Schools

Test Scores Drop Slightly for Montgomery County Schools

Is a transition to a new assessment test to blame?

By Michael Theis


Maryland public school students fared slightly worse this year on standardized assessment tests—or MSAs—designed to gauge the performance of schools, according to data released today by the Maryland State Department of Education.

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Maryland school officials blamed the decline in numbers on the transition from the Maryland School Assessment test to the Common Core State Standards tests, set to be implemented in the 2014-2015 school year.

"We are in a transition period, both in Maryland and throughout the nation," said State Superintendent of Schools Lillian M. Lowery in a media release announcing the test results. "Maryland schools have been implementing the Common Core State Standards in reading and mathematics, but new assessments aligned to the curriculum will not be ready for use until the 2014-15 school year. This misalignment will certainly affect our scores this year and next."

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Statewide, an average of just under 78.9 percent of students in grades three through eight earned a proficient score or better on the MSA math and algebra test, a roughly three percentage point drop over the previous year. The same cohort saw an average of 84 percent of students earn a proficient score or better on the MSA reading tests, a slight (two-tenths of a percentage point) drop from the previous year.

In Montgomery County, reading and math scores for elementary school students dropped slightly in 2013 to 89.7 percent proficiency in reading (down 2 percentage points) and 84.5 percent in mathematics (down 5.2 percentage points), according to a release from Montgomery County Public Schools.

Middle school students saw a similar drop in math, but not reading. The percent of Montgomery County students who earned at least a proficient score was 89.3 in reading (up 0.4 percentage points) and 77.9 percent in math (down 3.3 percentage points. 

Equalling last year's results, an average of 73.6 percent of Maryland students earned a proficient or better score in the MSA science and biology test, which are tested in grades five and eight.

Superintendent Joshua Starr defended the scores in a statement released Tuesday.

"There’s nothing wrong with our students, our teachers, or our curriculum,” said Starr. 

"Once the new assessments, aligned to the Common Core, are fully implemented, we’ll be able to use the results to conduct meaningful analyses and have conversations about teaching and learning. Until then, we’ll continue to focus on providing our teachers with the resources, training, and support they need to effectively teach to the Common Core."

Maryland State Educators Association President Betty Waller echoed those sentiments in a separate statement. 

“There's a huge disconnect between these scores and the hard work that educators and students did during this past school year," said Weller. 

"These scores reflect the deep and problematic misalignment between what students are taught and how they're being tested, which will continue for at least the next school year."

"Right now, the MSA is just not providing valuable information for how children are doing or how we’re doing as educators," said Weller. "This disconnect underscores the need to make sure that there are no high stakes attached to student test scores  in teacher evaluations until the tests are valid, tested, and fully aligned with the curriculum taught.”


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