Somerville's MCAS Scores Show Slight Improvements and Declines

In Somerville, 53 percent of public school students are "proficient" or "advanced" in English, and 40 percent are "proficient" or "advanced" in math, according to MCAS results released Wednesday.

For English, that represents a slight improvement over previous years. In 2011, 52 percent of students were proficient or higher in English, and the number was 51 percent in both 2010 and 2009.

The 2012 math MCAS results, where 40 percent of students scored "proficient" or "advanced," were the same as 2011, but the numbers were slightly higher in 2010 (42 percent) and 2009 (41 percent).

The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education uses the annual MCAS—Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System—exams to evaluate student performance. Students in grades 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 took the exam in spring of 2012, and, as stated above, the results were released Wednesday.

You can see Somerville's 2012 MCAS results here.

How does Somerville compare?

Somerville continues to lag behind statewide scores, where 69 percent of all Massachusetts students scored proficient or higher in English and 59 percent scored proficient or higher in math.

By way of comparison, in Cambridge, those numbers were 66 percent for English and 58 percent for math. In Boston they were 46 and 41, respectively.

English up, math a bit down

The Somerville Public School District Wednesday pointed to some improvements in scores.

Among them, 74 percent of 10th grade students scored proficient or higher in English, the highest percentage in at least four years.

At the same time, 10th grade math scores were the lowest in at least four years, though the results have remained more or less the same. In 2012, 59 percent of 10th graders scored proficient or higher in math, but that number was 61 percent in 2011, 60 percent on 2010 and 60 percent in 2009.

The school district also pointed to a growth in Student Growth Percentile scores, which measure Somerville students against peers in other communities with similar performance histories.

The school district also saw a five-year low in the drop-out rate, the school district said Wednesday.