Students in Lynn gaining on MCAS

LYNN – Three local schools picked for special test improvement attention by state educators showed some gains on just-released state comprehensive assessment (MCAS) scores while falling short in math performance.Drewicz and Connery elementary schools and Marshall Middle School are so-called commissioner’s schools, Superintendent Catherine Latham said, because their “scores historically are not at the top of the heap.”Drewicz posted what Latham described as “adequate” English language scores in its 2009 MCAS results while Marshall showed gains in English as well as math scores.”We gained in Connery across the board,” Latham said, adding that MCAS results showing performance drops reflected a math curriculum change that she said will require an adjustment period by students.”We’re making gains but the bar gets raised as we make them,” Latham said.She singled out Lynn Woods Elementary School for demonstrating “excellent” gains in MCAS performance and said English High School and Lynn Vocational Technical Institute also demonstrated improvements.The number of 10th-graders failing the English section of the test increased slightly in 2009 after dropping during the two previous testing years, but a steady rise over four years in the number of 10th-graders posting advanced scores in English language offset the rise in failures.Tenth-grade math advanced scores dropped slightly in 2009 compared to 2008 while proficiency scores, another barometer of improvement in math skills, remained level for 10th-graders compared to 2008.Science scores slightly improved on the 2009 MCAS test for 10th graders.Seventh-grade advanced English language scores stayed level with the latest test results but the number of seventh-graders failing the English section of MCAS dropped in 2009 compared to 2008. However, sixth-grade failure rates for English language increased in 2009 over last year.