2013 MSA scores are out
![[Post New]](/jforum/templates/default/images/icon_minipost_new.gif){kind=icon}
Anonymous
|
If you want to see the test score performance for 2013 you can go on the Maryland report card site. Also, schooldigger has updated their rankings of schools based on the new test scores.
http://www.mdreportcard.org/ www.schooldigger.com |
Anonymous
| I am trying to understand how there can be such big swings from year to year? |
Anonymous
|
Lots of reasons.
First, realize that the scores reported are how many students at each grade level managed to pass the test. Pass means something like they got 50% of the questions correct. These are multiple choice questions so you'd expect all students to get 25% correct by sheer chance. So passing the test is a very low bar. Most student really should be able to get 50% correct. The kids who can't are usually ESOL or learning disabled. Even so, there are a lot of accommodations you can give the kids -- like you can read the test aloud to kids who have trouble reading. Yes, even for the English/Language Arts test which tests READING you can read the test aloud! Maybe these accommodations might boost them from scoring 45% correct (failing) to 51% correct (passing). You could have a whoel school filled with kids who scored 51% correct on this test (an abysmally low test score in my book) and yet they'd get a passing scored of 95%+. If you have a lot of kids right that that 50% correct mark, small variations in instruction can make a big difference. If the school one year has a bunch of third graders who don't speak English, or has a special ed team that isn't really aggressive in getting every possible accommodation for a kid (maybe they are too busy actually instructing the kids to worry about gaming the system?) you could easily slip 5 or 10 percentage points. Sometimes there's a new teacher and scores for that class or testing area just plummet because he honestly did a bad job of teaching, or perhaps she did a great job of teaching, but she didn't know how to teach the kids to write the perfect BCR (short answer) or her kids just didn't master one important concept. If the kids are getting 90% correct on the test, missing a few concepts isn't that big a deal. But if they are right on the borderline of passing, getting 55% correct, and then miss some concepts, that puts them into the failing category. Also MOCO says their kids dropped this year because they switched over to Common Core already and this test was based on the old curriculum. I doubt that's been the problem with PGCPS though. |
Anonymous
|
Wow, good for Heather Hills and Glenarden Woods ES.
School digger ranks them #4 and #19 by test schores in the state of MD! http://www.schooldigger.com/go/MD/schoolrank.aspx Of course they are our two "all TAG" elementary schools. |
Anonymous
|
all PGCPS elementary schools listed here:
http://www.schooldigger.com/go/MD/schoolrank.aspx?sortexp=LEANAME&sortdir=a&year=2013&findletter=P top 15 for our county Heather Hills #4 GWES #19 Capitol Heights #65 Tulip Grove #163 Yorktown #223 Glendale #240 Rockledge #249 Highland Park #256 Bond Mill #266 John Hanson Frencg #275 Mattaponi #275 University Park #290 Robert Garden French #307 Imagine Foundations #311 Lewisdale #314 |
Anonymous
| Tulip Grove dropped quite a bit and so did Robert Goddard French Immersion which used to be ranked in the top 100. That is interesting. |
Anonymous
I still stand behind my choice to pull my kids from Glenarden Woods. No third grader should have 3 hours of homework each night. I'm still friends with many of the GWE parents and many are thinking of pulling their kids because they don't get home until nearly 5pm and then have three hours of homework. There's no time for the kids to be kids. No downtime, no playing, and they certainly aren't spending anytime running around. I switched to a school nearly dead center. Our scores are lower because we have a diversity of students unlike GWE who only has the top kids. |
Anonymous
|
Hello All!!!
Remember test scores are only one piece of the puzzle to create a great school. If schools are making gains then something positive must be happening at the school. |
Anonymous
True, but unless you know someone at the school or have some other way to gain feedback, test scores are the only indicator many have. Unfortunately some gains are still not enough to give parents comfort. |
Anonymous
|
Our school moved up 122 places. Both reading and math averaged around (at or just below) 90%. I'm happy.
|
Anonymous
| Does anyone know the ranking(s) of the charter schools on the 2013 MSA , particularly those in Prince Georges County? |
Anonymous
| Search by the school in the MD report card and total up the cumulative MSA - for example Chesapeake Math and IT has a 184.4 cumulative, then go to school digger and see where that puts it in the rankings. There aren't that many charters in PG so you can probably do it pretty quickly. |
Anonymous
| Where is the list that shows how the Maryland Counties ranked? |