A closer look at MCAS results

Schools across the county have received the results of the 15th administration of the MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System).

In looking at the percentages of students scoring “proficient” or higher on the tests, there is a clear trend of improvement county-wide from middle school to high school, and Lenox Public Schools seem to be the clear leader overall in the MCAS results.

However, when taking these percentages into account, one should consider the schools’ population sizes. Lenox, Lee Public Schools and the Southern Berkshire Regional School District each had approximately 400 students taking the tests, which measure performance in English language arts (ELA), mathematics and science and technology/engineering (STE).

Between those three districts, Lenox, again, is the clear front-runner, with the other two averaging 10-20 percent lower in all three areas.

Berkshire County’s mid-range districts (550-750 students taking the MCAS) are the Williamstown-Lanesborough Public Schools (combining Mt. Greylock Regional High School, Williamstown Elementary and Lanesborough Elementary), Berkshire Hills Regional School District, North Adams Public Schools and Adams-Cheshire Regional School District.

Amongst those four districts, WLPS is the clear front-runner, with Berkshire Hills only five to 10 percentage points behind.

Central Berkshire Regional School District (nearly 1,000 MCAS students) and Pittsfield Public Schools (more than 3,000) are outliers in the county, but both continue the overall trend of a jump in improvement in the high school years.

In comparison with the rest of Massachusetts, Lenox, SBRSD and WLPS are the only districts in the county consistently scoring at or above the state averages. The rest are at or below in most testing areas.

However, with a little improvement in the earlier grades, BHRSD, CBRSD and Lee could have scores similar to their neighbors.

The county as a whole could use improvement in the STE scores, with the highest percentage of students getting proficient or better at 73 in Lenox and the lowest at 34 in North Adams.

One high spot on Berkshire County’s MCAS results is Richmond Consolidated School’s third grade reading test – 100 percent of the students scored proficient or better on the exam, making the school no. 1 in the state in that area.

Posted by Catherine M. Krummey on October 4, 2012. Filed under Education News,News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry