East Windsor School Officials Discuss Analysis of Standardized Test Scores

East Windsor school administrators Wednesday discussed an analysis of the high and low points of Connecticut Mastery Test and Connecticut Academic Performance Test scores released this summer.

The administrators gave a presentation to the East Windsor Board of Education at its regular meeting.

At Broad Brook Elementary School, administrators said they are celebrating that the percentages of  students scoring  at goal and proficiency in math, reading and writing increased in Grade 4.

In Grade 3, the percentage of students scoring at below basic in math and reading has decreased during the past two years.

“We’re proud of our scores and the data we’re getting on a daily basis,” Broad Brook Principal Laura Foxx said.

 Because of earlier CMT scores, Broad Brook  has been designated by the state Department of Education as a Focus school. Students in specific subgroups are underperforming compared to other students, which is why Broad Brook is a Focus School, Foxx said.

Let Patch save you time. Get great local stories like this delivered right to your inbox or smartphone every day with our free newsletter. Simple, fast sign-up here.

Broad Brook is implementing several steps to help students including concentrating on reading every day from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m., Foxx said.

At East Windsor Middle School, grades 6 and 7 saw significant decreases in students scoring at below basic, Principal Kimberly Hellerich, said. Sixth grade students scoring at advanced increased from 7.8 percent to 23.1 percent, Hellerich said.

Grade 8 has shown improvement in reading scores since those students were in fifth grade, Hellerich said.

Like Broad Brook School, the middle school is having an instructional focus on reading for students. Teachers are also using data collection to identify best practices to improve student performance, Hellerich said.

At East Windsor High School, 68 students were recognized by the state Department of Education for their achievement of the CAPT exam, officials said. The percentage of students goal or above in reading increased by 10 percent.
However, the percentage of students scoring at or above proficient in math decreased 16.6 percent, decreased 3 percent in science and about 2 percent in writing.

“The CAPT scores clearly show we have a lot of work to do to get the results we know we can have,” Principal Edward Keleher said. “I think we’re setting up the processes we need to get the results we want to see.”

Faculty members are developing ways to increase student achievement on certain sections of the CAPT exams.

Superintendent of Schools Theresa M. Kane said one problem officials found was instruction time in some areas decreasing when students go from middle school to high school.

“We’re changing that,” Kane said.