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Portland Public Schools 2013-14 Achievement Gains of Low-Performing Students

The tables below break out the  "Low" portion of the "Overview" graph by grade level, income and ethnicity:

Compare this table with the table for students who exceeded: in most cases low-performing students in these groups were within less than one point of each other and no group consistently outperformed the others--including the whole group.  Among students who exceeded, however, students in the smaller groups substantially underperformed the whole.  Repeated year after year, it creates a significant gap among students. Minority/low income students who exceed are less likely to continue to exceed than their non-minority/low income classmates. 

Portland Public Schools 2013-14 Achievement Gains: Low-Performing Students broken out by Income and Ethnicity

2013-14, Gains by Low-Performing Students broken out by Income and Ethnicity

Notes: 

These tables and graphs were compiled in 2014 from data provided by Portland Public Schools.

 Numbers from several different tables were combined and a graphing program was used to display the numbers.

This year, I have not included the "meets" column in the tables/charts on this page. See the separate page for "meets" gains

This report includes students who have a valid score from both 2012-13 and 2013-14. The data for "gains" subtracts student achievement test scores for each student in 2013 from the achievement test score for the same student in 2014 except in the case of eleventh-grade gains.  As there is no ninth or tenth grade test, the scores of students from 2010-11, when they were in the eighth grade, are subtracted from their scores for 2014 when they were in the eleventh grade.  Students taking the test are grouped by ability in five groups: "Very Low, Low, Nearly Meets, Meets, and Exceeds."

The first column shows the average gain from one year to the next for all Portland students who exceeded the benchmarks.  The following columns show score gains for Free and Reduced Meals, African-American, and Hispanic American students who exceeded benchmarks in the previous year's test. 

The chart and graphs represent a "snapshot," not a trend.  It does NOT trace gains from third grade to tenth grade for a single cohort of students.  It compares the gains achieved by students in different grades who all took one test last year and another test one or more years previously.

The chart and graphs only represent student learning for the curriculum that was included in the test and may not fully represent what students actually covered or learned during a year. 

Please note that the scales for the reading and math bar graphs are not the same. 

In addition, results might look different if confidence bands were included.