July 12, 2011|By JESSE LEAVENWORTH, Leavenworth@courant.com, The Hartford Courant
— The good news on the 2011 Connecticut Academic Performance Test is that local high school sophomores scored better than their counterparts did last year. The bad news is that Manchester students scored consistently below students statewide on this year's test.
The state Department of Education released results of the standardized test on Tuesday. Students took the test in the spring. Across the state, students scored better than last year in math, science and writing, but reading results dipped slightly.
In Manchester, according to figures released by the state, 35.9 percent of students met or exceeded the goal in math, compared with 49.6 percent statewide. In science, 34.3 percent of local students were at or above the goal, compared with 47.2 percent in the state.
In the reading portion, 31.8 percent of local students met the goal, compared with 44.8 percent statewide; and in writing, 56.8 percent met the goal, compared with 61.3 percent statewide.
In comparing local results from this year and 2010, however, Manchester students continued to show growth, said Ann Richardson, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction.
"More students are moving into the goal and advanced stage in many areas," Richardson wrote in notes about the CAPT results that she e-mailed Tuesday.
Proficiency levels increased in all subjects over 2010, Richardson wrote, including "significant increases" for students of color in both math and writing [13.1 percent and 5.1 percent respectively], "showing that more students are moving from below basic and basic to proficiency."
In math, 35.9 percent of students met the goal this year, compared with 31.9 percent in 2010; in science, 34.3 percent met the goal this year, compared with 30.4 percent in 2010; in reading, 31.8 percent met the goal in 2011 compared with 31.2 percent in 2010; and in writing, 56.8 percent of students met the goal in 2011 compared with 52.6 percent last year.
School board Chairman Chris Pattacini said the scores show continuing progress over the past four years.
"It's not to say that the work is done," Pattacini said, "but we're headed in a positive direction."
Across the state in math, the percentage of students scoring at or above goal increased by 0.7 percent from 2010 and increased by 1.7 percent in both science and writing. In reading, the percentage of students scoring at or above goal level decreased by 1.1 percent.
When studying the data by subgroups, such as gender and race, however, the education department said the numbers point to "persistent achievement gaps" in student performance.
We tell you what's happening, when it happens, for FREE:
Sign-up for
Breaking News Mobile Text Alerts: Text
NEWS to
37798 *
Subscribe to our
Breaking News E-mailsTry the
News@3 Newsletter * You may receive up to 8 messages per day. Text STOP to 37798 to end subscription. Text HELP to 37798 for info. Standard message and data rates apply.
