Wilmington Receives 2013 MCAS Test Results

Wilmington Public Schools (all grades) scored above the state average on the MCAS in English Language Arts and Match, but fell below the average in Science and Tech/Eng.

Wilmington Superintendent of Schools Joanne Benton said administration was not surprised by the 2013 MCAS results, and that the biggest positive takeaway from the results was furthering the district's goal of becoming a Level 1 district.


"No surprises, we knew we would be a Level 2 school district," Benton said. "We are determined to become a Level 1 district and we will do that with our overarching goal this year."

This year's goal for Wilmington Public Schools states:

If we focus on  strengthening core instruction and developing collaborative leadership at all levels within a safe, nurturing, and respectful learning environment, then we will dramatically increase students achievement and equip our students to be successful in the 21st century.

Benton said an area for improvement Wilmington Public Schools needs to address on MCAS is improving the proficiency gap. 

"The proficiency gap is the distance between a group's current proficiency level and 100 percent proficiency," Benton said. "We need to reduce that gap."

The district has a new Data Specialist who will work with teachers to use the MCAS results to better understand how to improve student performance on different portions of the test.

"This year the district will focus on utilizing data to improve student performance," Benton said. "We have a new Data Specialist who will work with teachers to understand the data, how their students are performing and how to increase the number of students scoring in proficient and advanced in both mathematics and language arts."

Benton said another goal for Wilmington is to use a writing rubric to improve the writing levels of 100 percent of students.

"In addition our goal is that teachers will use a writing rubric to determine a baseline for their students' writing levels and by June 2014, 100 percent of students will improve their writing level as measured by the same rubric," Benton said.

The Results (All Grades)

In English, Wilmington had 75 percent of students score proficient or higher, while the state average sits at 69 percent.

Wilmington had 67 percent of students scored proficient or high in Math, more than the 61 percent state average.

Wilmington had 52 percent score proficient or higher in Science and Tech/Eng., one point below the state average of 53 percent. 

Want to look at the full MCAS results for Wilmington? Check them out here.

Grade 3

Wilmington students in third grade scored higher than the state average in Reading, but fell short of the state average in Math.

In Reading, Wilmington saw 65 percent of third grade students score proficient or higher, with the state average at 57 percent. 

Wilmington had 63 percent of third graders score proficient or higher in reading, while the state average is 66 percent of third grade students. 

Grade 4

Fourth graders in Wilmington scored above the state average in both English and Math.

In Wilmington, 64 percent of fourth graders scored proficient or higher in English, while only 53 percent of fourth graders statewide scored proficient or higher in English.

Wilmington had 57 percent of fourth graders score proficient or higher in Math, with 52 percent of fourth graders statewide scoring proficient or higher in Math.

Grade 5

Fifth grade students in Wilmington scored above the state average in English and Math, but fell below the state average in Science and Tech/Eng. 

In English, 70 percent of Wilmington fifth grade students scored proficient or higher, while only 66 percent of fifth graders statewide scored proficient or higher in English.

Wilmington had 68 percent of fifth graders score proficient or higher in Math, while only 61 percent of fifth grade students statewide scored proficient or higher in Math.

Wilmington fell below the state average for scoring proficient or higher in fifth grade Science and Tech/Eng., with 49 percent of Wilmington fifth grader scoring proficient or higher, two percentage points below the state average of 51 percent.

Grade 6

Sixth grade students in Wilmington scored above the state average for scoring proficient or higher in both English and Math. 

Wilmington had 72 percent of sixth grade students score proficient or higher in English, while 67 percent of sixth graders statewide scored proficient or higher in English.

In Math, 62 percent of Wilmington sixth graders scored proficient or higher, while 61 percent of students statewide scored proficient or higher in Math. 

Grade 7

Wilmington seventh graders scored above the state average for scoring proficient or higher in both English and Math.

In English, 79 percent of Wilmington seventh graders scored proficient or higher, while only 72 percent of seventh grade students statewide scored proficient or higher in English. 

Wilmington had 67 percent of seventh graders score proficient or higher in Math, above the state average of 52 percent of seventh graders scoring proficient or higher in Math. 

Grade 8

Eighth grade students in Wilmington scored above the state average in English and Math, but fell below the average in Science and Tech/Eng. 

Wilmington had 85 percent of eighth graders score proficient or higher in English, while 78 percent of eighth grade students statewide scored proficient or higher.

In Math, 63 percent of Wilmington eighth graders scored proficient or higher, while 55 percent of eighth grade students statewide scored proficient or higher.

Wilmington had 38 percent of eighth graders score proficient or higher in Science and Tech/Eng., while 39 percent of eighth grade students statewide scored proficient or higher in Science and Tech/Eng. 

Grade 10

Wilmington sophomores scored higher than the state average for scoring proficient or higher in English, Math and Science and Tech/Eng.

In English, 93 percent of Wilmington sophomores scored proficient or higher, while 91 percent of tenth graders statewide scored proficient or higher in English.

Wilmington had 88 percent of sophomores score proficient or higher in Math, while 80 percent of tenth grade students statewide scored proficient or higher in Math. 

In Science and Tech/Eng., 73 percent of Wilmington sophomores scored proficient or higher, while 71 percent of sophomores statewide scored proficient or higher.