The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Students excelled on SATs
Among 12 towns in state with highest scores
PORTLAND — The new school year has just begun, but Portland High School Principal Kathryn Lawson was brimming with (mostly) good news during this week’s Board of Education meeting.
For starters, Lawson filled in board members with details of the Highlander Café, which will serve a dual role as an in-school café as well as providing “realworld training” to students hoping for careers in the culinary industry.
“The sky’s the limit for that program,” Lawson said.
Next up was the After-School Academy, which provides academic support to students from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Mondays through Fridays.
Lawson then outlined the parent education program intended to keep parents up to date on matters of interest, such as the first topic, which involved teens and e-cigarettes, or vaping.
The use of e-cigarettes “is very widespread,” Lawson said, “and is a huge challenge to the high school.”
Use of e-cigarettes by teens also has become a growing concern for parents, she acknowledged.
Lawson moved to a much more pleasant and encouraging topic: the results of the latest SAT test, which this year’s seniors took last year as juniors. The test includes math, evidence-based reading and writing, and an essay.
“For the first time, we had 100 percent participation” because of a change in state regulations governing the tests, Lawson told the board. The average result was 1096 (out of a possible 1600), and a gain of 26 points over the previous year’s results, she said.
“We’re one of only 12 schools in the state that posted that kind of gain,” she said.
While she celebrated the improvement in the test results, Lawson said a deeper dive into sub-scores and cross-test scores did reveal “areas where we need to grow.” As a group, “boys are not performing well” in the English and language arts portion of the test, she said.
And of particular concern, “students with special needs are struggling” with the test, Lawson said.
As school officials work to design answers to those areas of concern, they can take measure of pride and build upon the gains shown in the test results, she added.