Constant Improvement Seen in Sharon Elementary MCAS Scores

For the most part, the MCAS scores are going up at the three Sharon elementary schools.

During a presentation on the 2014 MCAS scores at a recent school committee meeting, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum & Administration Dr. Jahmal Mosley noted that students are continuing to improve with students scoring in the warning category moving up to needs improvement, students who need improvement moving to proficient, and proficient students moving up to the advanced category.

In English, the fourth graders performed identically as they did as third graders. In both the 2013 third grade exam and the 2014 fourth grade exam, 82 percent of students scored advanced or proficient. 15 percent needed improvement, and three percent scored in the warning/failing category.

“It’s just impressive how you literally have the same scored from grade three to four. I find it to be quite amazing,” Mosley said.

The 2014 fifth graders saw great improvement in the advance category compared to their performance as fourth graders in 2013. The class saw a 14 percent increase in students scoring in the advanced category and a five percent decrease in the needs improvement category. There was a five percent decrease in the proficient category but it is likely those students moved up to the advanced category.

In the 2014 sixth grade English test, students performance slightly decreased compared to the 2013 fifth grade test. The amount of students scoring advance decreased from 84 percent to 82 percent. The amount of students that need improvement went up from 10 to 12 percent.

In Math, the 2014 fourth graders saw a 10 percent drop in students scoring advanced and proficient compared to 2013. The amount of students that scored in the needs improvement category went up from 11 percent to 22 percent.

The 2013 fourth graders however, saw an increase in performance as the 2014 fifth graders, with 89 percent of students scoring advanced or proficient compare to 80 percent. Within the top two categories, the amount of students scoring advanced went up from 45 to 65 percent and the amount of students scoring proficient went down from 35 percent to 24 percent. The amount of students that scored needs improvement decreased from 16 percent to six percent.

Finally, the sixth graders of 2014 saw a slight drop in performance compared to their fifth grade exam. The amount of students scoring advanced and proficient went down from 84 to 81 percent. The students that fell in the needs improvement category went slightly up from 11 to 12 percent.

Next, Sharon Patch will look at the results of the MCAS results for the middle school and high school.