Rutland Herald
Scores for schools across the state were released Thursday by the New England Common Assessment Program, or NECAP, which tested students in grades four, eight and 11.
“NECAPs are one test, on one day,” said Robert Bliss, assistant superintendent for Rutland City schools. “There are a lot of variables that can change the outcome.”
Rutland High tested 214 students in grade 11 and 27 percent of them tested proficient and above, compared to the statewide average of 30 percent for 11th-graders. Of the tested Rutland 11th-graders, 37 percent were on the free and reduced lunch program.
Statewide, low-income students on an FRL program scored six points lower than other students.
Bliss said during the course of the next month or so, Rutland teachers will look more closely at scores to evaluate areas needing more attention.
“Teachers will work on priorities and develop new content based accordingly,” he said.
Rutland Intermediate School tested 156 eighth-graders, and 27 percent tested proficient and higher in science. Sixty percent of those students were on the FRL program
West Rutland Elementary School tested their 23 fourth-grade students and 52 percent tested proficient or higher.
The Westside eighth-graders tested lower at 21 percent of the 19 students tested being proficient or higher. The 11th-graders had 15 students and 27 percent of them were proficient or higher.
Nineteen students in Proctor High School’s junior class were tested and 37 percent of those students were proficient or higher. Principal Adam Rosenberg said scores were lower than he had hoped, but that it only left room for improvement.
“Obviously we would like to see it higher,” he said.
Proctor has created an engineering course and is trying to target related skills by using Project Based Learning, a way for students to explore academic subjects — including science — in a hands-on way that can be used in real life.
Out of the 20 fourth-grade students at Barstow Elementary School, 65 percent tested proficient and higher. Of the 33 eighth-grade students, 48 percent tested proficient and higher.
“I’m overall pleased with the final results of the students,” said Barstow principal Karen Prescott. “Obviously, there is room for improvement and we need to look at areas of difficulty and find ways to focus on those areas.”
Prescott said comparing the test results year to year was like comparing apples and oranges.
“Each year and each student is bound to be different,” she said.
Killington Elementary School had 87 percent of their fourth-graders test as proficient and higher, a decrease in their perfect score last year.
However, Principal Loren Pepe said because of the small student body — about 90 students, a jump from last year — one student testing below average can drastically throw off the results.
Not that Pepe was concerned with the outcome.
“I am more than thrilled with the achievements of the children and the teachers,” Pepe said. “But we always wonder, no matter what we are doing as a school, how we can improve.”
Pepe said because the school is so small, it takes several years to really make a solid comparison in test results.
“We tend to look at the strengths of our students,” said Lisa Laird, a second-grade science teacher at the school. “We look at what we’re doing right and try to apply that to other areas.”
Also, the school believes one reason it is doing so well is because it is using math and science in a way that applies to the children and their everyday lives.
For example, Maria Garland, a fourth-grade science teacher, had students weighing the density of sap as it was boiled down to maple syrup. Something that many of the students could relate to and therefore really understand.
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