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Community Corner

Meriden Schools Get Report Card of Sorts

Board of Ed looks at SAT scores and District Profiles.

 

Meriden Public Schools got a report card of sorts at Tuesday night’s school board meeting.

Al Larson, Research and Evaluation Specialist for the Meriden school system, shared the district’s most recent SAT results with members of the Board of Education. Scores showed stability in some areas, a dip in others, and what appears to be a widening gap of achievement between the city's two high schools.

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Larson also summarized a report by the Connecticut Department of Education explaining different ways Meriden schools compare to the rest of the state and to similar school districts – with statistics like the number of students not fluent in English and class sizes.

How Does Meriden Score on the SAT?

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After slipping for the past three years, the percentage of 2011 Meriden high school graduates who took the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) climbed from a 10-year low of 53 percent back up to 61 percent. The decade high was 65 percent.

Meriden’s SAT scores in Critical Reading and Math have remained fairly steady over the past five years, despite fluctuations in scores for individual schools.

  • In Critical Reading, Maloney scores climbed 7 points since last year; Platt scores are down 14 points from five years ago.
  • In Math, Maloney is up 11 points and Platt down 14 points from five years ago.

Writing scores are another story.

  • District scores dropped 11 points from five years ago.
  • Platt fell 21 points from five years ago and 10 points from last year.
  • Maloney’s 8-point gain this year helped to buoy the sinking district average.

“While writing scores don’t look strong on the SATs,” said Superintendent Mark Benigni, “we had our .”

Meriden SAT scores continue to lag behind the rest of the state and the nation. Here’s how the 2011 average scores compare for the three portions of the SAT. (The highest possible score is 800.)

  • Critical Reading:  Meriden 473, Connecticut 509, U.S. 497
  • Math:                    Meriden 463, Connecticut 513, U.S. 514
  • Writing:                Meriden 468, Connecticut 513, U.S. 489

“For SATs, our goal needs to be to get more students to take the tests,” according to Benigni. He said he would also like to see more students taking advanced placement and early college experience classes. “The goal needs to be to get more students to take more rigorous classes across the district,” he added.

Meriden Public Schools: A Progress Report

Larson also summarized the state Department of Education’s profile of the Meriden School District for 2010-11. The report compares Meriden schools to schools statewide, as well as to other systems in the city's District Reference Group (DRG) – Connecticut school districts like Ansonia and East Haven that Meriden is grouped with because of similar size and demographics.

Larson reported these highlights:

  • Meriden continues to have a higher percentage of students from low-income families. More than 66 percent of Meriden students are eligible for free or reduced-price meals, compared with 53 percent for the DRG and just over 34 percent of students statewide. “We are one of the least affluent communities in our DRG,” Benigni pointed out.
  • The percentage of Meriden students who are not fluent in English is 11.8, more than double the state average.
  • Class sizes in Meriden are similar to those for the state and the DRG, but slightly higher in grades 2 and 5.
  • Meriden has about 30 fewer hours of instruction per year than the state and the DRG, but “that will be changing,” Larson indicated.
  • Meriden spends about $1,170 less per pupil than the state and the DRG.

The report also showed that:

  • The percentage of Meriden students meeting goal on standardized CMT and CAPT tests lags well behind the state average. 
  • Less than 30 percent of Meriden students met physical fitness standards, compared to 50 percent of students statewide.

For more details on the Meriden Public Schools progress report, visit the new to launch Wednesday.

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