Proficiency results mixed among high schoolers

It’s too soon to tell how it will shake out for upcoming high school seniors, but preliminary scores on end-of-course tests show mixed results two years after tougher state proficiency tests were put in place.

Of the 10 state exams, student proficiency improved on five tests and went down on five others compared with last year’s results, according to data released Monday by the Ohio Department of Education. Math seems to be the most difficult subject, with fewer than half of students meeting proficiency in algebra, math 1 and math 2 exams.

There may be more to celebrate in grades three through eight, where students improved proficiency levels on 15 of 16 state tests.

But state schools Superintendent Paolo DeMaria cautioned that the data are preliminary, must be verified by school districts and cannot be used to calculate district grades on state report cards due in September or to determine if seniors will meet graduation requirements next spring.

“What we see here on the aggregate is continuing improvement,” DeMaria told the state Board of Education at its monthly meeting in Columbus.

“I think it’s hard to make any conclusions on what’s to be the likely outcome.”

But across the board, officials said, proficiency levels were up on most tests — as the officials predicted once students and teachers started to adapt to the harder tests.

On the high school exams, the biggest gains came in English/language arts. Proficiency levels reached 62 percent on English 1, up nearly 7 percentage points from the previous year, and 57 percent on English 2, up more than 6 points.

The highest proficiency rate was 71 percent on the American government exam, up 4.5 percentage points from last year. Students showed smaller improvement on math 2 and algebra exams, the data show.

Meanwhile, biology and American history scores each fell by more than 4 points while geometry, math 2 and physical science were also down. The latter, DeMaria noted, has been phased out and was only taken by those retaking the test in hope of improving their score, skewing the results.

Scoring well on the high school exams is now one of

several ways for Ohio high school students to earn a diploma. State lawmakers recently added graduation options of meeting attendance and grade-point requirements for students who fall short on exams, although currently those only apply to those graduating in 2018.

In grades three through eight, the biggest gains also came in English/language arts, most notably in third grade, where 62 percent hit proficiency levels, up almost 10 percentage points from last year.

Math scores were up to a lesser degree on elementary and middle school tests except for fifth grade, which slipped 0.5 of a point to 59 percent proficient.

The highest proficiency rate was 76 percent on the fourth-grade social studies test. Lawmakers looking to cut back on student testing recently eliminated the two social studies exams, which also had been given in sixth grade.

And on both science tests, given in grades five and six, more than 63 percent scored proficient, both up slightly.