DEERFIELD VALLEY- The state recently released the results of New England Common Assessments Program (NECAP) standardized testing in science, and while many Deerfield Valley schools are struggling to raise science scores on statewide standardized tests, at least one school is celebrating with exceptionally high scores.
Of the 11 students tested in Dover Elementary School’s fourth grade, 82% scored in the “proficient” category, far higher than the statewide average of 52%. The 82% figure is also substantially higher than last year’s results at the school. In 2008, 46% of Dover’s 13 fourth-graders were proficient – almost exactly the same number as the statewide average.
Although some of the dramatic increase in science scores may be attributed to year-to-year differences in the student population, Dover School Principal Bill Anton says that Dover teachers have worked hard to improve scores. “When I saw this year’s scores, I asked the teachers what they did differently from last year to this year,” says Anton, who is new at the school. “They said they changed their structure and focused on what the kids were successful at, and what they weren’t successful at. The teachers responded to the test data.”
Whitingham Elementary School also experienced an increase in their scores during the latest round of testing. This year, 59% of Whitingham’s 17 fourth-grade students were proficient, and 41% were partially proficient – higher than the statewide averages of 51% and 38%. Last year, 35% of Whitingham fourth-graders were proficient and 41% were partially proficient. Also last year, 24% were “substantially below proficient.” This year, no students were in the lowest scoring category.
Scores at Twin Valley schools were a mixed bag. At the middle school, where the science test was given to 30 eighth-grade students this year, scores have dropped. Last year, 22% of eighth-graders were proficient, 63% were partially proficient, and 15% were substantially below proficient. This year, 40% of eighth-graders scored in the lowest category, and 53% were partially proficient. Only seven percent were proficient.
At the high school, the news was better. Of the 40 10th-grade students tested, 12% were proficient, as compared to nine percent last year; 60% were partially proficient, compared to 49% last year; and 28% were substantially below proficient, compared to 42% last year.
But school officials say the results of the test can be difficult to interpret. Twin Valley School Board members discussed the tests at their regular meeting Tuesday. Assistant superintendent Nancy Talbot noted that because Deerfield Valley class numbers are so small, one or two students scoring at either end of the scale can dramatically affect the overall picture. “I’m not a gloom and doom person,” she said. “We’re looking at the law of averages here.”
Talbot also noted that the published results don’t show the diversity of scores in each range; some students, she said, may be scoring one or two points below “proficient,” and just need a boost to get them into the higher scoring category. “We know the proficiency level is 40 points,” she said. “And we have some kids scoring 38 or 39.”
Deerfield Valley Elementary School has seen a drop in the number of students scoring in the proficient category, from 71% in 2008, to 45% in 2009. But 35% of DVES fourth-graders scored in the “partially proficient” range.
At Wardsboro Central School, 27% of the school’s 11 fourth-grade students were proficient, compared to 42% last year; but 64% were partially proficient, compared with 33% last year. Only nine percent were substantially below proficient, compared to 25% last year.
Anton, who was principal at both Whitingham and Twin Valley Middle School says he doesn’t think there’s any “magic formula” for success on the tests. The teachers at Whitingham and Twin Valley have taken the same approach as teachers in Dover. “But Dover’s more successful at it,” he adds. “What I want to figure out is why there was the successful result here. I know the level of effort that went into Whitingham and Twin Valley, and I’m going to investigate what’s in the ‘black box’ of Dover so I can systematize it. That’s my job as administrator.”
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