Also, the number of students scoring in the top two categories, advanced and proficient, dropped from 34 percent last year to 16 percent, well below the state average. When the district is taken as a whole, the 1999 MCAS scores rank Easthampton closer to the lowest performing schools in the state than the highest. Compared with nearby school districts, only Westfield, Greenfield, Holyoke, Chicopee and Springfield averaged lower scores this year. Carter has already planned for a meeting with the English department, and plans to take a serious look at the way reading comprehension and writing are taught at the high school. The low scores also will add fuel to school principal's plans to request an additional English teacher during the next budget round to increase instruction, she said.
Students take two semesters of English in their first two years at the high school.
The high school students improved on the mathematics and science sections of the test. Compared with last year's scores, failure rates dropped from 58 percent to 48 percent in math and from 30 percent to 27 percent in science and technology. At White Brook Middle School, acting Principal Julie Salzman congratulated her teachers, especially those in the mathematics department, whose analysis of student weaknesses in last year's MCAS appears to have paid off. The percentage of eighth-graders failing the mathematics section dropped to 31 percent from 47 percent a year earlier, boosting the class over the state average of 40 percent. Nearly a third of the class scored in the top two categories.