Medfield Students Show Improvement on 2014 MCAS Exams

By Daniel Libon (Patch Staff)

The MCAS results are in, and Medfield students showed some improvement in the 2014 test.

The district-wide results, compared with those of 2013, are as follows:

ENGLISH/LANGUAGE ARTS: Thirty percent tested proficient, an increase over 27 percent in 2013, while 68 percent tested advanced, down from 71 percent last year. Only 1 percent tested in need of improvement (a drop from 2 percent in 2013) and 0 percent tested failing (same as last year).

MATH: Seventeen percent tested proficient, an increase from 13 percent last year; 82 percent tested advanced, a drop from 84 percent in 2013. Only 2 percent tested in need of improvement (down from 4 percent last year) and 0 percent tested failing (same as in 2013).

SCIENCE: This year, 39 percent tested proficient, a drop from 46 percent last year; 58 percent tested advanced, an increase over 48 percent last year. Also, 3 percent tested in need of improvement, a drop from 7 percent in 2013, and 0 percent tested failing (the same as last year).

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.