HPISD Students Improve Scores on Mid-Year Achievement Test
HPISD students improved their scores this winter on tests that measure academic achievement and progress.
Students in kindergarten through eighth grade far outperformed their peers nationally on the MAP growth test, with sixth graders in HPISD exceeding average 12th grade scores in both math and reading, assistant superintendent for education services Jennifer Collins told the district’s board of trustees at its March 19 meeting.
This winter’s average math and reading scores of first through eighth graders were higher than fall scores at every grade level, Collins told the board. Kindergartners took the test for the first time this winter.
In math, more students met or exceeded the test’s growth projections, which compare individual students to their grade-level peers with similar starting scores. Sixty-nine percent of eighth-graders met or exceeded their projections this winter, as opposed to 55% at this time last year.
“I’m really proud of what we’re seeing in classrooms,” Collins told the board. “I think our data shows that we’re continuing to move in the right direction with our mathematics success.”
Although achievement was high in language arts, Collins noted that fewer students in some elementary grades met their growth projections than last year. Elementary teachers instruct students in both math and English language arts, she explained. The district’s focus this year was mathematics, while English was the focus last year.
“What this causes us to be really conscious of is the support that needs to be provided to our elementary teachers,” she said. “We are asking a lot of our elementary teachers as we think about changes in instruction.”
Collins said that MAP scores are one data point the district uses to evaluate student progress. Teachers may use the results to help decide how to improve the instruction of individual students or their class as a whole, and the district has been meeting with teams of teachers to analyze the results.
Also at the March 19 meeting:
- Superintendent Mike Rockwood gave a brief update on the progress of the board’s Community Advisory Committee, which will meet for a third time at 5 p.m. on March 21. The committee was formed to provide input on a potential bond election that could finance urgent repairs and other capital needs, as well as free up funds to raise teacher and staff salaries.
- Rockwood noted that the district had 7,349 responses to its first campus climate survey, which was completed shortly before spring break. He said the district will likely share its survey results later this semester.
