The Sewanhaka Central High School District saw a rise in testing scores during the 2018-19 school year, according to a presentation at a Board of Education meeting Tuesday.
Brian Messinger, coordinator of classroom instructional technology and student achievement, gave a Powerpoint presentation to attendees and the school board showcasing results on Regents exams and Advanced Placement exams.
The district saw a rise in students taking Advanced Placement exams. For mastery status, students must obtain an 85 on a Regents exam with the exception of the English Language Arts exam, for which students must earn a 90 or greater to attain mastery status, Messinger said.
He said that for the 2018-19 school year in Floral Park Memorial High School, students saw a 13 percent rise in mastery status on the ELA Regents from the previous year. For the Algebra II Regents exam, the district saw a 2 percent rise in student mastery status. For the Geometry Regents exam, the district saw a 14 percent increase in passing grades and a 9 percent increase in students achieving mastery status. And finally, for the Global History Regents exam, the district saw a 7 percent increase in passing grades and a 9 percent increase in students achieving mastery.
For New Hyde Park Memorial High School, Messinger reported a 2 percent increase in passing grades and a 2 percent increase in students achieving mastery for the Algebra I Regents exam from the previous year. For the Geometry Regents exam, there was a 9 percent rise in students achieving mastery status from the previous year. For the Algebra II Regents Exam, there was a 3 percent increase in students passing and a 4 percent increase in mastery status. Messinger said that an additional 27 Advanced Placement exams were administered in the 2018-19 school year.
For Sewanhaka High School, Messinger reported an 18 percent increase in passing grades and a 3 percent increase in students achieving mastery for the ELA Regents exam from the previous year. For the Algebra I Regents exam, the district saw a 7 percent rise in Sewnahaka students passing and 3 percent increase in mastery. For the Algebra II Regents exam, there was an 8 percent increase in students passing. Messinger also reported that the school saw a 6 percent rise in students achieving mastery status.
When a resident asked why there was a drop in mastery on the ELA Regents exam in 2017-18 from the previous year, Superintendent James Grossane said that the board will research the reasons why this occurred and present it at the next board meeting. Board member Laura Ferrone said that it might be due to the shift to the common core curriculum.
“One of the hardest things to do when you see scores increase and decrease, and a lot of these are incremental changes, it’s hard to attribute them to one thing. It’s hard to attribute it to one program,” Messinger said. “It’s hard to come up with data that says exatly why students do better on an exam.”
