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Lee County student test scores drop again

By MEGHAN BRADBURY news@breezenewspapers com

Lee County students continue to lag behind in English Language Arts, according to recent data from the new Florida Assessment of Student Thinking FAST scores

ELA results demonstrate decreases in overall proficiency in six of the eight grade levels tested

FAST is administered to students three times a year, with the May scores providing an end-of-of-year summative assessment to measure student mastery of benchmarks for Excellent Student Thinking (BEST) Standards

There were both increases and decreases in ELA compared to the 2022 results of the Florida Standard Assessment (FSA):

∫ Grade 3: Six points lower

∫ Grade 4: Four points higher

∫ Grade 5: Two points lower

∫ Grade 6: Five points lower

∫ Grade 7: Two points lower

∫ Grade 8: Three points lower

∫ Grade 9: Four points lower

∫ Grade 10: One point higher

F A S T r e p l a c e s t h e o n e - t e s t a n n u a l FSAs, which also measured whether students attained grade level proficiency

“This is raw data with first time test takers,” School District of Lee County spokesperson Rob Spicker said “Every student took the test for the first time and some are in a better position that others ”

T w o t h i n g s h a v e i m p a c t e d s t u d e n t learning and so student progress, he said Teachers strive to help students meet benchmarks and that includes interventions for those lagging, including individua l i z e d s m a l l g r o u p i n s t r u c t i o n S m a l l groups provide an opportunity to go deeper and provide instruction on specific areas of instruction based on student progres- sion That group instruction though has been interrupted since spring 2020 when the pandemic impacted schools, Spicker said, adding that students had their learni n g f o u n d a t i o n s i n t e r r u p t e d , w h i c h i s impacting their learning now

“That foundation of learning was interrupted for a year and a half,” he said, adding that impacted older students as well

With that said, small group instruction recommenced with the 2022-23 school year, but was again interrupted when Hurricane Ian swept through the county

“Intense more focus is really how you improve student scores,” Spicker said Students lost 17 days of instruction after Ian

“Then we spent two to three weeks as students returned focusing on students, family and staff’s well-being with a reintroduction to learning Students came back to a very different structure and learning intensity There was a gradual reintroduction to the learning process after Hurricane Ian We were back to where we should be then bam it all got interrupted It’s not that we want to use it as an excuse,” he said of the lost instruction, as the focus was on the well-being and getting back into learning, which was a new environment for many students with a different intensity “We know it had an impact ”

Spicker said the district will take the raw data that was provided with the FAST test scores and identify the areas of needs for students and then develop strategies to help the students make improvements

“Our goal is to look into the data, understand the trends and use that information to better instruct our students,” he said

There were other challenges, as well.

Students who had lower scores may have had more substitute teachers, newer or less experienced teachers, or may have been out of school for a certain amount of time

“That is where we dive into the data, as we look to trends to identify areas of need and develop the individual strategies,” Spicker said

The district also has larger initiatives, districtwide to help ELA scores with such areas as virtual summer school reading programs, elementary students receiving free books for the summer and reading coaches dedicated to third-grade students

There also were declines in student performance in other subject areas with a decrease of four points lower for both the Civics end-of-course (EOC) exam, and U.S. History EOC.

He said in Civics, primarily seventhgrade students take the test, with some eighth-graders too Eighth-graders performed low on some of the other areas and therefore brought Civics down Again, the district will dive into the data and look at such trends as what the school situations may have been, and the home life of a student due to hurricane damage

There were also some highlights with the FAST scores, as the district saw signifi c a n t g r o w t h i n s c i e n c e p r o f i c i e n c y .

Spicker said the schools and district staff had a strong collaboration in making instructional efforts in science

“When you look at this year’s schools, the science standards were the same,” he said, adding that there was a familiarity in standards to be taught “The standards w e r e t h e s a m e e m p h a s i s T h a t r e a l l y helped the results grow in a positive direction ”

According to the district, fifth-grade students demonstrated a 2% increase in the percentage of students scoring at Level 3,

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