By Jason Scheer
The ELA, given to fourth and eighth graders, is a measurement of a student's performance in English and takes into account reading comprehension and writing skills.
This year's fourth graders showed a marked improvement over last year's students. Whereas 69 percent passed the exam in 2004, 84 percent passed this year. That represents one of the largest percentage point increases in Nassau County.
However, the 84 percent mark still falls below the county average of 88 percent.
In the eighth-grade level, 67 percent of students who took the exam in 2005 received a passing grade, up from 53 percent last year. Once again, that figure is still below the county average of 70 percent.
Michael Roccoforte, assistant superintendent of instruction, said the figures were very encouraging.
"We were really happy that we closed the gap between our achievement level and the county level," he said. Roccoforte said this should be seen as a step in the right direction, not the final venture.
"This is going to be an ongoing focus of the district," he said. "There is a commitment to having the students achieve on the very best level."
He also said the school district will not shape their curriculum around the test, as many districts have elected to do. Instead, the district will provide a comprehensive education.
"We're proud that this jump in our scores is not the result of test prep," he said. "There are many districts that throw the curriculum aside and just teach to the test. We still have a rich curriculum and we have not changed [our focus]."
Given that, he said the improvement means even more.
"[The results are] even more rewarding to us. A lot of times it's easy to throw your hands up in the air and just do test prep," he said.
Roccoforte said the change is the result of concerted efforts to improve scores which includes using a data warehousing process to identify problem areas.
Data warehousing allows for the exploration of the relationship over time between things like student achievement and attendance.
Teachers have been phrasing test questions in a similar fashion to the ELA exam in order to make students more comfortable with the format.
Next year, the district will issue this year's ELA exam to seventh graders with special needs. The district will use the results of these pre-tests to identify areas of deficiency and help turn things around.
"Students with disabilities are not performing up to standards that we have targeted," Roccoforte said, "...we are confident they can get there but they just need more support."
Roccoforte reiterated that the district is encouraged, but not satisfied, with the improvements.
"We hope this trend continues," he said. "We are cautiously optimistic and we still have our eye on the ball. We won't be satisfied until we're doing better than the county average."
Comments about this story? JScheer@ liherald.com or 569-4000 ext. 282.
