Student test results from Medomak Valley High School compare favorably with the rest of the state, when economic status is taken into account. That was the gist of a presentation by MVHS Asst. Principal Andrew Cavanaugh, at the Nov. 2 meeting of the Regional School Unit 40 Board of Directors.
Cavanaugh compared results from the May 2012 Maine High School Assessment and SAT tests, the two tests that are given to all third-year students in the state. He said third-year students may be juniors, but can also be those repeating an earlier grade.
His premise was that those who are economically disadvantaged, as determined by enrollment in the federal free and reduced lunch program, are less likely to score well on the tests used by government regulators to determine a school’s progress toward delivering a quality education for all students.
Nationally, students are tested in language arts and mathematics. In Maine a science test is also part of the assessment process. States are allowed under federal law to choose the test they will use to determine adequate yearly progress (AYP) and Maine is the only state to use the SAT for that purpose, breaking the language arts component into critical reading and writing.
Scores in those topics must average higher than 460 and 450 points, respectively, for the language arts components and 460 and in mathematics, for a school to be considered making adequate progress.
As a result of testing in May, only five of the 113 Maine high schools reporting results to federal regulators achieved AYP in the areas required, Cavanaugh said.
Test results are reported to the public as totals for each school, but are broken down by a number of subcategories for other purposes.
“The most important one, in my opinion, is the economically disadvantaged student population,” Cavanaugh said. Of the 13,475 third-year students taking the tests in 2011, 36 percent came from such homes.
“The average economically disadvantaged student scores 70 points lower than non-economically disadvantaged,” he said. That difference puts most of these students’ scored below the AYP threshold.
Calling this “the wealth effect,” Cavanaugh listed the highest-scoring schools with their percentages of low-income students. At Cape Elizabeth, which ranked highest in the state, only 3 percent of the student body were in the economically disadvantaged category. The other five top-ranking schools have low-income enrollment of less than 20 percent.
MVHS serves a population in which 50 percent of students qualify as economically disadvantaged, meaning the annual income for a family of four was less than $42,648 in 2012. Cavanaugh said this is 30 percent higher than the average Maine high school.
In mathematics, where the threshold for AYP was met by only 29 percent of low-income students statewide, the percentage for MVHS students in the same category was 30 percent. Overall MVHS met the state average for all students in mathematics.
Local students fared even better in writing, when looking only at the economically disadvantaged. Statewide, 29 percent of such students met the standard while 34 percent of MVHS students did so.
While 33 schools produced higher scores in all three tests than MVHS, only one of those had a higher percentage of low-income students. Medomak outscored 68 schools in reading, 76 in mathematics and 77 in writing, Cavanaugh said.
Medomak ranked higher in all three tests than 56 schools.
“Ninety-eight percent of Medomak students sat for the SATs, as opposed to 96 percent for the average school,” he said. That included higher percentages of students who have identified learning disabilities, individual instruction plans or a need to be accommodated in some specialized way.
Cavanaugh also examined the relationship between test scores and per-student expenditure in a given district. He said the average per student expenditure for a high school junior in Maine was $8832. At MVHS, that figure was $8327.
“You should expect 30 percent to test as proficient,” he said. “42 percent did.”
Cavanaugh said MVHS still needs to improve its graduation rates, number of students in advanced placement classes and student aspirations toward higher education, factors that are also influenced by family income.
In addition to those issues, he said rigorous instruction was the best way to bring low-income students’ test results up.
“A demanding schedule helps kids that are economically disadvantaged,” Cavanaugh said. He said taking college preparatory science classes, algebra II or a higher mathematics level, and three years of a foreign language could also improve student achievement, as could enrichment programs such as after-school sports, arts programs and clubs.
Principal Harold Wilson told the board that the way days fall on the 2013 calendar, combined with the possibility of fewer than three snow days being used, could mean that seniors would practice marching to commencement without the assistance of their teachers.
Wilson’s proposal, which the board approved, will allow seniors to complete the 170 state-mandated days of instruction by participating in approved community service activities during the school year. Underclassmen are required to attend 175 days of instruction per year.
The plan received approval from all members present except Gail Hawes of Union. Hawes said she did not approve of the school addressing what she called “a societal issue.” She said students who don’t have “volunteering in their hearts” would not gain anything by being required to serve the community and would be likely to resent the requirement.
The proposal for a single campus comprising a 700 to 750-student regional high school, a community college, the Mid-Coast School of Technology (MCST), and other vocational training began with discussions with MCST and the two former school districts that now comprise RSU 13. In 2010 the Many Flags steering committee invited the Five Town Consolidated School District (CSD) to join discussions about the project.
That same year, following a request for a letter in support of Many Flags, the board of what was then MSAD 40 stated that they did not support the project because it was not in the best interest of their students. While expressing interest in regional and collaborative educational models, RSU 40 board members have repeatedly asserted that they do not want to support a new administrative layer or the building of a new campus.
After a lengthy discussion, in which board members expressed concern about the potential for the Many Flags board to use any RSU 40 involvement as an indication of support, two votes were taken on the proposal.
The first vote, to not send any representatives to the Many Flags meeting, failed. A second question, framed in positive language, asked if the RSU 40 board wanted to elect two non-voting members to the Many Flags board. That motion was defeated as well.
The next meeting of the RSU 40 Board of Directors is scheduled for Thurs., Nov. 15 at 7 p.m. at Medomak Middle School in Waldoboro. For more information, call the district’s Central office at 785-2277.
