Easton Elementary Students Beat State Average on MCAS

For the most part, elementary school students in Easton seem to be beating the state average when it comes to taking the MCAS exam.

Speaking at a recent Easton School Committee meeting, Principal Gary Mazzola noted that to be better than the state average.

“I don’t think we should be below the state average. We should be at least at the average or above,” Mazzola said.

In English, consistent increases were seen with 62 percent, 64 percent, and 76 percent of third, fourth, and fifth graders scored either advanced or proficient on the exam. The third graders were three percent above the state average with fourth and fifth graders performing nine and 11 percent above the state average.

Mazzola said he expects better scores from third graders next year as they will be the first class to all go through all-day kindergarten.

Math scores showed varying levels but every grade remained above the state average. 71 percent of students in the third grade scored advanced or proficient on the exam, two percent above the state average.

The fourth grade exam saw a decrease in students scoring in the top two categories with 60 percent of those students scoring advanced or proficient. Mazzola cited the high amount of word problems in the exam as part of the reason for the decrease.

“They’re not use to writing. They’re little kids and that takes some getting use to,” Mazzola said,

To help students with the exam, Mazzola said he would like to see more daily and programmatic writing across the curriculum to give students more confidence when they take the exam.

Despite the drop from third to fourth grade, Easton remains nine percent above the state average for fourth graders taking the exam.

The fifth graders bounce back with 76 percent of students scoring in the advance and proficient categories which is 16 percent above the state average.

In the science exam, the amount students scoring advanced or proficient are up seven percent since 2011 and was at 66 percent . The amount of students in the failure/needs improvement category was the lowest for any MCAS exam taken at in grades 3-5.