How Did Andover Schools Do on MCAS?

The MCAS results are in, and Andover saw some slight decline since 2012 across the board.

But there's good news in Student Growth Percentile (which compares changes in a student's MCAS scores to changes in MCAS scores of other students who scored similarly in previous years). In SGP, the district went up in English from 56 percent in 2012 to 59 percent in 2013 and also increased in math, from 55 percent in 2012 to 56 percent in 2013.  

• ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS: 86 percent tested proficient or advanced (51 percent proficient and 35 percent advanced), down from 87 percent last year. 12 percent tested in need of improvement (up from 10 percent last year) and 2 percent tested failing (down from 5 percent last year).

• MATH: 80 percent tested proficient or advanced, same as last year (33 percent proficient, 47 percent advanced). 16 percent tested in need of improvement (same as last year) and 5 percent tested failing (same as last year).

• SCIENCE: This year, 74 percent tested proficient or advanced, down from 77 percent last year. 23 percent tested in need of improvement (up from 19 percent in 2012), and 3 percent tested failing (down from 4 percent in 2012).

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 mandates that every student be proficient in English language arts and math by 2014. In Massachusetts, this proficiency is measured by the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS).

A school must improve in proficiency each year based on adequate yearly progress (AYP). In Massachusetts, AYP is determined by student performance on various parts of the MCAS.