District 30 tops Valley Stream in test scores

For the second year in a row, District 30 boasted the best test scores of Valley Stream’s three elementary districts when the results of the 2012 state assessments were released last week.

The English Language Arts and math exams were given to all students in third through eighth grade in April, and the scores often determine whether a child will need extra support services. Beginning next year, student performance on state exams will also play a role in teacher evaluations.

Scores improved in District 24, while in District 13, which until last year had consistently led the three districts in student performance, the results were mixed. In the high school district, scores improved in seventh grade and slightly declined in eighth grade.

Scoring is divided into four levels. Students who score at Level 3, proficient, and Level 4, mastery, are considered to have passed.

District 30

After scores increased significantly last year, District 30 again saw more students pass the tests. “We made steady, moderate gains,” said Superintendent Dr. Elaine Kanas. “We continue to move in the right direction.”

Districtwide, 80 percent of students passed the ELA exam, up 3 percentage points from 2010-11, and 87 percent passed the math assessment, up 2 points. The district bested county averages in all areas.

Kanas attributed the success to the hard work of administrators and teachers to meet each child’s learning needs. She said she is pleased that the results were similar across the district, which has not always been the case. “Those gaps are closing,” she said. “The performance is similar at all three elementary schools.”

She said she is also pleased that the number of students scoring at Level 4 is up. Moving forward, she said, test data will be used to drive program and instructional decisions.

District 24

Test results in District 24 were better across the board, with significant gains in the number of students passing both the ELA and math assessments.

On the ELA test, scores in every grade improved by at least 10 percentage points, and students who moved up a grade also made gains. For example, only 60 percent of fourth-graders passed the ELA test in 2011, but as fifth-graders this year, 75 percent of them passed.

“We’ve made significant progress,” said Superintendent Dr. Edward Fale. “The job is clearly not done. There are areas we are already targeting for improvement next year.”

Overall, 75 percent of students in the district passed the ELA test and 81 percent passed math. The district bested or equaled county averages on five out of eight tests. On tests it didn’t, it was within 2 points.

Fale attributed the rise in scores to the addition of a part-time curriculum coordinator, a position that will become full-time in 2012-13. Robert W. Carbonaro School Principal Dr. Lisa Conte took on the job, and spent much of the last year unifying curriculum themes and instructional strategies among the three schools, and providing teachers with additional training.

Conte said that one of her goals was to implement a more rigorous curriculum, and both teachers and students rose to the challenge. She said that the district also increased its use of student performance data, so teachers could target the areas where extra support was most needed.

Moving forward, Fale said, he would like see more students scoring at Level 4, and would like to see better results among special education students.

“We’ve worked hard for this,” he said. “We have to keep up that momentum. That’s going to be the biggest challenge. We’ve had good years before followed by bad year, and we don’t want that to happen again.”

District 13

Some scores were up and some were down in Valley Stream’s largest elementary district. Overall, school officials were disappointed with the numbers, as most passing rates, while above the state averages, were below the averages in Nassau County. District-wide, 70 percent of students passed the ELA test and 77 percent were proficient in math.

The best performance was in the fourth grade, the only grade in the district to best the county-wide passing rate in either ELA or math.

“The bottom line is we have to do better,” said Superintendent Dr. Adrienne Robb-Fund, who plans to reiterate that point in her opening message to teachers on Sept. 4. Robb-Fund said she was disappointed when she first saw the scores last week, and now must study the individual student and subgroup results.

In the coming school year, the district’s master schedule will be reconfigured to allow extra learning time for students, although the length of the school day will not change. Robb-Fund said that this will give teachers more time to focus on all of the core subject areas, including social studies and science.

A new intervention program will also be introduced for struggling readers. Robb-Fund said that there are other changes in the works, though she wants to share those ideas first with the four building principals when they return in August.

“I’m hopeful that the changes that we put in place for all learners will improve student achievement for the 2012-13 school year,” she said.

Central High School District

“There are areas where we are pleased. There are areas where we can do better,” said Central High School District Superintendent Dr. Bill Heidenreich.

Across the district, 68 percent of students passed the ELA exam and 75 percent passed math. However, school officials say they don’t put as much stock in the seventh- and eighth-grade scores as they do Regents scores and graduation rates. Heidenreich called the junior-high tests a “halftime score.”

He also noted that on the English Regents given at the end of junior year, the district typically has a passing rate in the high 90s. “At the end of the day, it’s not, ‘Did you pass your eighth-grade ELA?’” Heidenreich said. “It’s, ‘Did you get your Regents diploma?’”

Dr. Thomas Troisi, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, said he is concerned about the eighth-grade scores and would like to see improvement. He is pleased with the progress made in seventh grade, however, where ELA and math scores each went up by at least 5 percentage points.

Troisi and Heidenreich agree that year-to-year comparisons are difficult to make in a single grade because the students and tests are different.

Now that test scores are in, administrators will begin looking at individual student data and decide on student placements for the coming school year.

School officials are also preparing for next year’s changes in the tests, which will be the first to reflect the new Common Core Learning Standards. Teachers have been trained in implementing the new standards in the classroom. Additionally, each teacher had to do one Common Core lesson last year. Heidenreich said it will be interesting to see next year’s results, as there is often a dip in scores across the board the first year after a major change.