Most post MCAS gains

As students in the northern suburbs settle into a new school year, educators are dusting off old practice exams and turning to new technology to inspire 10th -graders -- even those in the upper echelons -- to achieve better scores on the state's standardized tests.

For many districts, the goal is not merely to ensure that all students pass the English and math sections of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam. This year, the objective is to move more students into the top two categories of MCAS -- proficient and advanced.

By 2014, all students will be required to score in those categories under the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Educators are eagerly awaiting the results from the spring 2006 test, which are slated for release Sept. 25, to see how close they are to hitting that target.

If past performance is an indication, the class of 2008 probably fared better on the exam than preceding classes did. Between 2002 and 2005, state Department of Education records show that 10th-grade students have made significant strides on the MCAS test in the majority of area districts.

A Globe examination of past test results reveals that improvement cuts across socio-economic lines. The failure rates on the math section of the exam have dipped dramatically since 2002, by more than 10 percentage points in 14 local districts, while the percentage of 10th-graders failing the English portion of the test has declined in more than half of the area's 32 school systems .

The most notable gains were made at the region's vocational high schools, where the need for improvement was the greatest.

In 2002, 74 percent of 10th-graders at the Northeast Metro Vocational High School in Wakefield failed the math portion of the test, and 26 percent failed the English section. But by 2005, the failure rates had dropped to 18 percent and 12 percent, respectively. In addition, the percentage of students earning scores high enough to place them in the proficient or advanced categories climbed, from 24 percent to 31 percent in English and from 5 percent to 41 percent in math.

Similar double-digit percentage gains were made at both North Shore Regional Vocational Technical High School in Middleton and Whittier Regional Vocational Technical High School in Haverhill. At both schools, the percentage of 10th - grade students scoring in the advanced to proficient range increased by more than 20 points between 2002 and 2005, on both the math and English portions of the MCAS.

``Each year, we look at where the students fell behind on the test, where we need to give them more support, and we focus in on those areas," said Karen Sarkisian, superintendent at Whittier. ``We set aside time in the school day for teachers to tutor their students one-on-one."

The individual study sessions seem to be paying off. In April, Whittier came off a state Department of Education watch list of under-performing schools after the school posted markedly improved MCAS scores.

By 2005, nearly half of Whittier's 10th -graders were scoring in the top categories in math and English; just three years earlier, 29 percent had failed the English section , and 56 percent had failed the math portion.

The MCAS has four scoring categories: advanced, proficient, needs improvement, and warning/failing. ``N eeds improvement" is a passing score, but indicates only partial mastery of the subject.

And while many area superintendents consider the federal goal to be impossible to achieve, they are striving to bolster student achievement by embracing a range of strategies such as tutoring, remedial programs, and curriculum changes.

In Salem, administrators for the first time will provide focused training sessions for teachers so they can more effectively support students who speak limited English.

Educators also are busy updating their biology courses and changing the history curriculum -- students will focus more on US history and less on world history than in the past -- to help prepare students for the ``new MCAS," said Robert Quist, director of guidance at the high school. A science test will be added to the exam in 2010, and a history section is expected to follow.

The region's largest school district, Lynn, is intent on further improving student's math scores. To that end, a team of teachers is poring over the math curriculum and previous test results to see which topics caused problems for students and what content areas need to be stressed in class, said School Committee member Donna Coppola.

And at Northeast Metro, a retired English teacher will be working with the school's brightest ninth-grade students to help them score at the proficient or advanced level with writing skills stressed in both academic and vocational courses.

``We don't want anybody to ever point to this school and say, `Don't send your child there because they won't get a diploma,' " said Joe O'Brien, MCAS coordinator at Northeast Metro.

``So we have set up a system to improve student achievement. We're not satisfied with just getting the kids to pass the MCAS. We want every student to reach his or her full potential, and that means we have to also be looking at moving kids into the advanced level."

To help high school students cross that threshold, some superintendents, including those in Lynn and Swampscott, have invested tens of thousands of dollars on data analysis equipment, in the hope that the sleek computers will help teachers home in on individual students' strengths and weaknesses.

That equipment, produced by RISO Products of Boston, is considered the key to success at Whittier, which has been using the company's testing software and grading machinery since spring 2004. The system allows teachers at the school to quickly see what students have accomplished and what areas they still need to focus on.

Joe Rappa, executive director of the Office of Educational Quality and Accountability, a state department created in 2002 to audit and examine school districts, has praised Whittier's approach for its ``data-driven methods" and ``exemplary progress in student achievement." Rappa's office now calls Whittier ``an exemplar of what can be done" and recommends administrators from other districts visit the school.

Just last month, Haverhill Mayor James J. Fiorentini and School Committee member Erin Francescone visited Whittier to review the vocational school's MCAS remediation program.

Fiorentini, dismayed by his district's falling MCAS scores, is pushing for a mandatory after-school MCAS tutoring program for students who do poorly on the exam. Haverhill was one of seven local districts to record a failure rate of more than 20 percent on the math portion of the 10th-grade MCAS exam in 2005.

``I'd like to implement the program in January," said Fiorentini, who has created a task force to study the issue. ``The obstacle, of course, is money. We're trying to secure a grant or some other kind of funding to support the initiative."

In 2005, Haverhill's MCAS results were below both state and national averages for standardized tests, reflecting a recent downward trend in the district's scores. In 2004, the district's failure rate in English was 12 percent; in math, 19 percent. In 2005, the failure rates had risen to 14 percent in English and 27 percent in math.

``Do our scores concern me? Yes, definitely; they shouldn't be that low," said Haverhill Superintendent Raleigh C. Buchanan.

``I am meeting with administrators now to strategize as to what we can do to improve them. The mayor thinks if kids are tutored, they'll do better, but I think we also need to look at other contributing factors. English is a second language for many of our students, and we know that there are a lot of kids who leave or enter the district each year. We haven't had a chance yet to analyze what impact those factors are having on our test scores."

Buchanan and other educators cautioned against comparing one year's test scores with another's, noting that the failure rate can change dramatically based on the scores of a very small number of students, particularly in smaller schools.

School officials also noted that fluctuations in the test scores are to be expected due to two factors: a changing student population and modifications the state Department of Education has made to MCAS over the years, particularly in the math portion .

``We don't compare the test scores for one graduating class to those of another because they're entirely different groups of kids," said Peter L. McGinn, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction at Pentucket Regional, which draws students from Groveland, Merrimac , and West Newbury. ``Instead, we focus on making improvements across the district."

The district saw a slight decline in its MCAS scores between 2002 and 2005, slipping 1 percentage point in math and 2 percentage points in English .

To boost the district's standing on the 10th-grade assessment test, McGinn is focusing on today's elementary school students.

``Youngsters need to be able to read in order to learn, so that's our greatest leverage point, the place where we feel we can make the biggest impact," said McGinn. ``We strongly believe that in order to do something about the scores at the 10th-grade level, we need to begin working with the children as early as possible. Looking ahead, we're not going to be satisfied with `needs improvement.' We want all youngsters to be proficient or advanced."