Scores on math Standards of Learning tests fell sharply among all students in the Fredericksburg region and the state.
The state Department of Education recently released its breakdown of scores from the 2011-12 school year among subgroups of students in grades 3, 5, 8 and those completing courses. The subgroup categories include students who are black, white, Hispanic, Asian, have disabilities, are economically disadvantaged or have limited proficiency in English.
The results were broken down for five tests: math, English, writing, history and science.
Louisa County students' scores were lower across all subgroups for three of the five tests: math, history and science.
At the time, Louisa students were dealing with schedule changes and temporary classrooms following the Aug. 23, 2011, earthquake centered there. However, the division wasn't using the disaster as an excuse, Assistant Superintendent for Instruction LuAnne Unruh said.
"I'm very proud of what our teachers have done and I'm very attuned to what we still have to do," Unruh said.
She said the division has analyzed student performance from last school year to plan for ways to improve.
"We're looking for reasons. We're looking for solutions. But it's not as easy as, here is the problem and here is the magic solution," Unruh said.
Stafford County students across the spectrum improved or did as well as last year on four of the five tests.
In addition, Stafford students with limited English proficiency showed gains on all but the math test.
Here are highlights of the results for each test for the 10 jurisdictions in the Fredericksburg region.
Educators are especially attuned to such scores with this year's implementation of new teacher evaluations. Many have expressed concern that they will be judged based on how their students perform on end-of-year testing.
MATH: Scores fell between eight and 22 points. Asian students saw the smallest drop, from a 95 percent pass rate to 87. Economically disadvantaged students saw the biggest drop, from 82 percent to 60 percent.
ENGLISH: Limited English proficiency students showed a six-point gain, improving to an 83 percent pass rate. Other scores were unchanged or increased by one point.
WRITING: Limited English proficiency students showed a five-point gain, improving to 85 percent. Other scores were unchanged or increased by one point.
HISTORY: Limited English proficiency students showed a seven-point gain, improving to a 76 percent pass rate. Other scores remained steady or improved one or two points.
SCIENCE: Limited English proficiency students showed a 13-point gain, improving to an 83 percent pass rate. Other scores increased one to three points.
MATH: Scores dropped between 11 and 32 points. The biggest drop was among students with limited English proficiency. Their scores fell from an 81 percent pass rate to 49 percent.
ENGLISH: Scores improved between one and three points for all categories except students of limited English proficiency. Their scores dropped two points to a 74 percent pass rate.
WRITING: Students in four subgroups saw a slight drop in the passing rate. Black students, the economically disadvantaged, students with disabilities and those with limited English proficiency dropped between one and five points.
HISTORY: Asian students saw a one-point drop, to a 90 percent pass rate. All others remained steady or improved one to three points.
SCIENCE: Students with limited English proficiency saw the biggest gain, improving from a 74 percent pass rate to 78 percent. All others were within four points of last year's results.
MATH: Asian students raised their score by four points to 91 percent. Scores fell between 13 and 24 points for others, with the biggest drop among black students. Their scores fell to 50 percent.
ENGLISH: Students with disabilities' scores fell eight points to a 49 percent pass rate. Students with limited English proficiency improved eight points to 83 percent. Others were steady or improved slightly.
WRITING: Students of limited English proficiency made the biggest gain, improving 13 points to an 80 percent pass rate. Other students improved or remained steady except white students whose scores dropped three points.
HISTORY: Scores ranged from a three-point drop to a five-point gain. Students with disabilities improved their scores to a 53-percent pass rate.
SCIENCE: Students with disabilities showed the biggest gain at eight points, for a 66 percent pass rate. Others ranged from a one-point drop to a five-point gain.
MATH: Scores fell between 12 and 42 points. The biggest drop was for Asian students, whose score fell from a 100 percent pass rate to 58. Students with disabilities saw the smallest decline, falling to 35 percent.
ENGLISH: Scores ranged from a four-point drop for students with limited English proficiency to a six-point gain for Hispanic students.
WRITING: Scores ranged from a two-point decline for Hispanic students to a five-point gain for black students.
HISTORY: Scores fell for all subgroups except for those with limited English proficiency. Their scores remained stable at a 66 percent pass rate. Asian students' scores fell the most: 11 points, from 92 to 81.
SCIENCE: Scores declined among blacks and Asians by three and six points respectively. Hispanic students made the biggest gains, improving their pass rate from 81 to 91.
KING GEORGE COUNTY
MATH: Scores fell between six and 29 points. The biggest drop was among students with limited English proficiency. Their pass rate fell to 33 percent. The smallest drop was among Asians, whose scores fell to an 87 percent pass rate.
ENGLISH: Scores remained steady or rose by a maximum of three points, except for students with disabilities whose scores dropped six points to a 60 percent pass rate.
