More Wayland Students Score ‘Advanced’ or ‘Proficient’ on MCAS

Students in largely improved their performance on the state’s MCAS (Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System) tests in 2011, according to data just released by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Overall, 89 percent or 1,331 students who took the English Language Arts (ELA) MCAS test in Wayland schools in 2011 scored in the advanced or proficient range as compared to 87 percent (1,290 students) who did in 2010. The percentage scoring in the advanced or proficient range on the Math test, 80 percent or 1,198 students, did not change from the 2010 number, though the number of students did increase from 1,184.

MCAS tests are administered in the spring of each year.

According to the state’s guidelines, students scoring in the advanced range “demonstrate a comprehensive and in-depth understanding of rigorous subject matter and provide sophisticated solutions to complex problems.” Those scoring in the proficient range “demonstrate a solid understanding of challenging subject matter and solve a wide variety of problems.”

In 2011, students in third through eighth grade and those in 10th grade each took the MCAS English Language Arts test as well as the Math test. In addition, students in grades five, eight and 10 took a Science and Technology/Engineering test.

The greatest percentage improvement was seen with the third grade English Language Arts test where 80 percent of the 203 students who took the test in 2011 scored in the advanced or proficient range. That is an improvement of nine percentage points, up from 71 percent, of 211 students who scored in the same range in 2010.

Of the 17 tests administered across the various grades in 2011, the percentage of Wayland Public Schools’ students scoring in the advanced or proficient range grew for 10 of those tests.

Percentage declines occurred in fourth grade English (from 82 percent in 2010 to 78 percent in 2011); sixth grade math (from 87 to 84 percent); eighth grade English, math and science (from 95 to 94 percent, 82 to 70 percent and 80 to 78 percent, respectively); and 10th grade math and science (from 95 to 90 percent and 89 to 87 percent, respectively).

At Wayland’s two elementary schools, Happy Hollow and Claypit Hill, percentages were similar though the number of students tested differs drastically between the two schools. Overall, 81 percent of 368 tested students at Claypit Hill scored in the advanced or proficient range on the English Language Arts test and 74 percent did so on the Math test.

Happy Hollow tested 247 students and 78 percent scored in the advanced or proficient range on the English Language Arts test while 70 percent did so on the math test.

On the state level, 69 percent of students scored in the advanced to proficient range on the ELA test, an improvement from the 68 percent who did so in 2010. On the math test, the percentage scoring in the same ranged decreased slightly from 59 percent in 2010 to 58 percent in 2011.

Various demographic and other breakdowns of the scores are available on the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website.

General district-wide results for Wayland for 2010 and 2011 are included as PDFs with this document.