NECAP Scores Sitting at Plateau
The latest New England Common Assessment Program scores indicate that Barrington students seem to have dipped a bit but still at a higher level of achievement.
Photos
Barrington students seem to have hit a plateau at a much higher level of achievement than most students in Rhode Island.
At least the fall 2012 (New England Common Assessment Program ) NECAP scores that were released on Feb. 8 indicates that level of achievement is the case.
The scores again put Barrington at the top of the list for schools in the state. At the same time, the scores showed almost the exact same level of achievement as five years ago.
“We’re satisified with the high level of achievement,” said Superintendent Michael Messore. “But we have identified areas that need attention and review. So we’re not entirely satisfied.”
Messore said he and his staff plan to provide a full assessment of the latest NECAP scores to the School Committee at the Thursday, Feb. 21, meeting. He preferred to hold off on assessing the scores until Thursday.
Among the areas that seem to indicate a bit of concern are the drop in reading and math scores at three of the elementary schools: Nayatt, Primrose Hill and Sowams. The scores were still among the best in the state. But they are lower than a year ago and quite a bit lower than five years ago.
The students at Hampden Meadows and at the middle and high school stayed about the same as a year ago and five years ago. But the math scores, while about the same as last year, are still down from five years ago.
Messore said that, among the possible solutions to getting students over the hump that they seem to be sitting at, will be a look as "what the highest performing schools elsewhere are doing."
"We need to open a dialogue with each other," he said.
Manifold Witness
6:52 pm on Tuesday, February 19, 2013
“Plateau”? No. Years of declining NECAP scores & skyrocketing expenses is no plateau, and a one-word mislabel (“plateau”) is not sufficient explanation.
Barrington taxpayers pay up every year. They waited while School officials scratched their heads over last year’s drop in scores. Now, taxpayers are supposed to pay up & wait out a second year of scratching?
Taxpayers deserve an explanation from the expensive school system.
http://barrington.patch.com/articles/necap-scores-always-room-to-grow
Expenses are going WAY up. The census is way down (the LMI % up). Per pupil cost is escalating.
RIDE tracks 3 “Special” NECAP Score subsets–one is LMI students. Barrington's reading proficiency & math proficiency scores are down substantially.
What is the census projected in the 2012/2013 budget year? A straight line, “same store” census projection results in a substantial census decrease. Please show the projected census- by school, grade, & total.
Why are the NECAP scores going down so significantly (see drops in both reading proficiency & math proficiency)?
http://www.ride.ri.gov/assessment/DOCS/NECAP/Reports_Results/10.2012/Fall_2012_RI_NECAP_Results_Public_Report.pdf
See the proposed budgets increases for current year 2012/2013 & the upcoming year 2013/2014-
http://barrington.patch.com/articles/proposed-school-spending-up-3-7
http://barrington.patch.com/articles/barrington-enrollment-down-budget-up
What’s going on here?
David Laidlaw
1:50 pm on Wednesday, February 20, 2013
The NECAP scores almost exclusively measure the percentage of students that are above a baseline threshold of achievement.
Over the last 5 years the most notable changes I've seen in Barrington elementary and middle schools is that enrichment activities have been cut dramatically. Perhaps these expenses can be considered "discretionary," but my guess is that cutting these enrichment activities lowers the learning and performance of stronger students who tend to benefit from enrichment. Instead, those students are bored in class and learn less in school. They remain able to perform above the NECAP standards, but that is not a threshold that should be applied uniformly.
It is positive that our schools have maintained their NECAP performance levels over the time covered by this report. But this plateau in performance may be masking a decline in other important measures. We would be serving our students and our community better with an educational strategy that is less heavily balanced toward the same competence threshold for all students.