IN GRADES 2-10 

(Dover, De.)  Test scores of nearly 86,000 Delaware students in grades 2-10 continue to level off in reading and mathematics, according to results of the March 2007 Delaware Student Testing Program (DSTP) released today by Secretary of Education Valerie A. Woodruff.  Scores on this year’s two-item writing test increased or decreased at the elementary, middle and high school levels in almost all grades.

“Many of our schools have a high percentage of students meeting or exceeding standards while some schools are struggling to meet the learning needs of all students,” said Secretary of Education Valerie A. Woodruff.  “Our collective mission must be to continuously seek out the best curriculum and instructional practices and to provide professional development to our teachers,” added Woodruff.  “I am confident that we will see greater improvement as we move forward.”

“One specific area of great concern remains in mathematics at middle school and high school,” said Woodruff.  “A math coalition comprised of most school districts, the Department of Education, the University of Delaware and the Delaware Foundation for Science and Math Education has been formed to accelerate our performance in that content area.”  

This is the second year statewide testing data is available for grades 2 though10 in the content areas of reading and math and grades 3 though 10 in writing. 

The 2007 results are as follows:

MATHEMATICS:  At grades 2-5, students meeting or exceeding the standard ranges from 86% in grade 2 to 76% in grade 5.  In grades 6-8, middle school student scores range from 74% in grade 6 to 61% in grade 8.  At the high school level, grade 9 students remained constant at 51% while grade 10 students scored at 57%. 

Comparing test scores to last year’s results, 77% of children tested in the third grade met the standard – a one-percentage point decrease from the scores of last year’s third graders.  In the fifth grade, 76% of students tested met the standard, a one percentage point difference from last year.  The proportion of this year’s eighth grade students meeting or exceeding the standard is at 61%, one percentage point less than last year’s eighth graders, while in the tenth grade, 57% performed at or above standard, two percentage points higher than the tenth graders of 2006.

READING:  In grades 2-5, the trend is that between 82%-85% of students statewide are meeting the standard in reading.  At the middle school grades, students are scoring at 82%.  At the high school grades, the range of scores is between 72-74%. 

Comparing this year’s test score results to the results of 2006, 81% of third grade students who took the DSTP met or exceeded the standard, a three percentage point decrease from 2006.  Fifth grade reading performance leveled off at 85%, the same as in 2006.  Eighty-two percent of eighth grade students tested met or exceeded the reading standard, a two percentage point decrease from last year.  In the tenth grade, the proportion of students meeting or exceeding the standard rose slightly to 72%, a one-percentage point increase from 2006.

WRITING:  In grades 3-5, writing scores of students who met or exceeded the standard fluctuate between 67% in grade 3 to 71% in grade 4 and 62% in grade 5.  At the middle school grades, grade 6 students scored at 68%, grade 7 students scored at 59% while grade 8 students scored at 78%.  At the high school level, grade 9 scored at 74% while grade 10 students scored at 66%.

 Comparing this year’s results to 2006, third grade student scores rose to 67% meeting the standard, a six point increase from last year’s third graders.  Sixty-two percent of fifth grade students met the standard, which is eleven percentage points higher than last year’s performance.  In the eighth grade, 78% of students tested in writing met the standard which was the same as last year’s scores.  In the tenth grade, scores decreased to 66% of students meeting the standard, a ten percentage point decrease compared to last year.

Delaware students in grades 2-10 once again participated in the nationally-normed Stanford Achievement Test, 10th Edition (SAT 10).   Comprising nearly 1/3 of the questions on the DSTP exams in reading and math, the SAT 10 allows Delaware to compare test results against students in the same grade across the country who took the test and shows the percentage of Delaware students who scored as well as or better than other students throughout the nation. 

In math at grades 2-5, rankings ranged from 62% to 74%; in grades 6-8, rankings ranged from 65% to 68%; and in grades 9 and 10, rankings ranged from 76% to 72% respectively.  In reading, rankings ranged from 67% to 77%; in grades 6-8, rankings ranged from 65% to 70%; and in grades 9 and 10, students leveled off at 76% and 72% respectively.

The public access website opens at 9:00 a.m. today. School personnel, parents, policy makers, and the media are encouraged to visit DOE’s web site at http://www.doe.k12.de.us/aab to look at data pertinent to them and to their schools,