Student math scores give some hope

After years of sliding math scores during which fewer than half of high school students could pass the state test, Washington families and schools were given a ray of hope with the release of the latest results Tuesday.

More than two-thirds of Washington students who took the new first-year high school math test passed it last spring, and an even greater percentage – nearly 74 percent – passed the second-year test. Most students take algebra in the first year and geometry in the second.

The end-of-course math exams replaced the comprehensive 10th-grade math test that used to be given every year.

“We still have a long ways to go” to get all students meetings standards in math, state Superintendent Randy Dorn said at a news conference in Olympia. “But the numbers are encouraging.”

Dorn released the end-of-course results Tuesday, along with results of the annual assessment given in grades three through eight, and the 10th-grade reading, writing and science exams.

Statewide, there were gains in math in nearly every grade, with the biggest jumps in fifth- and sixth-grades. Only eighth-grade saw a significant dip.

Tacoma Public Schools, the largest district in Pierce County, also charted positive math numbers. And like their peers across the state, Tacoma students seemed to perform better on the end-of-course exams than on last year’s comprehensive math test.

Still, Tacoma’s 10th-grade math scores were well below the state results – 23 points below on the algebra test, and 16 below on the geometry test.

Puyallup and Bethel school districts, the second- and third-largest in the county behind Tacoma, also posted math gains.

The stakes also were higher. Last year’s 10th-graders were the first students required to pass a state math test to graduate from high school. In the past, students were allowed to substitute additional math classes.

“We see a new level of individual accountability because they have to pass it to graduate,” said Nancy Arnold, Puyallup School District’s director of assessments and accountability. “There’s a new sense of urgency. We’re glad our students responded.”

State officials cautioned against making year-to-year high school math comparisons, because the algebra and geometry tests are new.

“It’s inevitable to do so, but it really isn’t (fair),” said Nathan Olson, Dorn’s spokesman. “Statistically speaking, you need three years of the same test to really gauge how students are doing.”

A total of 153,107 students took the end-of-course first-year test last spring, with 66 percent passing; 66,600 students took the second-year test, with 74 percent passing.

The figures represent students who met standards but exclude so-called “no score” students who could have taken the test but didn’t register a score for various reasons – for instance, eighth-graders who took algebra early but opted to wait until ninth or 10th grade to take the test.

The state separately tracks everyone who meets standards, including “no score” students. That statistic reflects a lower success rate – 62 percent on the first-year test and 73 percent on the second-year test – than the numbers cited Tuesday by Dorn.

Olson said the number excluding “no score” students is more meaningful. He gave the example of a precocious math student.

“My shooting too high by taking algebra I in eighth grade, but realizing I’m not ready to take the test, shouldn’t be held against the school and shouldn’t reflect on how the school is doing,” he said. “I still have plenty of time to take the test later.”

Dorn said the end-of-course exams are just as rigorous as the previous comprehensive math exam.

“I’d argue taking an algebra test is harder than taking a general kind of math test,” he said. “But the connection is, I’m tested on what I just learned that year instead of what I probably learned from the sixth grade to the 10th grade.”

Historically, math scores in the state have lagged far behind those in reading and writing. The last few years, they’ve dropped or stayed roughly the same at several grade levels.

In science, the latest results show improvement statewide, although fifth- and eighth-graders were tested on new science standards in the spring, so the results serve as a new baseline, officials said.

Statewide reading results were mixed across grade levels, with some gains and some ground lost.

Writing results generally were flat.

Dorn’s data release Tuesday also included the number of schools and districts in the state that failed to make “adequate yearly progress” under the federal No Child Left Behind law. A total of 1,388 schools – or 64 percent of all schools statewide – are on the preliminary failure list. That’s an increase of more than 200 over 2010. More than 220 districts also failed to make AYP.

The law requires that an increasing number of students pass the state tests in reading and math.

For last spring’s tests, the score targets jumped up a step in reading, meaning more students had to pass in order to hit the target than in 2010.

Dorn said Tuesday that Congress needs to fix the flawed education law. He said he will consider asking for a waiver – an option for states that was announced by the Obama administration this year – but that he needs more details on how the process will work.

“We will take a look at waivers, but we aren’t making a commitment to waivers,” he said. “… I want to be sure that I know what the waivers entail.”

Sara Schilling: 253-552-7058
sara.schilling@thenewstribune.com
blog.thenewstribune.com/street

Staff writers Debbie Cafazzo and Matt Misterek contributed to this report.