Grades are in on much maligned Delaware Student Testing Program
Friday, July 17th, 2009
By: Bill Cook
bcook@whyy.org
It might be the middle of the summer, but it's report card time for Delaware's public school children. Results from the Delaware Student Testing Program for students in grades 2 through 10 were released Thursday.
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The DSTP scores are in. And overall, officials say the results in language arts, such as reading and writing, show that, across the board, about 80 percent of all students are meeting or exceeding standards. In math the news is still pretty good, but with a wider range of results, from more than 80 percent exceeding standards in elementary school down to about 55 percent in high school.
Nancy Wilson with the Department of Education.
Wilson: in mathematics we see a decline as they go into middle and high school, however this year we're seeing advances at the middle school level, in particular in going into 9th grade, so that's encouraging.
Another trend? Over the last few years, the scores in both language arts and math have leveled off, which isn't necessarily a good thing.
