Prepared by:

Scott R. MorrisonDirector of Curriculum and Instructional Technology

11/3/09

•Spring 2009 Results

•Trends – Areas of Opportunity

•DESE Growth Model

Spring 2009 Results

Subject Advanced Proficient Needs Improv. Warning

English District 29 51 19 1

State 12 45 33 10

Mathematics District 32 54 11 3

State 20 40 25 15

English District 16 59 20 6

State 12 42 35 11

Mathematics District 26 45 25 5

State 16 32 41 11

English District 23 63 13 1

State 15 48 29 8

Mathematics District 44 34 19 3

State 22 32 29 18

Science & Tech District 24 49 26 1

State 17 32 39 12

ELEMENTARY

Grade 4

Grade 5

Grade 3

Spring 2009 Results

Subject Advanced Proficient Needs Improv. Warning

English District 18 66 14 2

State 16 50 24 9

Mathematics District 30 43 22 5

State 24 33 27 16

English District 28 65 7 0

State 14 56 23 7

Mathematics District 33 41 25 1

State 16 33 30 21

English District 23 60 12 5

State 15 63 15 6

Mathematics District 33 33 17 17

State 20 28 28 23

Science & Tech District 5 40 41 13

State 4 35 40 21

MIDDLE SCHOOL

Grade 7

Grade 8

Grade 6(part of elem.

last year)

Spring 2009 Results

Subject Advanced ProficientNeeds

Improv. WarningStudents

tested

English District 58 40 2 1 113

State 28 51 17 4 70,383

Mathematics District 75 19 4 1 113

State 47 28 18 8 70,194

Science & Tech District 41 49 7 3 107

State 16 45 29 9 68,034

HIGH SCHOOL

Grade 10

TRENDS (Elem.)

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS (areas of opportunity) *

ELA: Nonfiction; inferencing, ID story facts, story sequence; ID main idea; topic development

MATHFractions; extending patterns; working with values (determine totals; find missing); using proportional relationships; interpreting data sets and tables; length conversions

SCIENCE:Life Science: Only 2 of 9 questions releasedEarth/Space: Rocks; minerals (change processes); 50% of items released

* Beginning in 2009, approximately 50% of common test items in grades 3-8 will be released.

TRENDS (MS)

MIDDLE SCHOOL (areas of opportunity) *

ELA: Non-fiction; ID non-fiction components; story facts, poetry, inferencing; reason for word use; style and language (figurative language)

MATHEquivalent expressions; determining data values; selecting table; computing weight conversion

SCIENCE:Measurements; reading tables; graphing; understanding heat transfer; substance vs. mixture

* Beginning in 2009, approximately 50% of common test items in grades 3-8 will be released.

TRENDS (HS)

HIGH SCHOOL (areas of opportunity) *

ELA: Nonfiction; style/language

MATHCorresponding values; determining median value in a table; value computation

SCIENCE:Cells; genes; body system

* Beginning in 2009, approximately 50% of common test items in grades 3-8 will be released.

The GROWTH MODEL

Performance = Achievement + Growth

What is it?

•Describes a method of measuring individual student progress on statewide assessment (MCAS) by tracking student scores from one year to the next.

•Starting next year, each student with at least two consecutive years of MCAS scores will receive a student growth percentile (SGP), which measures how much the student changed relative to other students statewide with similar score histories

•Student growth percentiles range from 1 to 99, where higher numbers represent higher growth and lower numbers represent lower growth. This method works independently of MCAS performance levels.

•All students, no matter the scores they earned on past MCAS tests, have an equal chance to demonstrate growth

•Growth percentiles are calculated in ELA and Mathematics for students in grades 4 through 8 and for grade 10.

Why measure growth?

•A way to measure progress for students at all performance levels

- A student can perform at a low level but still improve relative to his/her academic peers

- Another could perform well but not improve much from year to year

•Provides evidence of improvement even among those with low performance

•Gives high performing students and schools something to strive for beyond proficiency

Student Growth Percentiles (SGP)

•Student Growth Percentiles = A measure of student progress that compares changes in a student’s MCAS scores to changes in MCAS scores of other students with similar performance profiles.

•The DESE refers to students with similar score histories as “academic peers.”

•While student growth percentiles enable educators to chart the growth of an individual student compared to that of academic peers, student growth percentiles can eventually be aggregated to understand growth at the subgroup, school, or district level.

•The rate of change is expressed as a percentile. In interpreting these data, it is important to note that differences in growth scores from year to year less than 10 points should not beconsidered meaningful or significant.

DESE Growth ModelDistrict Achievement and Growth (ELA)

According to the growth model results, "high growth" is defined as growth in a subject at or above the 60th percentile, typical growth is between the 40th and 60th

percentile, and low growth is below the 40th percentile.

DESE Growth ModelDistrict Achievement and Growth (MATH)

According to the growth model results, "high growth" is defined as growth in a subject at or above the 60th percentile, typical growth is between the 40th and 60th

percentile, and low growth is below the 40th percentile.

Best Practices for Using Growth Data

Don’t allow growth data to obscure achievement data. Use it to complement achievement data.Growth data is best used to add context to achievement data.

Use two years of data if it’s available.The Department has gathered two years of growth data for students in grades 4 through

8. The 10th grade results could only be calculated for the first time in 2009; hence, only one year of growth data is available for grade 10.

Look at differences across grades as well as between grades.Because every student has an equal opportunity to grow at a relatively high or low level,

regardless of their grade, it is appropriate to combine grades at the school, district, or group level.

Differences in medians of less than 10 points are not likely to be meaningful.As rule of thumb, differences in medians of less than 10 are not likely to be educationally meaningful at the school or district level.

Medians above 60 or below 40 are relatively unusual. Roughly one school in five had a median growth percentile higher than 60 and a

slightly smaller proportion had medians below 40. About five percent had medians above 70 or below 30 and less than one percent had growth scores higher than 80 or below 20.

REPORT CARD UPDATE

Report Card Committee:Scott Morrison; Wendy Manninen; Emily MacRae; Nicole Curcuru; Laurie Colpoys; Kimberly Field; Margaret Sears; Jeff Bodmer-Turner; Joyce Swedberg; Elise O. Dudley

Meetings:Committee meetings, grade level meetings, elementary district meetings, specialist meetingsAll meeting have been ongoing since the August 2009

Key Accomplishments:1) New trimester reporting system2) New reporting system of conferences and portfolios for kindergarten3) New aligned pilot progress report for grades 1-54) New “Parent Guide to Progress Reports” for families