Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School MCAS scores revised

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Revision of an error made by a testing contractor resulted in higher scores than initially reported for students at Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School (MVRHS) on 2011 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) exams.

Principal Steve Nixon told the high school committee Monday night that corrected scores from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) show that 90 percent of MVRHS students that took English Language Arts (ELA) MCAS exams scored proficient or higher, and 91 percent on math exams.

DESE initially reported 87 percent of MVRHS students that took ELA exams scored proficient or higher and 86 percent on math exams.

DESE released MCAS results on September 20 and announced the reporting error made by testing contractor Measured Progress in a press release on September 30.

Mr. Nixon pointed out that the state’s performance percentages for students who scored proficient or higher were 69 percent for ELA and 58 percent for math. “I give our kids a lot of credit for the hard work they did,” he said.

Mr. Nixon also praised Title 1/writing lab instructor Dianne Norton and math lab coordinator Melissa Braillard for their efforts to help students master MCAS skills.

MVRHS also met adequate yearly progress (AYP) targets for ELA and math, which superintendent of schools James Weiss said was especially noteworthy. “If you look at scores from across the Commonwealth, 82 percent of schools did not make AYP in some tests,” he said.