When it comes time to talk test scores, most presentations to North Shore school boards focus on how students did on the state’s assessments.
But the Herricks school board looked at results for three different tests Thursday night, which administrators say gives them the most insight into how the district’s students are doing.
“There’s not one measure that you can put all your weight on,” Herricks Superintendent Fino Celano said.
Herricks students in third through eighth grade outdid the county’s average passing rate for the state English and math tests.
English passing rates ranged from 55 percent for third graders to 78 percent for eighth graders.
The English scores were the second-highest among other “high-performing” districts, with Jericho at the top of the list.
Herricks’ math scores ranked eighth among those districts, which Assistant Superintendent for Instruction Christine Finn said is “an area for growth.”
Herricks high school students also outdid the county average on the state Regents exams.
Their passing rates were above the 90th percentile for every test except chemistry, at 89 percent, and algebra 2 and trigonometry, at 80 percent.
The passing rates are not as high as they were before the Common Core tests took hold in 2012 because they are based on unclear standards and are not well designed, Finn said.
“I don’t really believe that they were really accurate reflections of the Common Core curriculum,” she said.
A more reliable metric, Finn said, is the Northwest Evaluation Association’s tests, which are nationally standardized and give more insight into students’ growth across grade levels.
This year’s results, which are on par with previous years, show a general pattern of high score increases in early grades that taper off in seventh and eighth grades.
This is typical, Finn said, because the tests change as a student moves through the grade levels.
But the results allow teachers to see where each student can improve in various subjects so their test scores don’t plateau.
“This (the NWEA test) shows us a really nice picture of how our kids were growing,” Finn said.
Herricks also selected 75 of its 15-year-old students to take the Programme for International Student Assessment test, which allows the district to see how it compares to other countries.
This year, as in past years, Herricks students scored higher than Canada, Finland and Shanghai on the reading portion of the test, but its math and science scores were not as strong.
In response to this trend, the district has started implementing a science, technology, engineering and math program in its elementary schools called Project Lead the Way to introduce students to those subjects earlier.
It will also soon start reviewing its math curriculum to better connect what it teaches in lower grades to its more difficult high school classes.
“Data is not wisdom,” Finn said. “It’s what you do with the data that matters.”
