Scores rise as exams are switched to 11th grade

The good news: Reading, writing, math and science scores on state standardized tests increased dramatically during the past school year for high school students locally and across the state.

The not-so-good news: Math scores on the tests decreased dramatically locally and statewide for elementary and middle school students.

But there’s an obvious explanation for both results, which were released Monday by the state Department of Education.

The high school increase reflects scores by 11th-graders for the first time. Oregon students previously had taken the exams as 10th-graders.

The high school results for 2010-11 actually reflect the percentage of students who passed the exams as sophomores during the 2009-10 school year, combined with those who passed after getting another chance at the tests as juniors in 2010-11, state education spokeswoman Crystal Greene said.

While 71 percent of Oregon sophomores passed the reading exam in 2009-10, the number of those passing increased to 83 percent after the test was given to juniors in 2010-11.

Locally, 87 percent of Eugene School District juniors passed the reading exam under that scenario, up from 77 percent in 2009-10.

Although Springfield and Bethel school district juniors did not quite match the state average, 81 percent of Springfield’s class of 2012 passed the reading test, up from 67 percent in 2009-10. And 82 percent passed in the Bethel district, up from 71 percent in 2009-10.

Writing, math and science scores for the class of 2012 increased by similar percentages.

The state received approval to move the year of federal accountability on the exams from 10th grade to 11th grade in order to give students adequate time to receive instruction on the full breadth of the high school material prior to the test.

Math scores for elementary and middle school students, under what is known collectively as the Oregon Assessment of Knowledge and Skills, fell because in October 2010 the state increased the difficulty of the math exams to align them with more rigorous national and international expectations and to help prepare students to meet Oregon’s high school diploma requirements.

So, while 78 percent of Oregon third-graders passed the math exam in 2009-10, only 63 percent passed in 2010-11. Locally, 68 percent of Eugene district third-graders passed the math test in 2010-11, compared with 83 percent in 2009-10; 62 percent of Springfield district third-graders passed last school year, compared with 74 percent in 2009-10; and 65 percent of Bethel district third-graders passed in 2010-11 compared with 83 percent in 2009-10.

But state schools Superintendent Susan Castillo said in a news release Monday that “the most exciting results were from math, as we ask more of our students than ever before.”

“We did this to ensure our students would enter high school with the skills needed to succeed and graduate college and career ready,” Castillo said. “We believed that our students were capable of achieving at these higher levels, and today’s results clearly demonstrate that they are.

“However, when you increase the rigor, the percent of students meeting standards generally goes down, and we are seeing that in this year’s results,” Castillo added. “Not all students will get over this higher bar the first year. But today’s results clearly indicate that our students are on the right track. If we provide our students with high-quality instruction, rigorous expectations and strong instructional supports, they can and will achieve at high levels.”

Under Oregon’s assessment system, state reading and math tests are given to students in grades 3 through 8, and now for high school juniors. And while fourth- and seventh-graders have been administered writing exams in previous years, those tests were suspended for the current biennium by the Legislature because of budget constraints. Juniors will still take the writing exam previously taken by sophomores. High school students also take the science exam, as do fifth- and eighth-grade students.