WRITING: Scores fell in three categories. Students with disabilities' scores dropped seven points to a 56 percent pass rate. Hispanic students' scores fell four points to 91 percent. White students' scores fell one point to a 91 percent pass rate.
HISTORY: All students' scores rose. Asian students saw the biggest improvement: a nine-point increase and 97 percent pass rate.
SCIENCE: Scores fell in three categories. Students with disabilities' pass rate dropped six points to 68 percent. Hispanic students' rate dropped two points to 95 percent. White students' rate dropped one point to 94 percent.
LOUISA COUNTY
MATH: Scores dropped between 14 and 24 points. Hispanic students saw the biggest decline, falling to a 54 percent pass rate. Students with limited English proficiency saw the smallest drop, to a 36 percent pass rate.
ENGLISH: Students improved between one and five percentage points.
WRITING: Hispanic students' scores dropped by seven points, to 74 percent. Other students made gains of between one and seven points.
HISTORY: Scores dropped between two and seven points, with the biggest drop among students with disabilities. Their pass rate dropped to 60 percent.
SCIENCE: Scores fell between one and seven points. Hispanic students recorded the biggest drop, falling to 86 percent.
CULPEPER COUNTY
MATH: Scores fell between 17 and 34 points, with the largest decline among students with disabilities. Their scores fell to a 26 percent pass rate.
ENGLISH: Scores dropped for every category except white students whose scores were unchanged. The biggest drop was an eight-point decline for students with disabilities. Their pass rate fell to 54 percent.
WRITING: Students showed a slight improvement across categories except students with disabilities and Asians. Students with disabilities' score fell eight points to a 40 percent pass rate. Asian students' score fell three points to 90 percent.
HISTORY: Students overall showed a 10-point gain to an 80 percent pass rate. All scores were up except for students with disabilities and those with limited English proficiency. Both recorded a one-point drop.
SCIENCE: Scores showed little change overall. Asian students saw a nine-point drop to an 89 percent pass rate. Limited English proficiency students dropped six points to 73 percent. Students with disabilities dropped four points to 49 percent.
ORANGE COUNTY
MATH: Scores fell between 17 and 30 points, with the biggest decline among students with disabilities. Their scores fell 30 points to a 39 percent pass rate. Black students' scores fell 28 points to 53 percent.
ENGLISH: Scores were within one and three points of last year's across all categories. Hispanic students and those with disabilities saw a three-point drop, to an 89 percent pass rate and a 65 percent pass rate respectively.
WRITING: Scores improved across all categories. Black students achieved the biggest gain, improving their pass rate 12 points to 86 percent. Students with disabilities improved by 11 points to 62 percent. Economically disadvantaged students improved 10 points to an 87 percent pass rate.
HISTORY: All scores were within three points of last year's results.
SCIENCE: Students with limited English proficiency recorded a 13-point gain, improving to a 91 percent pass rate. All other students were within one point of last year's performance.
COLONIAL BEACH
MATH: Scores fell between 29 and 42 points. The biggest drop was among students with disabilities whose scores fell to 28 percent. Black students recorded the second-largest decline, dropping to 37 percent.
ENGLISH: Students improved across all categories, except black students who maintained an 80 percent pass rate. Hispanic students showed the biggest gain, improving by 13 points to achieve a 100 percent pass rate.
WRITING: Students maintained their scores or improved. The biggest gain was for white students who improved by 12 points to a 98 percent pass rate.
HISTORY: Scores ranged from a six-point drop to a 17-point rise. Black students raised their pass rate to 85 percent. Students with disabilities saw the biggest decline, dropping to a 59 percent pass rate.
SCIENCE: Scores ranged from a six-point hike to a six-point drop. White students improved by six points to a 97 percent pass rate. Students with disabilities fell by six points to a 59 percent pass rate.
WESTMORELAND COUNTY
MATH: Scores fell between 26 and 35 points. Students with limited English proficiency saw the biggest drop, with the pass rate dropping from 95 percent to 60 percent.
ENGLISH: All scores were down one to three points except for students with disabilities who recorded a 10-point gain, improving to a 60 percent pass rate.
WRITING: Scores varied widely from a 23-point drop among students with disabilities, to an 11-point gain among Hispanic students. The pass rate for students with disabilities fell to 29 percent. Hispanic students' rate improved to 82 percent.
HISTORY: Scores dropped between two and seven points. Students of limited English proficiency recorded the biggest drop, falling to 79 percent.
SCIENCE: Scores ranged from a five-point drop to a four-point gain. Black and Hispanic students saw the biggest gains, improving to pass rates of 84 percent and 90 percent respectively. Students with limited English proficiency declined to an 85 percent pass rate.
Copyright 2013 The Free Lance-Star Publishing Company.
