A downward trend has not been established, said Katherine Elkins.
By Jim Smedley
Staff Writer

OXFORD – Eighth-graders were the steadiest.

Eleventh-graders dropped a bit.

And as many fourth-graders progressed as those that regressed, according to the latest results of the Maine Educational Assessment testing in SAD 17.

SAD 17 students were tested in reading, writing and health education in November 2002.

Curriculum Director Katherine Elkins said Tuesday that although there were fluctuations, the key item to note was that the three-year average hasn’t dropped significantly, meaning a downward trend has not been established.

Eighth-graders dropped two points in reading from the previous year’s class and gained two points in writing. They were one point lower in health education. The district averages in all three categories were one to three points behind the state averages.

Eleventh-graders were a point behind the state average in all three categories and two to three points behind the class of 2002’s scores.

When compared to last year’s fourth-graders, this year’s class dropped a point in reading, increased a point in writing and stayed the same in health education. The district averages for the three categories were below the state average.

Elkins said single point fluctuations in scores were not concerning. She said she was more interested in the three-year average, which indicates a trend, and those increases or decreases of three points or more.

Even though the high school reading score decreased by three points and the other scores also dropped, the school matched the state averages in every category.

The fourth-graders in Waterford were four points above the state average in reading and three points higher in health. Oxford Elementary School’s fourth-graders scored five points higher than the state average on writing and Otisfield’s fourth-graders were three points higher in that same category.

The Guy E. Rowe Elementary School’s fourth-graders dropped five points in the reading average from the fourth-graders of last year. Fourth-graders in the Legion Memorial Elementary School dropped seven points in their reading testing.

Elkins said that it is important to consider when analyzing this data that smaller school scores tend to fluctuate more, this was the first year that all special education scores were counted with the other scores, and that scores tend to decrease when restructuring.

New structure

In May the district was notified by the Maine Department of Education that the MEAs for the 2003-04 school year would be restructured to comply with the new federal standard, the No Child Left Behind Act.

Starting March 1, 2004, there will be tests administered in English language arts, mathematics and science and technology only, over a two-week period.

Testing in social studies, health education, and the visual and performing arts will be dropped.

Elkins said the inclusion of special education scores in the overall test results could have lowered the scores at the Rowe school.

“Rowe has many of the district’s medically fragile and severely handicapped students, and some of them could not be successful at this test at this time in their lives,” Elkins said. “The MEAs for some of these students cannot measure their achievement.”

She said in the 2003-04 school year more time will be spent on literacy for the kindergarteners to sixth-graders, there would be more after-school programming and literacy collaboratives with specific goals would be established.

Elkins said students in the first two grades will get three hours of literacy instruction per day and those in grades three to eight will get two hours per day.

She also said “best practices” or successful teaching methods would be implemented.

“In the end we need to decide what is best for our kids, what will inform us on where the kids are now and research based on best practices to use to help our students maximize their learning,” Elkins said.

Copy the Story Link