By Linda Conner Lambeck

WESTPORT — The tests are different, the results the same: Westport public school students score well overall, but subgroups lag behind.

The review of internal kindergarten through eighth-grade reading and math assessments by the Board of Education last week have some members asking what more can be done, while others wonder why subgroup distinctions are made at all.

“Does the state mandate we separate these groups out?” asked board Vice Chair Dorie Hordon.

She was assured that it does when it comes to race, ethnicity, socio-economic factors, disabilities and English proficiency.

A month ago, the board heard that while most Westport students do well on the state’s Smarter Balanced Assessment Test, there remains a persistent gap between the number of local white students meeting the state-established goals and their African-American and Hispanic/Latino classmates.

Last week, the board reviewed results of two screening tests used by the district to identify students who need extra help.

A computer-adaptive “Measures of Academic Progress” (MAP) test is administered to students in grades K-8 to measure student achievement and growth in math and reading. Developed by the Northwest Evaluation Association, MAP adapts to student responses, adjusting questions harder or easier based on student responses as the test is given.

A second test is aimsWEB+, a nationally normed skills-based test, given at the state’s behest.

Both provide good data, said Assistant Supt. Anthony Buono, but are not the sole means of evaluating a student’s academic progress. The primary purpose is to flag students not meeting grade-level standards as well as those exceeding standards.

The results help inform district efforts to provide alternative instruction or targeted interventions that can help students catch up.

On the aimsWEB+ reading tests given this fall, more than 45 percent of third graders performed at or above the 75th percentile, with 25 percent scoring above the 90th percentile. That is 2.5 times the national average.

By second grade, more than half of students perform at or above the 75th percentile in math, again 2.5 times the national average.

On the NWEA tests in math, by the sixth grade nearly half of students were performing at or above the 80th percentile and overall performance in math tends to improve as students progress through the grades.

In reading, more than 40 percent of students in grades four through six are performing at or above the 80^th percentile.

Meanwhile, performance in both reading and math reveals an achievement gap among Black and African-American students compared to the overall student population, according to Buono’s report to the board. These students are disproportionately represented in the below and well below average performance levels.

In grades three through eight, 16 percent of the 81 Black and African-American students tested were in the lowest math performance level versus 5 percent of the 2,385 students tested overall. 

Conversely, on the upper end of the scale, 21 percent of Black and African-American students tested scored in the 80th percentile vs. 44 percent of all students.

For reading, in grades four through eight, 17 percent of 71 Black and African-American students who took the test scored in the lowest performance level versus 4 percent overall. In the 80th percentile range, 21 percent of Black and African-American students were represented versus 41 percent of all students.

Similar gaps were noted for students getting free or reduced-price lunch.

Buono said the results highlight systematic challenges that trigger early, targeted interventions and equity-focused strategies that are aligned with scientifically based strategies and research. If alternative strategies don’t work, the district then tries to figure out if there is a disability involved.

“You want to intervene as soon as possible,” Buono said. “Later, it is more difficult.”

Board member Abby Tolan asked if there is an issue with food insecurity among some students. Not all schools offer breakfast. “Do they come to school hungry?” Tolan asked.

Assistant Supt. John Bayers, previously an elementary school principal at Greens Farms School, said there are ways staff make sure children who need food get it.

Hordon said socio-economic factors appear to be the main culprit in performance gaps. If a child that is struggling gets support, why single them out based on race, she asked.

It shines a light on what is hidden, Supt. of Schools Thomas Scarice said. The district can say greater than 80 percent of its population is at grade level, but if that is not true for some subgroups of students it fails to tell the whole story.

“It is one of the primary challenges of education,” Scarice said of the achievement gaps. “Every district suffers from this.”

Board member Jill Dillon said looking for statistical differences helps root out causes. If someone gets cancer you treat the patient, but if there is a cluster in a neighborhood, you want to find out why, she said.

Freelance writer Linda Conner Lambeck, a reporter for more than four decades at the Connecticut Post and other Hearst publications, is a member of the Education Writers Association.