The latest standardized test scores vary across Maine and Aroostook County schools, but local educators say those results alone shouldn’t be used to judge schools and students.
The Maine Department of Education has released the results from last year’s state assessments given to students in grades 3-8 and high school juniors. The tests are meant to measure student proficiency in language arts, math and science based on education standards.
In language arts, 50.5 percent of Maine students taking the tests scored at or above “state expectations,” an average level of proficiency determined by the Maine DOE. In science, just under 61 percent of test-takers scored at or above expectations, while 38 percent scored at or above expectations in math.
In both math and language arts, the tests used last year were new, and therefore can’t be used for comparisons to previous years, according to the MDOE. The statewide average scores in the science assessments remain about the same as the 2014-15 school year, the agency said.
Locally, Aroostook County schools ran the gamut in scores and in the subject areas. The Easton School System, one of smallest and best funded schools in the state, had the highest language arts scores in The County, with 62 percent of students scoring at or above expectations. Statewide, districts in Falmouth and Mount Desert Island had the highest scores, each with 80 percent of their students at or above the state threshold.
Among other Aroostook schools, greater Houlton’s Regional School Unit 29 had 59 percent of students scoring at or above state expectations; Caribou’s RSU 39 had 48 percent; Fort Fairfield’s Maine School Administrative District 20 had 42 percent; Presque Isle’s SAD 1 had 41 percent; Washburn’s SAD 45 had 38 percent, Ashland’s SAD 32 had 37 percent; and SAD 42 in Mars Hill had 27 percent.
In math, RSU 50 in Dyer Brook led Aroostook County’s scores with 43 percent of students at or above expectations. (Falmouth Public Schools had the highest math scores in the state: 72 percent at or above expectations.) Easton had 39 percent at or above expectations — just above the state average — while most of the rest of the schools in The County had math scores under 35 percent.
In science, Aroostook County’s highest scoring districts were SAD 1 and SAD 32 (both with 66 percent at or above expectations), SAD 33 in Frenchville (61 percent), and RSU 29 in greater Houlton and Madawaska Public Schools (both 59 percent). Statewide in science, Bar Harbor Public Schools had 87 percent of students scoring at or above state expectations, followed by Cape Elizabeth with 86 percent. Among other area schools, SAD 45 in Washburn had 53 percent scoring at or above expectations, Fort Fairfield’s SAD 20 had 51 percent and Mars Hill’s SAD 42 had 42 percent. (Easton’s science scores were not tabulated, along with a number of other schools.)
While the results of these and other standardized tests are intended to shed light on how schools, students and teachers are doing they should be taken with a few grains of salt in the context of changing educational policies.
Standardized tests have “taken such a high profile, when in fact they’re just one small snapshot of where schools are at,” said Roger Shaw, superintendent of Easton School System.
For schools, “It’s difficult to score well and it’s easy to score low,” Shaw said. “It could be little things: your technology didn’t work as well as it should have and distracted kids.”
Students can also get “test fatigue,” feeling burnt out with standardized tests that aren’t actually determining their grades and may not seem relevant, and they may just want to get the tests over with.
Elaine Boulier, superintendent of SAD 42 in Mars Hill, said that time was definitely a concern during last year’s tests. Both the tests for grades 3-8 (taking a new computer-based assessment developed by a private company) and high school juniors (taking a redesigned SAT) took more than six hours. That’s “way too much time,” Boulier said in an email.
“In addition, concerns have been raised about the issue of stamina,” Boulier continued. “In the past, state standardized tests were longer for older students — not so with this new test. The recommendation from the DOE was that all students in all grades would spend approximately the same amount of time on the test. Does it really make sense to think that a third grader has the same testing stamina as an eighth-grader?”
Boulier said she and others also have concerns about the tests being on computers, including for the younger students. “Taking a high stakes test on a computer places extra demands on students at all levels: they need to be proficient at word processing, need to recognize the limitations of text interaction when a test is on a computer, etc,” she said. “If the state is truly interested in knowing what students know in ELA and math, districts should have a choice as to whether or not they want to do a pen/paper test or the computer-generated test.”
Shaw, who has spent four decades working in school administration and teaching, said he’s not sure if there’s too much standardized testing, but that “there’s still too much emphasis placed on the results.”
He points to a number of metrics that should be considered when communities are thinking about how their schools are doing — like graduation.
“Graduation rates in Aroostook County are above state average,” Shaw said. “We struggle financially obviously, because of dwindling populations, but our schools are doing well.”
In the 2014-15 school year, the year with the latest state data available, high schools in Ashland, Dyer Brook, Hodgdon, Fort Kent, Madawaska, Mars Hill, Van Buren, Washburn and Woodland all had graduation rates higher than 90 percent — exceeding the statewide average of 87 percent, which is higher than the national average of 83 percent.
Among other schools, Houlton High School’s graduation rate that year was 88 percent, Presque Isle High School’s 86 percent, Caribou High School’s 86 percent and Fort Fairfield’s 85 percent. Only Limestone’s Community School had a graduate rate significantly lower than the state average, at 73 percent.
Other factors Shaw cited include academic indicators — such as performance in algebra 2, a good predicator of future college success — as well as participation extra-curricular activities and community service.
The Maine School Management Association recently adopted a resolution calling on the Maine DOE to incorporate some of these factors into the requirements for proficiency-based education model that schools are adopting under a 2012 state law.
Next year’s incoming freshman high school class will be the first in Maine to graduate with proficiency-based diplomas and without traditional grades. Under the proficiency model, students have to demonstrate their knowledge and skills through iterative testing and projects, rather than passing with minimum grades, although they will still be taking the state assessments.
“PBE” is the latest trend in education. It’s a big change for students, teachers and administrators, and certain aspects of it are bound to present growing pains, particularly the software programs that teachers are using, Shaw said.
But, he said, education will always rely on the basic ingredients of good teachers and supportive communities.
“It’s all about making that connection with kids. A good teacher and a student and you don’t need anything else,” Shaw said. “Teachers in our school system are cheerleaders for kids and want kids to do well. We have a culture of excellence that starts with the town. It’s cool to be smart in Easton.”
