A new assessment of spring 2023 math scores at local schools found that while student achievement met or exceeded statewide averages, there were still grades — particularly in middle school — where the majority of students fell below expectations.
The “Maine Through Year Assessment” data, presented at a recent Maine School Administrative District 75 Board of Directors meeting, shows local students are doing at least as well as their counterparts statewide at learning math. The district covers Harpswell, Topsham, Bowdoin and Bowdoinham.
The first-of-its-kind statewide assessment included grades three through eight, plus grade 10. The data will be collected at least twice annually from now on and will be used to track students’ future progress, district officials said. But no apples-to-apples historical data yet exists to compare the latest findings with previous years, they said.
“Educators (will) utilize student results to inform instruction, establish supports for students, and to share information about academic growth and grade level achievement with families,” according to the Maine Department of Education, which oversees the assessment.
In spring 2023, MSAD 75 students met or exceeded statewide averages in all assessed grades, said Amanda Hersey, the district’s assistant superintendent of schools, who presented the data at a board meeting on April 25.
Still, the data shows a majority of middle schoolers, both locally and statewide, have been struggling to meet math achievement expectations for their grades. For example, both in MSAD 75 and across Maine, only 40% of eighth graders met or exceeded expectations, while 60% were either below or “well below” expectations.
MSAD 75 seventh graders performed slightly better, with 51% meeting or exceeding expectations, compared with 44% statewide. In sixth grade, 48% of MSAD 75 students met or exceeded expectations, compared with 45% statewide.
“It seems like there is a challenge … the data seems to show some interesting things to unpack when it comes to the transition from elementary to middle (school),” school board member Kim Pacelli, of Topsham, said after the presentation. “SAD 75 isn’t alone with that challenge — it’s pretty common across the state.”
The National Science Board issued a report in October 2023 finding that eighth grade math scores nationwide had declined to their lowest average since 2003, which researchers attributed to the disruption in education caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The report noted that eighth graders in the Northeast and Midwest generally scored higher than those in the South and West.
“These data indicate that mathematics achievement, which had already plateaued for the past decade, has now regressed approximately 20 years during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the report’s executive summary says.
The report noted a similar decline in math scores among fourth graders in nationwide assessments. “(Nationally) a third of fourth graders scored proficient or higher, while a quarter of eighth graders did so,” it said.
In MSAD 75, 58% to 77% of fourth graders met or exceeded grade expectations for math achievement in spring 2023, depending on the elementary school, compared with the statewide average of 57%.
Harpswell Community School had the district’s lowest average fourth grade math assessment, with 58% meeting or exceeding grade expectations. Its third and fifth graders fared much better, at 90% and 79%, respectively. Statewide averages were 62% for third grade and 51% for fifth grade.
Among MSAD 75’s 10th graders, 56.3% met or exceeded grade expectations for math. The district didn’t provide a statewide average for comparison but noted that its scores were higher than at high schools in neighboring Brunswick (54.8%), Freeport (55.8%) and Bath (50.3%).
School board Chair Hutson Hayward, of Bowdoinham, praised the district for doing better than the state averages nearly across the board, while noting that MSAD 75 has yet to reach its goal of at least 80% of all students meeting or exceeding grade expectations.
“Broadly speaking, we’re doing better than state averages and we’re on track with our peers, so we’ve got a lot to feel good about, but it seems like we still have work to do,” Hayward said.
Hersey, the assistant superintendent, said the district would be closely following future assessments of 2023’s eighth graders, who are now in ninth grade, to gauge their ongoing progress learning math.
“When I first looked at this (data), the first thing I saw was that, like the rest of the state, something’s there with middle school math,” she said.
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