Growth in MCAS scores

Officials say the new “growth model’’ system will show whether high-achieving districts are getting too complacent and not continuing to improve. They say it will also highlight schools with low scores that are showing signs of progress.

“It’s long overdue,’’ said Paul Ash, the Lexington school district’s superintendent. “In the past, the MCAS numbers were just numbers. They didn’t indicate how students and school systems grew from year to year.’’

Ash said he has known each year that Lexington students will have high scores on the statewide standardized tests, but not whether students are improving from year to year. He said the growth model will give him those answers.

“Don’t we want to know how a district is improving over the course of the year?’’ he said.

Until now, the MCAS results have shown only how each student is achieving relative to state standards. The new growth model measures the change in an individual student’s performance over time, and looks at whether the student improved more or less than his peers, said J.C. Considine, a spokesman for the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which oversees the tests. “It’s shining a light on evidence we weren’t able to talk about in the past,’’ Considine said.

Brad Crozier, the Wayland district’s assistant superintendent, said it’s an interesting way of looking at the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test results.

At first glance, Crozier said, he’s pleased with his school district’s results, which show typical growth in all areas. He said Wayland educators will now spend time crunching the numbers and trying to figure out why some students showed greater improvement than others.

“We’re looking to assess how much each student learns and this is one way we can see how much one student has learned over the course of the year,’’ Crozier said. “The bottom line is how much learning takes place.’’

Growth for individual students is measured by comparing the change in MCAS results from one year to the next with that of their “academic peers,’’ other students in the state with a similar MCAS performance history.

Student growth percentiles range from 1 to 99, with higher numbers representing higher growth; for example, a student with a growth percentile of 55 showed more improvement than 55 percent of his or her academic peers. The figures are calculated for MCAS tests in English/language arts and in mathematics for students in grades 4 through 8 and in Grade 10; along with the individual student scores, median figures are calculated for each school and each school district.

Considine said a typical growth figure is between 40 and 60.

The state agency last week released district results from the tests given in the spring, and announced plans to issue individual student growth reports to parents and guardians beginning next fall.

According to last week’s results, the median growth score for Lexington’s 10th-graders was 51 percent in English and 55.5 percent in math. In Wayland, it was 46 percent for English and 52 percent for math, and in Newton, 50 percent for English and 56 percent for math.

“It’s potentially very helpful,’’ said Paul Stein, Newton’s deputy superintendent. “From the start of the MCAS reporting system, there have always been concerns about how to do a reasonable comparison from year to year. Knowing the literal level of achievement and how much they grow tells us a story we didn’t have before.’’

Stein said districts will have the ability to summarize student growth rates by subgroup, grade, school, and district level, so officials will be able to see what’s working and what isn’t.

“What we’re hoping is we’re doing a good enough job so they are all progressing, and that’s what makes it an intriguing instrument,’’ he said. “It says something to you about all kids.’’

Stein said it will take time for the administrators and teachers to go through the data and make sense of it. He said they’ll be looking for strengths and weaknesses among all the subgroups.

It will take time for parents to understand the system, Stein said.

While parents in high-performing districts are used to seeing achievement numbers in the 90th percentile, improvement rates will be different, he noted, adding that parents should be pleased if they see a 59 next to the school growth percentage.

“It’s very much like a bell curve,’’ Stein said.

Christine Tyrie, the assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction in Framingham, said the growth numbers provide another layer of information for the districts.

“It really deepens your understanding of how students are doing,’’ Tyrie said.

She said while Framingham’s achievement numbers are lower than many in surrounding communities, the growth numbers show progress in several categories. The student growth percentages for the 10th grade were 44 in English and 68 in math.

“It’s nice to know students are progressing and we didn’t have that data before,’’ she said.

Tyrie said the district is pleased with the growth numbers and will use those to help boost the achievement numbers.

“We won’t be satisfied if we have low achievement and high growth or high achievement and low growth,’’ she said. “You want to be in a place where you’re getting both.’’

While many superintendents said the additional information will be helpful, one school official said she’s worried about the time it will take to make heads or tails of the numbers.

Valerie Spriggs, superintendent of Dover-Sherborn regional schools, said the growth model could be a valuable tool but it comes when districts barely have the time and resources for instruction and planning.

“Right now, the faculty and teachers have got a lot on their plate,’’ Spriggs said.

The 10th-grade median in the system was 65 percent in English and 59.5 percent in math.

Also, there are some schools where the numbers won’t be as meaningful as others.

Mary Jo Nawrocki, superintendent of Assabet Valley Regional Technical High School in Marlborough, said her students come from more than a half-dozen area communities, so their early educational experiences vary. Students start at Assabet Valley in the ninth grade. The school’s 10th-grade median growth scores were 43 percent for English and 51 percent for math.

Still, Nawrocki said, she thinks the new reporting system will be useful. “It’s a great idea to follow students through to see improvement.’’

Jennifer Fenn Lefferts can be reached at jflefferts@yahoo.com.