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District presents state assessment trends: officials cite overall improvement and call out anomalies and next steps
Summary
District staff presented New Hampshire SAS and cohort data showing Concord narrowing gaps with state averages in recent years, highlighted notable gains at some elementary schools and raised questions about high-school math scores and cohort anomalies to investigate further.
District staff presented New Hampshire state-assessment results and cohort analyses to the board on Jan. 6, summarizing multi-year trends and school-level performance.
Why it matters: Assessment data informs curriculum, staffing and resource decisions across the district and drives program-level changes and targeted interventions.
Presenters showed district-level trends for English/language arts and mathematics that suggest Concord has narrowed its gap with state averages in recent years. Staff cautioned that the presentation was a high-level view and that cohort analysis (following groups of similar students year‑to‑year) reveals anomalies requiring deeper investigation.
Highlights and clarifications included: - The SAS is administered in grades 3–8 and grade 11; science testing occurs in grades 5, 8 and 11. Staff said this structure affects interpretation of trends. - Cohort graphs showed some cohorts improving year-to-year and some unexpected declines; staff said they will investigate those anomalies at the student/group level to target interventions. - Christa McAuliffe’s principal had earlier said grades 3–5 scored about 76.6% proficient in ELA on spring testing; staff later explained reported state figures can differ because the state’s published numbers may include scores for students who are tested while in out‑of‑district placements and then counted to the resident district’s total. That technical inclusion can affect school-level percentages. - High-school mathematics proficiency (SAT-based reporting for grade 11) was low in the district’s dataset compared with other grades’ assessment patterns; staff said the high-school metric is SAT-based, not the same New Hampshire SAS instrument used in lower grades, and described steps already underway (PSAT baseline testing and course-sequence adjustments) to address high-school math performance.
Board members asked about subgroup performance (including special education) and gender differences post‑COVID. Staff said the district can and will disaggregate data by subgroup, and agreed to run targeted analyses (for example gender-based trends) and return with findings.
Next steps: Staff will provide school- and cohort-level drilldowns and follow-up analyses requested by the board, including subgroup and gender trend reports and clarifications about how out‑of‑district test takers are included in school totals.
