Easton Middle School MCAS Results Provide Mixed Bag

There was plenty of good news and bad news when Easton Middle School principal Luke Carroll presented the MCAS results for his school to the Easton School Committee.

On the positive, the English results were trending upward but on the negative, math appeared to be an area of concern for Carroll.

“I’m not going to sugar coat it, math is a concern,” Carroll told the committee at a recent meeting. “The trend data is concerning because it’s consistent.”

According to the trend data shown, 78 percent of students in grade six scored advance or proficient on the test. That number goes down to 64 percent in grade seven and 66 percent in grade eight.

Carroll added that the middle school has seen an 8-14 percent decrease in students scoring in the top two categories over the past four years, with 11 percent of sixth graders scoring in the warning/failing category.

Reasons given for the drop from sixth to seventh grade include state trends, student motivations, and the transition from everyday math in sixth grade.

“I fully understand the age of the student and the middle school mind and I know it can be challenging but to say that student motivation phase and they have other things on their minds, some of that is a cop out because you don’t see that same data trending in English,” Carroll said.

Carroll did admit that the transition students have to make going into seventh grade math does not help matters either.

The results of the English exam provided better news from the middle school. 82 percent of sixth graders scored advance and proficient with 83 percent of seventh graders and 91 percent of eight graders scoring in the two categories.

Calling it an area with growing pains, Carroll said that 61 percent of eight graders scored advance or proficient in the science/technology/engineer exam.

To address how to better offer classes to prepare students, Carroll said the school is trying to teach some of the concepts in seventh grade to make sure students are not missing out on what is being taught in technology.

On Tuesday Easton Patch will wrap up its look at the Easton MCAS scores with the results of the elementary school exams.