District Officials Explore Declines in Sophomore Test Scores

As school administrators presented the results of this year's standardized testing to the Board of Education on Tuesday, one question in particular stood out: why Darien's sophomores performed worse on the state-mandated exam than both the class before them and their peers in similar school districts.

Though members of Darien High School's class of 2012 easily outdid state averages on the Connecticut Academic Performance Test, a lower percentage of students scored at or above the state's target level in reading, writing, and science than in any other town from Darien's district reference group. 

That category includes seven other communities on a similar socioeconomic footing with Darien: New Canaan, Ridgefield, Weston, Westport, Wilton, and Region 9, comprised of Easton and Redding.

From 2009 to 2010, the percentage of Darien sophomores testing at or above goal declined from 85 percent to 80.4 percent in math, from 84.4 percent to 78.5 percent in reading, from 90.3 percent to 89 percent in writing, and from 73.6 percent to 66.8 percent in science. 

That put the district below its fellow group members for 2010 in all but math, where only 75.7 percent of Region 9 students performed at or above goal. Statewide, 45 to 60 percent of students tested reached target scores across the four subjects.

Notably, the town of Avon—which along with Simsbury was a member of Darien's DRG until recently—fell short of Darien's goal rates in math and reading.

The CAPT is administered to some 40,000 tenth graders statewide and consists of eight hours of multiple choice and free response questions. Students who fail to score at or above the state-mandated proficiency level—a lower standard than goal level—are required to retest in grades 11 and/or 12.

At Tuesday's meeting, DHS Principal Dan Haron said he met with instructors in each of the relevant departments over the summer to discuss the results.

"We started to dig into the data to see why we saw dips," Haron said. "If there was a drop of five percent of students not meeting goal, who are these students? Why did they not meet goal? Could we have predicted this about them based on their [Connecticut Mastery Test] scores? If we could, do we have sufficient interventions in place?"

Haron also noted that DHS freshmen take one particular science class—such as earth science or physics—while many other Connecticut school districts teach ninth graders a course that combines earth science, physics, chemistry, and other disciplines.

Preliminary results show that Darien's Earth science classes produced a disproportionate number of students who did not achieve the state's goal, he said.

"Why is this happening? Is it that the Earth science class is not preparing the students for the physics curriculum of the test?" Haron asked. "We were already at a disadvantage in that regard, and we knew that. We have to supplement what they learn. Maybe we are not doing as well as we should be in those earth science classes, and we have to do better."

But the top-level results were far from the only numbers scrutinized by administrators. Haron also discussed the connection between a student's performance in math class and his or her performance on the CAPT, noting that particular attention would be given to a pupil who excels in a challenging course but fails to meet state testing goals.

"Our main concern is looking at students who one would expect to have a better performance yet do not," Haron said, such as a student who earns a B or an A in a 300-level geometry class but doesn't reach the test's benchmarks.

Haron and Superintendent of Schools Stephen Falcone also discussed correlations between student performance on the Connecticut Mastery Test—administered from grades 3-8—and test scores from those same pupils as sophomores. CMT results are the best indicator for student success on the CAPT, Haron said.

"The problem is, because it is not a perfect correlation, it is difficult to identify students who would benefit from additional intervention," Haron said.

Falcone noted that Darien elementary school teachers observe their pupils during the exam and note their findings, which provide an additional, non-numerical measure of children's engagement levels.

Boths administrators said that reading comprehension was a critical factor in all four test subjects.

"We want to make sure our students are thoughtful and precise readers," Falcone said. "For example, the [CAPT] questions require them to read closely. … The questions are different than those of a regular test. We want to take a look at our students so that they are adequately prepared."

For a complete rundown of this year's CAPT and CMT results, see Patch's analysis from July, Falcone's responses at the time, or the breakdowns from Darien's constituent schools and district reference group.