Butler BOE Reviews Last Year's Test Scores in Grades 3-8

At its work session meeting on Thursday night, the Butler Board of Education was presented with the 2010-11 test results and assessment data from the NJASK, which all students in Grades 3-8 are required to take.

The presentation, given by Superintendent Mario Cardinale and Aaron Decker Elementary School principal Virginia Scala, pointed out both strengths and weaknesses in last year’s test scores, as well as a plan of action to improve scores district-wide for both Decker School and Richard Butler Middle School.

Language arts was a particular problem subject for last year’s third and fourth graders at Decker School. Last year, only 53.2 percent of third graders mustered a proficient score on the NJASK, with none of them scoring in the “Advanced Proficient” category. Fourth graders fared a little better; 60.2 percent of all of last year’s fourth graders attaining a proficient score, and 3.4 percent managed advanced proficiency.

Cardinale pointed out that these scores are not necessarily a measure of students’ ability as much as they are a measure of the age of the language arts curriculum, which the district is in the process of updating.

“We knew we had some issues with age of the curriculum and the age of the text,” said Cardinale. “That’s why I point out, going back to last October, (updating the curriculum) has been something we’ve been trying to do for a couple years.”

Students on those two grade levels fared much better on the mathematics portion of the NJASK last year. Only 8.1 percent of last year’s third graders and 21.3 percent of fourth graders scored below a proficient level in math. Fourth graders also did well on the science portion of the NJASK, which is only given to students in fourth and eighth grades. 89.9 percent of students in fourth grade scored proficiently on the science test, with 49.4 percent scoring with advanced proficiency.

“We always do very well in the science area, which is nice to see,” said Scala.

Students in fifth and sixth grades fared even better on the NJASK. Last year, fifth graders scored above the District Factor Group and state averages in proficiency in language arts and advanced proficiency in mathematics. Sixth graders fared similarly well, having better than average “Proficient” and “Partially Proficient” marks on both the language arts and mathematics portions of the test.

Scala credits the impressive performance, particularly in mathematics, to new programs and acuity tests that the district is implementing. This week, teachers have been administering acuity tests in mathematics to students.

“We are looking forward to the new math program, which the teachers and kids are excited about,” said Scala. “The comments are coming from the teachers that they’re shocked at the questions kids are getting right, because they’re learning a different way of thinking.”

The shining moment in last year’s results for the district, however, came from the seventh grade’s test scores. The seventh graders had a lower percentage of students score “Partially Proficient” than state and DFG averages in both language arts and math, and scores across the board in language arts were above average.

“[Last year’s seventh grade class] has traditionally been a strong class academically,” said Scala.

Eighth graders also did better than average on language arts last year, having fewer “Partially Proficient” students and more “Advanced Proficient” students than state and DFG averages, all while having only 5.1 percent of all students score at a below-proficient level on the science portion of the test.

The district will now move forward in the hopes that it can get its scores up to the state’s imposed Annual Yearly Progress (AYP) standard. By 2014, the state expects all school districts to have 100 percent of their students scoring at least at a proficient level.

“Where we are is a good place, but we have work in front of us,” said Cardinale. “We have time to follow, we just have to make sure we allocate the resources, the time and the follow-through to make it happen.”

Cardinale hopes that the district can pass next year’s budget in the spring, which it was unable to do two years ago. This caused the district to have to make cuts and let go of two Basic Skills Instruction teachers, and the loss was felt in the form of 18 BSI students narrowly missing a proficient mark on the NJASK.

“We experienced a loss; a significant loss. It’s not a good thing, but it’s no surprise that a year after, which is the year the test results are from, that’s a significant loss of instruction on a targeted group of kids,” said Cardinale. “Would those additional 35 class periods [the cut teachers would have taught] have made a difference? I’m going to tell you my opinion that, unequivocally, the answer is yes.”

“It’s not about the score, it’s about the kids learning,” said Cardinale. “With the kinds of resources we can bring to bear, they can learn.”

Cardinale believes that, if this year’s budget passes, re-adding those positions or ones similar to them would not be a far-fetched idea.

“We’re gonna look at early intervention by finding a way of somehow getting that resource back in,” said Cardinale.