RUMFORD – SAD 43 administrators aren’t happy that Mountain Valley High School juniors failed to meet state standards in reading for the third time, but neither are they discouraged.
For the past several years the district has been working on curriculum and assessment development, and it plans to continue that work.
“We have to look at this as a K-12 issue. We have been moving to a standards-based approach for several years and we are still evolving,” Superintendent Jim Hodgkin said Wednesday.
The state’s report came out last week, but specific details have yet to be given to the district, he said.
“When we get the complete results, we’ll analyze them to see what we’re doing well and what we’re not,” he added.
Matt Gilbert, the new high school principal, said Wednesday that after systematic study of the state’s data, changes will be made based on research models that have shown growth in academic assessments.
Hodgkin said the school’s leadership team and other professional staff will also work on identifying weaknesses and help make instructional changes.
Other instructional changes will be emphasized at an Oct. 7 workshop with SADs 21 and 44 to discuss differentiated instruction. This will show teachers how to present material in a variety of ways. All students do not learn alike, the superintendent noted.
Curriculum Coordinator Gloria Jenkins said Tuesday that the state requires 50 percent of eleventh-graders to meet or exceed standards for reading. She said that as a group, the class met that goal, but one or more of its subgroups didn’t.
The district won’t know which subgroup failed until further data is submitted by the state, said Hodgkin. Subgroups include special education students, students whose first language is not English, and low-income students.
Gilbert said improving junior-level reading won’t happen in one year.
“The MEAs (Maine Educational Assessment tests) are the result of everything from kindergarten through grade 11,” he said.
The high school also failed to meet state standards in math for the first time.
The state requires that 22 percent of eleventh-graders meet or exceed state standards, said Jenkins. Without more detailed data, she said the district doesn’t know the percentage that passed.
But many changes are under way in the math curriculum, said Hodgkin.
He said a new math program began in kindergarten through grade 8 this year, and an extension of that program will be introduced at the high school next year.
Hodgkin also thinks a high turnover of math teachers may have contributed to the class’ not meeting the math standards. He said he also thinks the math curriculum has not been tough enough.
Gilbert said the high school has recently increased math requirements to four credit courses, up from three, and now requires that all students take algebra.
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