Schools

Groton Schools Report Improvement In Math, Reading

"We are all rowing this boat together."

 

Principals and Superintendent Paul Kadri highlighted Groton's successes at a Board of Education meeting Monday night that reviewed the district's scores on standardized tests and its plans for improvement.

"We are all rowing this boat together," Kadri told an audience of about 30 administrators, teachers and parents and the school board meeting. "What I’m just thrilled to see is it really is less about the numbers and more about the direction that we are going."

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Groton reported improvement in math and reading as a district on the Connecticut Mastery Test from 2009 to 2011, with some schools demonstrating outstanding performance.

Charles Barnum Elementary showed 100 percent of students in third, fourth and fifth grade combined scored at or above proficiency in math for the second year in a row, and 94.5 percent scored at or above proficiency in reading.

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At Northeast Academy, 96.8 percent of students scored at or above proficiency in math, and 92.7 percent scored at or above proficiency in reading.

“I literally thought I had the wrong scores when I picked them up," Charles Barnum Principal Valerie Nelson said.

Results showed that as a district, 81.3 percent of students scored at or above proficiency in reading, up from 76 percent in 2009. The results were not enough to make the federal adequate yearly progress goal of 89 percent.

In math, Groton reported 87.8 percent of students at or above proficiency as a district, up from the 82.6 percent in 2009. Again, the improvement was not enough to make the adequate yearly progress goal for the district of 91 percent.

On the Groton showed progress in math and reading. In math, the test showed 85.5 percent of students scored at or above proficiency, up from 82.8 percent two years earlier. In reading, the scores also jumped to 89.5 percent from 85.7 percent.

Some groups showed marked improvement. Results showed that 83.4 percent of black students at Fitch scored at or above proficiency in math in 2011, a jump of almost 20 percentage points from the previous year, when 63.6 demonstrated proficiency on the tests.

Schools are due to submit their improvements plans this month. The goals vary by school and will be reviewed by a team of teachers and administrators, then  approved or sent back for revision.

As a district, Groton has three goals for the next three years: increase reading performance by 15 percent for students who qualify for free and reduced lunch; increasing reading performance by 15 percent for special education students; and reduce by 50 percent the number of students referred to administrators for discipline. 


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