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AUGUSTA

Student scores remain stable

Fall 2010 standardized test scores revealed

By Matthew Stone mstone@centralmaine.com
Staff Writer

AUGUSTA -- Maine students' fall 2010 standardized test scores remained virtually unchanged from the previous year, according to results released Tuesday by the Maine Department of Education.

Some 70 percent of students in grades three through eight achieved "proficient" scores or better on the reading portion of the New England Common Assessment Program. On the math portion of the test, 61 percent of students were proficient.

Those proficiency rates are the same as last year's -- the first year Maine students took the NECAP test.

"Our scores are stable, so we continue to look for clues about where we're doing well and where we need to make improvements," department spokesman David Connerty-Marin said.

Maine is one of four states that use the NECAP as their standardized state test under the federal No Child Left Behind law. Students in New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont also take the exam, and all four states use the scores to determine if schools are meeting federal benchmarks.

New Hampshire's 2010 scores were also static. Some 77 percent of Granite State students achieved "proficient" scores in reading, and 66 percent were proficient in math -- the same rates as a year ago. Rhode Island and Vermont results weren't publicly available Tuesday.

"New England as a whole does well comparatively to the rest of the nation," Connerty-Marin said. "We fit into that."

Maine also fits into a national trend of static test scores, particularly in reading, Connerty-Marin said.

"We're all struggling with that, and with how to move those forward," he said.

The 2010 NECAP also tested fifth- and eighth-grade students in writing. Forty-eight percent of the Maine students -- who took the writing exam for the first time -- earned "proficient" scores or better.

In New Hampshire, 55 percent of students were proficient in writing.

The percent of Maine students earning proficient math and reading scores on the NECAP exam was markedly higher than the percent of Maine students earning comparable marks on another exam, the National Assessment of Educational Progress.

In 2009, the most recent year of NAEP test data, for example, some 45 percent of Maine fourth graders earned "proficient" scores on the NAEP's math exam, compared to 60 percent of fourth graders on the 2010 NECAP.

Some 35 percent of the state's eighth graders earned "proficient" scores on the NAEP math exam, compared to 59 percent on the NECAP.

That's because the NAEP generally sets a more stringent definition of proficiency than most state tests, said Peter Kloosterman, a mathematics education professor at Indiana University in Bloomington, Ind., and an expert on standardized testing.

"When you look at state tests, the best students get all the items right," he said. "The state tests are what the minimum should be, whereas NAEP has more of those challenging items."

NAEP tests, Kloosterman said, are often used to determine whether state standards are too lax.

Matthew Stone -- 623-3811, ext. 435

mstone@centralmaine.com

NECAP Proficiency in Augusta-area school districts

State of Maine: 61% math, 70% reading, 48% writing

Augusta: 52% math, 67% reading, 45% writing

Fayette: 44% math, 75% reading

Jefferson: 49% math, 63% reading, 46% writing

RSU 2 (Hallowell): 53% math, 69% reading, 41% writing

RSU 4 (Wales): 51% math, 67% reading, 37% writing

RSU 9 (Farmington): 56% math, 69% reading, 43% writing

RSU 11 (Gardiner): 53%math, 67% reading, 40% writing

RSU 12 (Whitefield): 55% math, 68% reading, 44% writing

RSU 18 (Oakland): 62% math, 70% reading, 47% writing

RSU 38 (Readfield): 55% math, 67% reading, 44% writing

RSU 40 (Waldoboro): 55% math, 57% reading, 36% writing

Vassalboro: 61% math, 70% reading, 65% writing

Winthrop: 66% math, 80% reading, 55% writing