Published in the September 27, 2016 edition.
WAKEFIELD — Based solely on district-wide results posted yesterday by the state Department of Education, Wakefield’s MCAS performance at the high school was a mixed bag last spring, with some scoring better than the year before and some scoring worse.
In addition, scoring in all grades across town on the science and technology/engineering portion of the MCAS exams taken last spring could be much better, since in at least one category local students fared worse than the state average.
At the high school, all 10th graders take the MCAS exams. Last spring, 41 percent of those taking the English Language Arts portion of the test scored at the advanced level, a drop from the 60 percent scoring at that level the year before. Fifty-two percent tested proficient, 4 percent tested as needs improvement and 3 percent failed the English Language Arts part of the MCAS test. The proficient figure in 2015 was 35 percent, the needs improvement percentage was 3 and the failing percentage was 2.
In mathematics, last year’s sophomores placed fewer scores at the advanced level than in the previous three years. The 25 percent scoring proficient was the same as in 2015, the 11 percent needing improvement was worse than the year before, as was the 7 percent who failed.
Eighteen percent of sophomores taking the science and technology/engineering portion of the MCAS tests scored at the advanced level, down from 28 percent the year before and well down from 39 percent in 2014; 60 percent scored proficient, better than 2015; 17 percent need improvement, opposed to 14 the year before and 4 percent failed, a little worse than 2015.
Students in grades 3-8 participated in PARCC tests for mathematics and English Language Arts.
