The standardized test results for students in the Region 4 school system show an overall drop in 2021, caused in large part to the educational disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, Assistant Superintendent Sarah Brzozowy said at a Joint Board of Education meeting in December.

Brzozowy presented comparative data on each of the district’s results from Connecticut’s Smarter Balanced test from 2016 to 2021 at the meeting. This test is administered annually in the spring to students in grades 3 through 8 and assesses performance in English language arts (ELA) and mathematics. In 2020, standardized testing requirements throughout the state were waived by the federal government due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brzozowy reiterated what many state education officials have said publicly about state test results from 2021, that it is potentially an unreliable data point due to the disruptions caused by the pandemic.

“It was a disruption, you know,” said Brzozowy. “We had a disruption to education, but it was also very different in how we historically conducted or assessed students because students were actually able to, you know, we had students that were partly at home, mostly at home. There were just a lot of different parameters around Smarter Balanced testing this year.”

According to the data presented by Brzozowy, overall student performance in ELA and mathematics at the district’s three elementary schools all dropped, except for ELA scores at Deep River Elementary School.

“They had an increase from 2019 to 2021 as a whole school,” said Brzozowy. “I will say that Deep River Elementary School…was the highest performing elementary school in the Smarter Balanced English Language Arts assessment as measured in 2021.”

When discussing how each school saw a dip in math performance on the state test, Brzozowy said it did not reflect the schools’ internal math assessments such as Number Corner and Bridges.

“In terms of the performance at the local level, when we’re using the Number Corner assessment and the Bridges assessment, we are not seeing that same level of concern from our teachers regarding how the students are performing in math,” she said.

The data for students at John Winthrop Middle School (JWMS) showed declines below state averages, particularly in mathematics.

According to the data presented by Brzozowy, 69.7 percent of students in grades 7 and 8 at JWMS performed at grade level in English Language Arts in the 2018–’19 school year compared with 54 percent in the 2020–’21 school year. This is 1.5 percent below the state average of 55.5 percent of students performing at grade level in the 2020–’21 school year, according to Brzozowy.

For math performance, 57.3 percent of students in grades 7 and 8 at JWMS performed at grade level in the 2018–’19 school year compared with 36 percent in the 2020–’21 school year, according to the data presented by Brzozowy. This is 9.9 percent below the state average of 45.9 percent of students performing at grade level in the 2020–’21 school year, according to Brzozowy.

Brzozowy said that she would be providing each of the districts with a more detailed analysis of the state testing results at each of their upcoming Board of Education meetings, and that fall, and winter, internal assessments could provide a more accurate representation of student performance.

“I think it’s really critical for us to put a lot more emphasis on our internal measures right now looking at the fall baseline data,” said Brzozowy. “Teachers are in the process of conducting winter assessments as appropriate. That’s going to give us a lot more information as to what students need. Smarter Balanced, regardless of a pandemic year, has never been an actionable data set anyway.”

A copy of the Smarter Balanced Performance presentation by Brzozowy is included in the meeting minutes of the Dec. 2 Joint Board of Education meeting, available at www.reg4.k12.ct.us. The presentation also includes data on student performance from the Next Generation Science Standards Assessments, which is administered to students in grades 5, 8 and 11.