District Sees SBAC gains in Math, English
WETHERSFIELD - Math test scores are up statewide, with the Wethersfield school district coming in with its own double digit gains.

       Governor Dan Malloy-along with State Department of Education Commissioner Diana Wentzell-made the announcement at an August 19 press conference that featured Wethersfield Superintendent of Schools, along with chief administrators from other highlighted districts.

       Wethersfield led the group-consisting of Meriden, New Haven, and Bloomfield-with a 13 percent gain on the Smarter Balanced Assessment, (SBAC).

       â€"Across the board, score are up,” Malloy said during the press conference-videotaped and posted to the Wethersfield Public Schools Facebook page. â€"In critical areas like math, scores are up. This is major news that impacts tens of thousands of families across our state. The results demonstrate that we’re moving in the right direction and preparing our students for jobs in the 21st Century like never before.”

       Statewide, the growth is 3.9 percent, with more than half of Connecticut’s third graders at or above the targeted standard in mathematics.

       Last year-the state’s first run with the online-based assessment-scores prompted the Department of Education to form a Commissioner’s Council composed of educators, industry/business leaders, and math â€"experts”.

       â€"Our assessments showed we had a particular struggle in math,” Wentzell said. â€"We are top of the country in English/Language Arts, but we know that our kids were not getting enough of the math they need to get into the STEM careers that will bring them the futures they deserve.”

       So the Commission has been examining it’s most improved districts in order to determine â€"best practice” and learn from what’s â€"going right”, Wentzell said.

       In Wethersfield, Emmett attributes the growth to the district’s new Go Math program, coupled with an emphasis on technology access and implementation.

       â€"Certainly the expectation is that every year, we’ll demonstrate growth,” he said over the phone. â€"That can be attributed to a lot of factors, one of which is that we had teachers pilot a new curriculum.”

       Back in April, district Curriculum Director Sally Dastoli and School Board Chair Bobbie Hughes Granato outlined the district’s plan in detail. While improvement on the Smarter Balanced Assessment, (SBAC) was part of the objective, they’ve also been working toward a wider-ranging goal for â€"college and career readiness”.

       Along with the implementation of the K-6 Go Math program is a new reading/writing workshop model, as well as steps to complete the district’s move to equipping every student with a device.

       In Language Arts, Wethersfield saw an increase of 10.5 SBAC percentage points.

       â€"We’re trying to be state of the art,” Granato said from the district’s Hartford Avenue headquarters in April. â€"We have a state of the art facility [in the soon-to-be renovated Wethersfield High School], but we want our kids to have a state of the art curriculum.”

       So last year they brought in Go Math, a Common Core-aligned math curriculum that utilizes a combination of paper workbooks and digital tutorials to enforce conceptual techniques, according to Dastoli.

       â€"We want them to see it conceptually,” she said. â€"If they can visualize it, when they get to more complex math, they can understand it.”

      
STORY BY MARK DIPAOLA   |  Aug 24 2016  |  COMMENTS?