MCAS Scores Given to Administrators

The thirteenth administration of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) tests took place in spring 2010.

According to the Department of Education website, a total of 553,278 Massachusetts public school students in grades 3–10 participated in a total of 17 MCAS tests in English Language Arts, Mathematics, and Science and Technology/Engineering.

State-wide, participation rates remained high, ranging from 98 to 100 percent across the grades and subjects tested. In 2010, 9,291 students with disabilities participated in the MCAS Alternate Assessment (MCAS-Alt) by submitting portfolios documenting their academic achievement in one or more subjects in grades 3–12.

Concord school administrators are mulling over the 2010 MCAS scores that were released to school administrators across the state on Tuesday.

For the tenth-grade, students were tested in English, math and science. At Concord-Carlisle, 148 students, or 47 percent scored in the highest category; in math, 78 percent, or 250 scored at the highest level, and in science 51 percent or 152 were at the top.

The percentages for "needs improvement" are 3 percent in tenth-grade English; 6 percent in math, and 4 percent in science.

At the sixth-grade level, students scored equally well in English, while 15 percent scored a "needs improvement" in math and 7 percent in English. Overall in sixth-grade, 45 percent scored proficient plus, or the highest level in English and 49 percent were proficient plus in math.

Superintendent Diana Rigby was unavailable for comment at the time of publication. The information is available to the public on the DOE website at www.doe.mass.edu.

Student achievement statewide improved on 11 of the 17 MCAS tests administered in 2010. Between 2009 and 2010, the percentage of students scoring Proficient or higher improved by two to six percentage points on three of the seven grade-level tests in English Language Arts (ELA), by one to five points on five of seven grade-level tests in Mathematics, and by one to four points on all three grade-level tests in Science and Technology/Engineering (STE).