Big improvements seen in MCAS math
In nearly half of Massachusetts school districts, many more high school sophomores mastered MCAS math on their first try last spring than did the year before, according to a Globe analysis of scores the state released yesterday.
Of the 272 school districts with high school students, 121 boosted their math passing rate by five points or more, while only six declined by five points or more. The scores in the remaining 145 districts did not change significantly.
The statewide results were released earlier this month. As in previous years, the school and district scores released yesterday reflect the so-called achievement gap between racial groups, with wealthy and mostly white suburban districts outpacing city schools with more students from minority groups.
The state uses the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System as a measure of how well students, schools, and districts are doing. The results are also used to evaluate how well schools and districts do under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
In previous years, MCAS scores indicated that students were having far more trouble with math than with English.
This year, higher math scores are the main reason for overall improvement: Statewide, the 10th-grade math failure rate dropped from 20 percent to 15 percent, while the English failure rate remained stable at 11 percent.
The state recently tightened its math certification requirements for elementary teachers, and many districts have beefed up teacher training and adopted innovative programs designed to boost math achievement.
''We are constantly looking at our curriculum, constantly looking at what we can do better," said Anne S. McKenzie, principal of West Springfield High School, where the math passing rate rose from 73 percent to 91 percent. West Springfield ranked third in the state, based on its improvement in 10th-grade passing rates, according to a Globe analysis.
In the last several years, West Springfield has required students to take more math: three years instead of two, and two of the three classes must be algebra and geometry. Before, students could take easier classes.
''The state places a great deal of emphasis on this," McKenzie said. ''As a result, we have to pay attention, and we do."
Rising math scores were just one component of the upbeat message that Education Commissioner David P. Driscoll delivered yesterday to Brighton High School's junior class. Statewide, Driscoll said, 4 out of 5 10th-graders passed the test on their first try last spring, up from 75 percent in 2003 and 68 percent three years ago, when passing MCAS English and math became a graduation requirement. Scores also rose in lower grades and in every racial group, though black and Hispanic students still lag behind non-Hispanic whites and Asians.
At Brighton High School, where 86 percent of the students are black or Hispanic, the gains were striking, especially in math. Fifty-two percent of students scored in the advanced or proficient categories on the math exam this year, compared with only 29 percent the previous year. This year's failure rate of 17 percent was only half of last year's.
In Boston Public Schools overall, 75 percent of sophomores passed the English exam, and 73 percent passed math, both major improvements. In 2001, only 60 percent of sophomores passed English, and 53 percent passed math.
''There's no question that there has been serious steady improvement over the past five or six years," said Elizabeth Reilinger, chairwoman of the Boston School Committee. ''In every grade, in every subject matter, the students in [Boston Public Schools] showed higher than the statewide average in improvement."
The millions of dollars poured into MCAS preparation, teacher training, and other resources are paying off, Reilinger said. But even with its progress, Boston ranks 353 out of 373 school systems and charter schools, based on the percentage of students scoring as proficient or above on MCAS.
As he released results yesterday, Driscoll emphasized that as more sophomores pass the exam on their first try, schools and students should shoot for scores far above the minimum standard.
Systems need to ensure that graduates have the skills they need to compete in the 21st century economy, he said. Also, in the coming years, the federal government will judge schools by how many students have achieved proficiency, the second highest score on the Massachusetts test.
''Passing the test has now become fairly commonplace," Driscoll said. ''The question is how we get to 'proficient' and you're not going to get there by drilling away."
Students have multiple chances to pass the MCAS. So far, 95 percent of the class of 2003 and 96 percent of the class of 2004 have done so. The class of 2006 is the fourth that must pass both the English and math tests to graduate, but it is the first group of students who have lived with MCAS for their entire school careers.
''This group of students is really the one we began to focus on," David Deruosi, principal of Revere High School, said of last year's sophomores. The school's English and math passing rates both increased by at least 10 percentage points, ranking it fifth for improvement in the Globe analysis.
In Somerville, which had the second biggest drop in its passing rates, Superintendent Albert Argenziano said the important number is how many students in a class graduate on time, not how many pass the exam on their first try. Argenziano said that Somerville High School offers before-school, after-school, and Saturday MCAS classes to students who fail their first attempt, and only a handful of students in the classes of 2003 and 2004 failed to pass the exam by the end of senior year.
''It's not their scores as sophomores that matter," he said. ''It's when we're ready to play 'Pomp and Circumstance' and we have only two to five kids hanging behind and everybody else made it."
