk Third Graders are “seeing some negatives” and Corda’s blithe dismissal of his responsibility for once again failing to improve test scores by spending the highest per student dollar amount in the region certainly doesn’t leave anyone thinking he knows what to do to get better performance.
| Average Score State vs. Norwalk Third Grade 2007 |
||||
| Average Scale Score | Average Unit Score | |||
| Mathematics | Reading | |||
| State | Norwalk | State | Norwalk | |
| Total | 252.2 | 246.4 | 48.9 | 46.1 |
| Male | 252.3 | 247.8 | 48.9 | 46.1 |
| Female | 252.2 | 245 | 49 | 46.2 |
| Black | 219.5 | 219.9 | 40.5 | 39.9 |
| Hispanic | 222.9 | 237.5 | 39.9 | 42 |
| White | 265.4 | 265.6 | 52.8 | 52 |
| Asian American | 276.2 | 264.4 | 53.6 | 52.8 |
source: Stamford Advocate, Mastery test report shows mixed results, By Chris Gosier, July 28, 2007
source: Norwalk Advocate, Mastery test report shows mixed results, By Alexandra Fenwick , July 28, 2007
