English Language Learners in Urban Districts Struggle on ELA MCAS exam

Below are the English Language Arts (ELA) results fro English Language Learners (ELL) students on the 2012 MCAS exam for the ten urban Commissioner's districts. The districts are listed in descending order according to their Composite Performance Index (CPI). A CPI of 100 is the equivalent of all students having achieved proficiency (proficient or advanced scores) on the exam.  More specifically, each student participating in the MCAS is given a CPI score based on well they perform on the MCAS which is later averaged among the district, school or subgroup in order to determine the overall CPI. Possible scores are 0 (Warning/Failing - Low), 25 (Warning/Failing - High), 50 (Needs Improvement - Low), 75 (Needs Improvement - High), and 100 (Proficient or Advanced). Also listed is the number of ELL students included for each district's results.

Key
Adv. = Advanced (Scores 260-280)
Prof. = Proficient (Scores 240-259)
NI = Needs Improvement (Scores 220-239)
W = Warning/Failing (Scores 200-219)

	Adv.	Prof.	NI	W	CPI	# Included
Lowell	2%	27%	43%	27%	63.3	2,633
Worcester	1%	22%	43%	34%	59.3	3,343
Boston	1%	21%	46%	32%	59.1	7,721
Brockton	1%	15%	46%	38%	53.6	1,719
Lynn	0%	13%	46%	41%	52.6	1,038
Springfield	1%	14%	41%	44%	51.3	1,953
Holyoke	0%	9%	35%	56%	49.9	792
Lawrence	0%	10%	40%	49%	47.6	1,215
Fall River	0%	8%	36%	56%	43.0	309
New Bedford	0%	4%	28%	68%	37.4	202

As the table indicates, the percentage of ELL students achieving advanced scores ranged from just 0 - 2% for all 10 districts. Lowell posted the highest CPI among these districts with a score that put its students mostly in the 'Needs Improvement' range. New Bedford was on the other end of the spectrum with a little over two-thirds of its ELL students in the 'Warning/Failing' category and no ELL students achieving an advanced score.

Citation: www.doe.mass.edu