By David Harry
Staff Writer

State education officials said a new assessment test for students correlates well with older tests and shows encouraging scores in math and reading.
Results from the New England Common Assessment Program tests for third- through eighth- graders in reading and math show about 70 percent of students are “proficient” or “proficient with distinction” in reading and 62 percent of students are at the same levels in math.
The tests were administered in October as part of a collaborative effort to assess student performance in Rhode Island, New Hampshire and Vermont.
Locally, scores produced a mixed bag in Biddeford schools, and regional school units 21 and 23.

In RSU 21, comprised of students from Kennebunk, Kennebunkport and Arundel, scores from 1,232 students show 28 percent scored proficient with distinction in math while 20 percent scored proficient with distinction in reading.
An additional 43 percent of the students scored proficient in math and 56 proficient in reading. Thirteen percent of RSU 21 students scored significantly below proficient in math and 8 percent scored significantly below proficient in reading.
In Biddeford, 8 percent of third- through eighth-grade students ranked proficient with distinction in reading and math.
In math, 38 percent of students scored at proficient level while 26 percent were “partially proficient.” Twenty-six percent of students tested scored “significantly below grade proficiency.”
Thirty-five percent of Biddeford fifth-graders had test scores at the lowest level in math.
In reading, 52 percent of Biddeford students were proficient, 26 percent partially proficient and 13 percent at significantly below proficiency. According to test scores, 18 percent of Biddeford’s fourth-graders read significantly below proficiency.
Biddeford Assistant Superintendent Jeff Porter said the test scores present a base line that will allow the district staff to determine what areas of curriculum need improvement.
Porter said the change in testing dates from March to October did not present a challenge and the test itself was quite similar to the Maine Educational Assessments tests used until last year.
Porter said the school district is working to implement a consistent math curriculum for K-6 students and disparities in scores from grade to grade may reflect demographic differences in those grades.

In RSU 23, encompassing students from Saco, Old Orchard Beach and Dayton, 12 percent of students scored proficient with distinction in reading and math. In math, 43 percent of students scored proficient and 58 percent of students scored proficient in reading.
A challenge for Carol Marcotte, the curriculum director for the RSU 23, is to determine how to shape curriculum for the 26 percent of students who tested partially proficient and 19 percent of students scoring significantly below proficient in math.
Having test scores available now is an advantage she said, because staff teams meeting in the summer to improve math courses have plenty of time to review data from the scores.
When MEAs were given, test scores were not available until July, said Maine Department of Education spokesman David Connerty-Marin.

Collaborative testing like the NECAP, which replaces portions of the MEA test, is a coming wave in student testing, said Dan Hupp, the director of student assessment for the DOE.
“We had very solid results,” Hupp said of the tests, which are also given to students in New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island. The writing test that is generally part of the NECAP was not administered this year and a new one will be created for next year, Hupp said.
Hupp said timeliness of scores and a savings of $1 million are two advantages to switching from MEAs to NECAP tests. Eleventh-graders throughout the state will continue to take SAT tests as the standardized assessment tests, because those are the best measure of college readiness.
Hupp said MEAs will continue to be given to fifth- and eighth-graders to assess science proficiency because the state test is less expensive and reflects more modern standards of learning in science.
The collaboration to replace MEA tests given since 1985 came at a fortuitous time, Connerty-Marin said, because the federal government is emphasizing uniform standards to assess student performance.
Porter said he understands the need to create national standards, so long as local control on curriculum is maintained.
Hupp agreed, noting the difference between standards and curriculum the DOE maintains with local districts.
“We don’t want to tell them how to teach,” Hupp said.

Staff writer David Harry can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 219