Published in the October 12, 2017 edition

By MAUREEN DOHERTY

NORTH READING — Scores earned by the NRHS Class of 2017 on the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) continue to trend upward while also exceeding both state and national averages, according to Principal Anthony J. Loprete.

Loprete recently shared the results of last year’s graduating class with the Transcript while also being careful to explain that these results are based on a new SAT test format. “They have been building up to this,” he said of the new test rollout.

“Does the SAT still carry the same weight, per se? I think it does,” he said, adding, “We did very well.”

Because of the change to the test, he said “a number of students may have taken the ACTs in instead of the SATs, or they’d take both, so that was a big decision for kids. Overall our numbers are very good. They are reflective of the student body.”

Comparing results

The change to the test makes it a little more difficult to compare the scores earned by North Reading’s Class of 2017 to previous graduating classes. That being said, a method has been utilized to create “concorded” scores in order to compare the scores of the town’s most recent graduates with those of the Classes of 2012 through 2016, Loprete explained.

For example, on the mathematics portion of the new exam, the Class of 2017 earned an average score of 583, which was 5.7% higher than the state average score of 550 and 8.6% higher than the national average score of 533.

But in order to compare this score to those earned by the Classes of 2012 to 2016, the 2017 NRHS average math score of 583 is “concorded” to a score of 563, he explained. Similarly, the 2017 state and national concorded scores are reduced to 550 and 500, respectively.

Using this method, the 2017 NRHS math score compares quite favorably with the classes of the previous three years across the board, when the Class of 2016 scored an average of 554, the Class of 2015 scored 547 and the Class of 2014 had a score of 540.

The 2017 score was slightly behind the Classes of 2013 (577) and 2012 (565). Scores at the state level for 2012 to 2016 ranged from a low of 529 to a high of 531 while nationally for the same period the scores averaged a low of 508 to a high of 514.

“We had a real gain in math, which is a nice reflection of the student effort and a reflection of the hard work of the teachers,” Loprete said.

New SAT score results

The Class of 2017 earned a combined mean SAT score of 1,178, which is 6.4% higher than the state average of 1,103 and a whopping 9.2% higher than the national average of 1,070.

In the category of evidence-based reading and writing, the Class of 2017 scored 595, which again exceeded both the state and national average scores significantly. NRHS scored 7.1% higher than the state average of 553 and 9.6% higher than the national average of 538.

Comparing old and new data

In order to compare the 2017 combined mean score of 1,178 to the combined mean score of previous classes under the former testing format, Loprete created a side by side total score chart and “concorded” score for the NRHS Classes of 2012–2016.

If the Class of 2016 had taken the new exam, its combined mean score of 1,105 would translate to 1,175. For the Class of 2015, the score of 1,086 would be equal to 1,160. The Class of 2014 had scored 1,067 and its “new” score would be 1,140.

The Class of 2013 would still retain its status of attaining the highest score of any class in this six-year span as its score of 1,124 would equal 1,190 under the new format. The Class of 2012 was not far behind, with a total score of 1,109 translating to 1,180.

“What is really success? An increase (in scores) is a success, but a sustained increase is a better reflection of our commitment to educating the whole student,” Loprete said.

Loprete believes the “sustained success in our scores for the last three years is a very strong reflection of the hard work that the teachers do in the classroom. And it’s a reminder of the evidence that the students at the school are very committed to their own growth.”

NOTE: In the chart accompanying this story created by Loprete, blue represents an increase in scores, yellow means no changes from year to year and pink indicates a decrease in score.