The results from the 2011 Connecticut Academic Performance Test are in, and while the state improved as a whole, East Haven did not. Some scores for East Haven tenth graders declined from the previous year and are well below the state average in all but one category.
Only 30.7 percent of East Haven students reached the state’s goal in the mandated test, a decline of 2.5 percent from the previous year. Throughout Connecticut, half reached the goal. In science and reading, less than 30 percent of the students tested as high as the goal. Statewide, at least 44 percent of students reached the goal.
The one area where East Haven performed comparatively well was reading. Ninety-one percent of students were deemed proficient, besting the state average of 88 percent. Still, the students reaching the state goal was 55.6 percent, five points lower than the state average.
The silver lining is that the numbers of “proficient” East Haven students in math, science and reading were comparable – albeit lower – than the state average. The threshold for being proficient is lower than reaching the state goal. On a scale of one to five, proficient is a three.
The Connecticut Department of Education offered tempered enthusiasm about the statewide results.
“The overall trend of increasing percentages of Grade 10 students scoring at the Proficient and Goal levels in mathematics and writing is encouraging, given that Connecticut is also decreasing high school drop-out rates and increasing graduation rates,” Acting Commissioner George Coleman said in a statement. “However, the magnitude of the increases and the relatively flat performance in reading and science is disconcerting, given the urgency that I feel about preparing all of our high school graduates to be ready to succeed as they enter college or the state’s workforce.”
