School Committee wants improved science scores; Donoyan details efforts

NORTH PROVIDENCE - Although the NECAP science test is only in its second year of existence, the School Department already is seeking ways to improve its students' scores. The administration announced its plans and the steps it has already taken toward this goal at the Oct. 28 School Committee meeting.

"We are very careful in making any kind of determinations based on these particular scores, especially since we only have two years of data points, but there is a trend of two years of people doing their jobs, kids are learning, and we are moving toward more proficiency," said Assistant Superintendent Giovanna Donoyan.

The NECAP science test is administered annually across the state to students in grades 4, 8, and 11. It gauges knowledge in life science, earth and space science, and physical science. Students receive a grade ranging from 1 through 4, with 1 indicating that there is a profound lack of scientific knowledge and 4 meaning that the student is proficient in scientific knowledge.

From 2008 to 2009, the elementary and high school scores rose by 6.4 percent and .2 percent, respectively, while the middle school scores fell 3.6 percent.

"In regard to the scores, I would like to congratulate the elementary teachers as well as their students for increasing their proficiency as well as the high school students," said committee member Ronald Ianetta. "But at this time I would like to ask the assistant superintendent what is being done to increase the proficiency of our middle school students?"

The most immediate goal for the district is to see more students achieving scores of 3's and 4's instead of 1's and 2's, educators have said. This year, 92.4 percent of North Providence 8th-graders taking the test scored in the 1-2 range, up from 89 percent a year ago.

One of the steps that the School Department has taken is bringing in outside help in the form of an analysis by the University of Rhode Island, which offered the district some suggestions to help improve their scores in the coming years.

"What we were very happy to know is that we had already put in place, based on federal and state proposals, many of the key findings that will move our district forward," Donoyan said.

For instance, the department reworked the sequencing of its science courses at the high school last spring to better prepare 11th-graders for the test. Those changes took effect at the start of the current school year.

In addition, the department has recruited a Christa McAuliffe Science Fellow to help plan effective professional development programs for the elementary science teachers. Each year, all teachers are required to accrue 15 professional development hours and some of this time will be allocated to help teachers learn how to better prepare their students for this test.

Another key component is improving students' reading comprehension skills because if students are unable to read or do not understand what they are being asked, they will not be able to answer the questions on the assessment effectively.

"Much of the NECAP is a reading test," Donoyan said. "It's vocabulary based so we're taking a look at the aggregated data. We've also improved the reading program at the middle school."

In order to fix this problem, the district is focusing on improving reading comprehension skills, particularly at the middle school level. A new full-time reading specialist started working at Ricci Middle School this year. The new program will incorporate more science terminology and writing about science so that the students taking the NECAP in 2010 will be better prepared to answer the questions because they will be more familiar with science vocabulary.

"The more the children get used to using science terminology, the better off they will be in attacking these problems," Donoyan said.

While the schools are tackling this project in an ambitious fashion, Donoyan warns that the rise in scores might not be reflected immediately. Because the NECAP is only given to three grades, the students who were assessed this spring will not be tested again until spring 2013. The group that is tested in spring 2010 will be taking the test for the first time, as has been the case with the students tested in 2008 and 2009.

"It is an entirely new cohort of kids at 4th-grade," Donoyan said. "It is like comparing apples and oranges. So if you take a look at these 4th-grade kids and track them (in four years), I am pretty sure that you will see improvements in their proficiency levels."

Therefore, it is not entirely fair to compare these students with next year's class, she said. Instead, Donoyan advocates waiting until the first two groups are retested in 2012 and 2013 to make determinations.

"The state has set expectations so that by grade 4, the students should have mastered a particular body of science knowledge," Donoyan said. "And they test science knowledge at grade 4. So if you take a look at the children now, the 4th-graders, we hope that we will see an improvement by the time they get to 8th-grade."

This improvement should carry over to the grade 11 assessment as well, where no students scored a 4 on the 2008 or 2009 test, she said. When these students are retested, they will have benefitted from a renewed focus on reading skills and using more science terminology in the classroom, she said. At that same time, the scores for students taking the test for the first time should improve as well due to these new programs, she said.