Thursday, November 30, 2000 Older Editions

MCAS: Town ranks highly, but some failing

By Adam Groff

This year's MCAS results show Andover placing 17th out of 208 districts statewide according to one published ranking. However, there are still serious concerns about the number of students failing, particularly in the tenth grade, say School Superintendent Claudia Bach and Assistant Superintendent Marinel McGrath.

Beginning this year, tenth graders must pass the English and mathematics portion of the test at some point in order to graduate in 2003. But 49 Andover tenth-grade students failed the English portion of the test this year, and 75 failed the math portion. Bach and McGrath express grave concern about these failures, and about a lack of funding for remediation programs. (See related lead story in the Education section.)

Rankings by a Boston newspaper that placed Andover 17th in the state were based on total scores for each school district, determined by adding scaled scores from the three subject areas in the three grades tested (4, 8, and 10) in all districts that tested each grade.

The Massachusetts Department of Education does not rank MCAS scores.

The Andover school officials were pleased that students in each of the three grades outperformed the statewide averages in every subject area, often by a wide margin.

According to tables prepared by McGrath, since last year, the percentage of Andover students who scored in the "advanced" or "proficient" categories went up in most subjects in most grades, while the failure rates in the fourth and eighth grades declined or stayed the same in every subject.

In the tenth grade, however, failure rates increased in every subject.

The task now, say Bach and McGrath, is to determine why students performed as they did, and explain the failures. In the coming weeks, said McGrath, they will be collecting reports from the schools based on talks with teachers, counselors, and students to try to get a better idea of how and why students reacted to the test the way they did.

MCAS scores were mailed to Andover parents on Tuesday, Nov. 21, after the Townsman's early, Thanksgiving deadline.

Each grade was tested in English language arts, mathematics, and science and technology. Each grade was also tested in history and social studies, but only the eighth-grade exams were scored in this field.

Out of 478 fourth graders, 12 failed the English portion and 23 failed the math portion. Out of 453 eighth graders, seven failed English and 56 failed math.

The 49 English failures and 75 math failures were out of 388 tenth-graders. The tenth-grade failure rate in English, at 13 percent, was a 7 percent increase over last year's tenth-graders, and the failure rate in math, at 19 percent, was a 6 percent increase.

Another particular source of concern, said McGrath, was the inordinately high number of answers marked "blank or zero" in the open-response category of the different subjects.

Open-response questions are ones that require a written answer rather than a simple darkening of an oval as for multiple-choice questions. McGrath said that the math, as well as the English section of the MCAS, has open-response questions, in which students are asked to explain how they arrived at answers to mathematical word problems. McGrath said these answers must be examined more closely to see whether students are answering them incorrectly or simply skipping them without even attempting an answer.

The latter possibility raises the question of the so-called "blowoff factor" being discussed here and around the state as one possible explanation for low or failing scores. The blowoff factor refers to students' "blowing off" the test, or not taking it seriously, and therefore not trying very hard.

However, said McGrath, "Our kids have traditionally taken these tests very seriously," citing Andover students' historically good performance on the SAT. As for taking steps to avoid having students blow off the MCAS, McGrath stated, "Certain climates can be set for test-taking conditions, and we let kids know that this is important."

There have also been instances around the state of students openly boycotting the MCAS, but Bach said she did not know of any such instances in Andover.

A factor Bach cited to explain failure rates increasing at Andover High is the tendency for the school to lose some talented students to private schools when they leave middle school. However, she said that number has been decreasing recently in Andover.

On the whole, Bach and McGrath declined to account for low scores in Andover prior to reviewing detailed reports from the schools. They said they plan to have a final analysis in January.