By FREESIA SINGNGAM
STAFF WRITER

BRISTOL — Individual school results from the Connecticut Academic Performance Test and Connecticut Mastery Test were released Wednesday, with two schools in Bristol joining 406 others, including some in Greenwich and Glastonbury, that didn’t make the cut.

Ivy Drive and Edgewood Elementary schools did not make adequate yearly progress this year, which required roughly eight out of 10 students in every subgroup including special education and non-English speaking to score at or above state proficiency levels on the tests.

Another two schools, South Side Elementary School and Northeast Middle School, were identified as in need of improvement, but because they actually made the adequate yearly progress rates, they are being placed “on hold,” Superintendent of Schools Philip Streifer said.

A total of 406 schools, or about 40 percent of Connecticut schools, did not meet the No Child Left Behind standard, which was raised last year to require more students to meet adequate yearly progress, according to a release from the State Department of Education.

Tenth-graders take the CAPT and students in grades 3 to 8 take the mastery test. Both tests cover math, reading, science and writing.

The schools that didn’t make adequate yearly progress are from a wide range of cities including West Hartford and Greenwich. The number of schools has not changed much from last year when 408 schools did not make it.

“We’re in good company with Glastonbury and Greenwich,” said Superintendent of Schools Philip Streifer. “I think, overall, we did well given the higher standards.”

However, he noted that the district’s performance at goal level is not where he would like it to be. He recognized that these schools in need of improvement have specific problems and more sub-groups.

Streifer said that it’s difficult for some students to make progress when they’re moving around from school to school. “Some schools have 30, 40, 50 percent mobility,” he said.

Also, Bristol agreed to take part in a pilot program with the state that gave special education students a different test.

“We went into the pilot expecting scores wouldn’t count,” he said, and every special education student who took that test failed.

He said staff members believed some special education students could pass the main test this year. If the district has the option of rejecting the pilot test next year, Streifer said it will.

When it comes to overall trends, Streifer said the schools have improved, pointing out that around 80 to 90 percent of students in each grade level scored at or above proficiency levels.

“I look at trends,” he said. The district is still conducting gains analyses of the test statistics, which will be presented to the Board of Education sometime in November. Studying these statistics is one way the district is trying to improve scores.

Streifer added that he believes Bristol and Connecticut schools in general are doing well.

“I’ll put our schools up against just about anybody,” he said. “Respectfully, look at Mississippi … or Louisiana.”

Freesia Singngam can be reached at fsingngam@centralctcommunications.com or (860) 584-0501, ext. 7259.