By Katie Wagner, Staff Writer
Officials of the Princeton, Montgomery and West Windsor-Plainsboro school districts are confident that higher state standards in fifth- through eighth-grade math and language arts literacy will not dramatically impact the percentages of their students classified as partially proficient, proficient and advanced proficient.
At its July 16 meeting, the state Board of Education approved raising the minimum passing score for students in those grades to be deemed proficient in math and language arts literacy on the state’s standardized tests.
The new ruling means that students in grades five through eight must answer correctly at least 50 percent of the questions on the math and language arts literacy sections of the New Jersey Assessment of Skills and Knowledge (ASK) test in order to be deemed proficient. The ASK test is the state’s standardized test.
Previously students needed to answer between 33 and 55 percent of test questions correctly on these tests, depending on the subject and grade level of the test, in order to be considered proficient in math and language arts, Montgomery Township School District officials said.
The new standards were applied to the ASK tests students took in May and will continue to be applied until they are raised again, said state Department of Education spokesman Richard Vespucci.
Judy Wilson, superintendent of Princeton Regional Schools, said in an e-mail that she expected 85 to 95 percent proficiency rates in almost all categories of the ASK tests from her fifth- through eighth-graders. Ms. Wilson added that she expected some lower percentages of proficiency from last year in areas where proficiency cutoffs were changed significantly.
”As far as PRS is concerned: The adjustments that the State has made to the scores required to reach proficiency or advanced proficiency on ASK tests does not have a dramatic impact,” said Ms. Wilson. “The new cutoffs will impact the students who have been above proficiency in former years but not by wide margins.
”Given the shift in state proficiency levels, we are seeing the percent of students at proficiency in fifth- and sixth-grade language arts to be impacted the most with almost no difference at the seventh- and eighth-grade levels,” Ms. Wilson added. “In math we actually have gains in the number of proficient students in grades five, seven and eight.”
Steve Mayer, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction for the West Windsor-Plainsboro school district, said he didn’t think the higher standard was going to significantly change the overall number of students in the district deemed proficient. He added that the school district saw a slight increase in the amount of its fifth- and sixth-grade students that scored below the new proficiency bar on last school year’s tests from previous school years.
”I see no real cause for concern,” Mr. Mayer said. “I don’t think it’s going to change our work significantly.
Typically, the school district takes several measures to help students improve who score below the state’s standard of proficiency on the ASK, Mr. Mayer said. These measures include offering a variety of after-school tutoring and re-teaching programs for students primarily at the middle school level. At the elementary school level, faculty members work with students who need extra help with their studies during the eighth period of the school day, which is called activity period.
Mr. Mayer said the same techniques will be utilized to help those students that did not achieve high enough scores to be deemed proficient this year.
Dr. Christine Burton, director of mathematics for the Montgomery Township School District, said even when the state raised the proficiency bar, the “overwhelming majority” of Montgomery students still earned scores indicating proficiency in math and language arts literacy. She added that in some areas more of the school district’s students tested below proficiency than last year.
”The places where we saw the largest impact were the areas of ASK where the bar was increased the highest,” said the school district’s director of language arts, Candy Mulligan.
Dr. Burton said the school district recognizes that it always needs to examine its curriculum and needs to improve it so that all students reach levels of proficiency.
To help those students who did not earn proficient scores to improve their math, language arts literacy and general testing skills, the school district will continue offering the additional program support given to students who did not meet the proficiency standards in past years.
Dr. Burton said students in third- through 11th-grade will have opportunities to participate in programs emphasizing core content skills and test-taking strategies with teachers in small groups after school.
Ms. Mulligan said the school district offers similar programs during the school day as well.
Raising the proficiency bar on the ASK test could also impact whether schools are deemed to have made “adequate yearly progress,” a standard stemming from the federal No Child Left Behind Act, which mandates 100 percent of students will be proficient in math and language arts literacy by 2014.
In order for a school to be classified as having made adequate yearly progress this year, a higher percentage of students than last year in grades five through eight need to achieve scores indicating proficiency or higher on their state’s standardized tests. The mandated federal percentage increase varies depending on the subject and grade level.
For example, 62 percent of fifth graders who took the ASK test in spring 2007 had to pass the language arts literacy portion of the tests. Of the current crop of fifth graders who took the test this past spring, 73 percent must be deemed proficient for the school to continue to be classified as having made adequate yearly progress.
The minimum number of students in each of the nine subcategories who took the ASK test has also changed in order for those results to be factored into whether a school made adequate yearly progress.
Previously, if there were fewer than 20 students in a subcategory, the results were not reported to the state and those results did not count. Now, the minimum number of students in a subgroup has been raised to 30 in order for the results to count. The nine subcategories are Asian, African-American, Hispanic, white, female, male, limited English proficiency, special education and economically disadvantaged. Schools that do not meet the standards for adequate yearly progress face possible sanctions.
Mr. Mayer said students in grades five though eight in the West Windsor-Plainsboro School District have made adequate yearly progress for the last two years and are likely to have made it this year.
”At no time do we (in the Montgomery Township School District) feel any danger of not meeting adequate yearly progress standards,” Ms. Mulligan said. “In the past when we had a very small subgroup not meet the standards it was addressed. Our school district and the program we offer doesn’t concern us in any way of having a sanction against by not making adequate yearly progress.”
Ms. Wilson said in her e-mail that the state’s new proficiency bar might disproportionately impact whether or not Princeton Regional School District children with special needs, English language learners and pupils with basic skills support would make adequate yearly progress.
”The reason we’re doing this (raising the proficiency bar) is to prepare kids for a more rigorous high school curriculum that we’re three or four years from having,” the DOE’s spokesman, Mr. Vespucci said. “The basic message is: more will be expected of students in order to enable them to be able to compete. . .The bottom line is we want to make sure our kids can stand side by side with the best kid in the world.”
