District Report Card Summary
Assessment is an important part of every child’s education. Schools assess students throughout the school year for a variety of purposes including the ongoing monitoring of student progress in the classroom and as part of the overall district. Historically, report cards have given parents and students the information they need to check on student performance. Laws such as No Child Left Behind (NCLB), Individuals with Disability Act (IDEA), and Response to Intervention (RTI) all require additional layers of assessment. While we want to balance the number of assessments given to each child annually, having a variety of assessments will provide parents and students a much clearer picture of progress as no one assessment should be used to make decisions about programming.
The Maine Educational Assessment (MEA) is the tool used to determine Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) under NCLB for students in grades 3-8. In March 2008 our students took a series of assessments in the areas of reading, writing, math and science. Scores are reported on a continuum of Exceeds the Standard, Meets the Standard, Partially Meets the Standard and Does Not Meet the Standard. Individual score reports are sent to parents. We encourage parents to use the MEA as one tool along with classroom assessment, and teacher recommendations to create a true picture of their child’s progress. If you are a parent of a student in one of these grades and you did not receive a score report please contact the school office.
Overall in the area of reading our students demonstrated strong progress. MSAD #15 students in grades 3-8 exceeded the state average for performance and each grade level demonstrated stronger performance in 07-08 than 06-07. The grade 8 writing piece was invalidated at the State level due to inconsistencies in the overall scoring. The 5th grade writing results were lower in 07-08. A conversation with MDOE revealed that across the state scores were lower and they are keeping a watchful eye on this data to see if a new trend is emerging.
In Math we are starting to see that our overall improvement efforts are showing positive effects on student progress. Students across the district are showing improvement in math achievement. Students in grades 3,4,5,7,8 all exceeded the state average in math and although grade 6 did not exceed the state average they did show progress and stronger performance than the 06-07 results.
The MEA Science assessment is administered at grade 8 and grade 4. While our students scored above state average in grade 8, our grade 4 scores are one point below state average. These results are consistent with 06-07 scores and will require additional time to look closely at the general elementary science expectations and the alignment to the Foss Science program.
In general we are pleased with our MEA results. We can see that the hard work of staff and students is paying off. We of course appreciate the support from parents and community and look to you to continue to support our efforts.
The National PTA has published the 100 Ways for Parents to Be Involved in Their Child’s Education: http://www.childassist.com/one_hundred_ways.htm