Southeastern Named Level 1 School for MCAS Results

There was good news for Southeastern Vocational Technical High School when they received the result of this year’s MCAS exams. The school, which was a level 3 school last year, has moved up to level 1.

The scale, which consists of five levels, measures the performance of each school that takes the MCAS exam. A level three school is in the bottom 20 percent in terms of performance while a level 1 school is considered the among the highest performers.

According to the Department of Education, a level 1 school demonstrates very high achievement, strong progress overall, or has made strong progress toward narrowing proficiency gaps.

Here are the results from the school:

ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS: 90 percent tested proficient or advanced (72 percent proficient and 18 percent advanced). This is down four percent from last year’s scores. Eight percent tested in need of improvement (up three percent from last year) and one percent tested failing (the same as last year).

MATH: 73 percent tested proficient or advanced (69 percent proficient, 26 percent advanced), which is down from last year’s 74 percent. 23 percent tested in need of improvement (up from 19 percent last year) and 4 percent tested failing (down from seven percent last year).

SCIENCE: This year, 59 percent tested proficient or advanced, up from last year’s 47 percent. 35 percent tested in need of improvement (down from 53 percent), and 6 percent tested failing (up from 0 percent last year).

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 mandates that every student be proficient in English language arts and math by 2014. In Massachusetts, this proficiency is measured by the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS).

A school must improve in proficiency each year based on adequate yearly progress (AYP). In Massachusetts, AYP is determined by student performance on various parts of the MCAS.