By GAIL LOWE

WAKEFIELD — Wakefield’s school district remains a Level 2 in terms of MCAS performance, Superintendent of Schools Dr. Stephen K. Zrike announced at last week’s school board meeting.

Scores range from one to five. One is designated as the highest performance level.

All schools also retained their accountability designation from 2013, Zrike said.

The Walton School and high school performed at Level One, while the Dolbeare, Woodville, Greenwood and Galvin Middle School were designated as Level Two schools.

“In order to receive a Level One designation, districts and schools must meet specific gap narrowing goals for all students and subgroups,” Zrike explained. “For the district to earn a Level One designation, all schools in the district must carry a Level One status.”

Zrike noted gains in the percentage of students who scored proficiency or higher on the 2014 MCAS.

In 11 of 17 MCAS assessments, more students scored in the proficient or advanced category than the year before.

“Specifically, we had important gains in math and science, technology and engineering,” he said. “In math, our district growth as measured by the Student Growth Percentile, SCP measures students’ individual progress over time improved by 2 percentage points from 47 to 49 and proficiency numbers increased at four of our six schools.”

In science, engineering and technology there were significant gains at all grade levels, culminating in an increase in students scoring advanced at the high school, from 25 percent to 39 percent.

In English Language Arts, growth and proficiency results remained generally flat or declined across the schools.

“Our strongest performance was in grade 3, almost a doubling of students scoring advanced and grade 4 where our growth results were high for a second consecutive year,” Zrike said.

“We are encouraged that our new district strategy prominently addresses areas of concern and accelerate the many successes by our MCAs performance.”

In advance of his MCAS public analysis, Dr. Zrike recently proposed that school board members answer one question posted on a grade 4 MCAS test and one that was comparable on a grade 4 PARCC test. Both related to English Language Arts reading comprehension.

The MCAS test question concerned the “ultimate field trip” — a trip to the moon, simulated at the U.S. Space Academy the United States Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala.

The PARCC test related to two short narratives, one about two sisters and their close relationship, the other about the cougar.

School board member Christopher Callanan said that while taking the MCAS test he had to go back and hunt for answers. Anne Danehy said she found the answers easily within the text. Thomas Markham III found the test age appropriate but not particularly challenging.

On the other hand, the PARCC test required more analysis and probing for the correct answer, school board members agreed.

The writing prompt required critical thinking as well as comparing and contrasting.

Dr. Kim Smith, assistant superintendent, thought the PARCC test was deeper and more emotional and “way more complex.”

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Eleven new employees have been added to the School Department this academic year, schools Business Administrator Michael Pfifferling announced at the meeting.

Five of the 11 employees are new and two are replacements.

There are four new lunch monitors, all part-time:

Katherine Caswell, Greewood; Gina Johansen, Walton; Daniel Dishion, Woodville, and Grace Rossino, Woodville. Cyndi Conway also was hired for a clerical position at the Doyle Early Childhood Center.

Lisa Hannigan was hired as a nurse at the Galvin Middle School and Deborah DiGregorio, a food service worker at the Dolbeare School.

Other replacements include custodians Joseph Smith, Woodville and high school, and Jesse Malonson, high school; food service workers Joanne Bourque, Walton and Natalie D’Alessandro, Dolbeare; nurse Keri Melanson, floater, and SPED clerical worker Patricia Jackson, central office.