Consistency Rules in Oliver Ames High School MCAS Results

For Oliver Ames High School, consistency remains the end result when it comes to the 2014 MCAS exam.

According to data provided by OA principal Wesley Paul during a recent school committee meeting, high school students taking the exam have performed consistently well over the past few years.

“The trend is the same. We have a lot of students in the advance and proficient categories and the students that fluctuate in the needs improvement and failing categories are statistically insignificant in any given year,” Paul said.

In English, Easton tenth graders have slightly improved from 94 percent scoring in the advance and proficient categories in 2011 to 97 percent in 2014. Despite the small jump, there were improvements in performance by the top students.

“Although we didn’t see a big jump we did see more of our student go from proficient and into advance,” Paul said.

The amount of those scoring in the advance category has increase by 15 percent in the same time period.

The amount of students in the needs improvement and failing categories has decreased from five percent to three since 2011.

In Math, the amount of students in the advance and proficient categories remains at 90 percent. There was an increase of students scoring in the advance category by 15 percent.

The amount of students in the needs improvement and failure categories has remained between 8 and 12 percent since 2011 with 8 percent in the categories this year.

Like many other schools in the state, the ninth grade physics exam continues to be an area that could use some improvement. The amount of advance and proficient students are down three percent since 2011 with the amount of students scoring in the advance category down eight percent since 2011. The amount of students scoring needs improvement and failure are up three percent.

Paul added that it does not help that the freshmen take the exam in June with only weeks to go before the end of school.

“There’s just a sense of the finish line is here. I think we would get a better result if we tested in March but the skills and knowledge they need haven’t been delivered to them by that time,” he said.

On Saturday, Easton Patch will look at how the middle school performed on the MCAS Exam.