Many Alabama public school students showed slight improvement on test results in reading and math this spring, according to results Superintendent Eric Mackey shared with state board members Tuesday.

“Our numbers are moving in the right direction,” Mackey told board members. “Obviously we want to continue to do better and better.” He pointed out that this is the first year that at least 50% of students have reached proficiency in English language arts statewide on the Alabama Comprehensive Assessment Program, which is given in grades two through eight.

The test is given in math to those same grades and to grades four, six and eight in science.

All public school students take the ACT with writing in high school in the 11th grade, and those numbers were up across the board, too.

The chart below shows Spring 2023 test results compared to Spring 2022 results. Click here if you are unable to see the chart.

While ACAP and ACT scores factor into a school’s and district’s report card, the scores do not factor into students’ grades

The ACAP Proficiency is not the same a.s grade level, Mackey stressed to board members. Proficiency is a high bar, akin to an “A” or “A/B” student, Mackey has said, where grade-level could be a “B” or “C” student.

Students who score a level three or level four are considered proficient. Students scoring at level one or two are considered not proficient.

Reading scores released in June

Reading scores for second and third graders, released in June, showed the percentage of students in those grades reading on grade level dipped slightly. Reading is a subset of the full ACAP English Language Arts test.

This is where the difference between grade level and proficiency matters: A third grader could be reading on grade level but not be proficient on the ACAP’s English Language Arts test.

The reading scores showed that, of students tested in spring 2023,

• 76% of third graders are reading on grade level, a decrease of two percentage points from last year’s results.
• 78% of second graders are reading on grade level, a decrease of two percentage points from last year.