Schools
Regents Test Scores Show Positive Results in Three Village Schools
School officials: Three Village is doing well in comparison to other districts.
Last year's English and math scores in grades 3 through 8 may have yielded questionable results that weren't reflective of actual student achievement, Three Village school officials have said, but Regents scores largely remained steady from the 2011-12 school year to the 2012-13 school year.
In a presentation at Wednesday's school board meeting, Kevin Scanlon, assistant superintendent for curriculum and instruction, broke down year-over-year comparisons of scores on Regents tests in English, social studies, math and the sciences.
On the comprehensive English test, 97 percent of students passed the test in 2012-13, up from 93 percent in 2011-12, with 60 percent of students achieving mastery of the subject matter, up from 58 percent. Mastery indicates a score of 85 or better on the test.
In social studies, year-over-year passing rates remained the same at 95 percent in global history and geography and 99 percent in U.S. history and government.
"Once again, Three Village is doing very well in these categories," Scanlon said. "Ninety-nine percent is pretty impressive."
Following the recent re-alignment of math courses at the secondary level, in which the school district changed the sequential order of algebra, algebra 2/trigonometry and geometry courses to reflect the state's changes to those tests, passing rates on two of those three Regents exams increased dramatically. Seventy-three percent of students passed the integrated algebra test in 2012-13, as opposed to 54 percent in 2011-12. Algebra 2/trigonometry passing scores increased from 31 percent in 2011-12 to 93 percent in 2012-13. Passing rates on the geometry Regents exam increased slightly, from 96 percent in 2011-12 to 98 percent in 2012-13.Scanlon called the district's results on the chemistry and physics Regents exams "the envy in the county." Although the passing rate on the chemistry Regents dipped very slightly – 96 percent in 2011-12 down to 95 percent in 2012-13 – mastery of the topic increased from 38 percent to 42 percent. In physics, 87 percent of students taking the test passed it in 2012-13, up from 85 percent in 2011-12. Those showing mastery increased slightly, from 46 percent in 2011-12 to 47 percent in 2012-13.
"There aren’t any districts that have those particular results," Scanlon said.
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Passing scores on the earth science and living environment tests decreased slightly. Earth science passing scores were down to 71 percent from 74 percent in 2011-12, and living environment passing scores were down to 93 percent from 98 percent in 2011-12.
"Not that there aren’t areas that need to be addressed, but we should be impressed," school board vice president Bill Connors said.
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Superintendent Cheryl Pedisich said the Regents tests and grade 3 through 8 assessments are just one way to gauge student achievement, and that the district considers many more aspects of a child's education in measuring their academic success.
"I always think there's opportunity for improvement, but I don't want us to base too much on one set of test scores," she said. "That's one criterion we are looking at in terms of student achievement. You have to look at the whole child, and all of the accomplishments that they are showing throughout the school year."
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