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  • Pre-K and Kindergarten registration is taking place at Bangor elementary schools in early March. Click HERE for more information.

  • Chemistry professor and BHS Science Department Head Cary James was recently recognized with the 2009 Siemens Award for Advanced Placement teaching. Mr. James joins only 49 other similarly awarded teachers.


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Strengthening Achievement:

The Bangor School Department Assessment System

Bangor students continue to achieve at high levels  A Bangor Student Engages in Class Discussion

The Bangor School Department has a long history of using assessment data for the improvement of academic achievement, and our students have been the direct beneficiaries of our efforts.  Long before state and federal mandates, Bangor teachers used data for instructional purposes, constantly improving their instructional program, and consequently the achievement of all students.  Bangor students continue to outperform their peers at both the state and national level on numerous measures, and they are showing marked gains in our own locally designed assessments.  With a matriculation rate of 90% or greater for Bangor High School graduating seniors and recognition as a National School of Excellence, it is clear that our fundamental philosophy of driving instruction through the use of data continues to pay dividends. 

The Bangor School Department Assessment System is a three-tiered assessment system.  This document provides a brief overview of that system and of student achievement data at each level of assessment: national, state and local assessments.  This information is invaluable in giving us a better understanding of how well our various assessments measure the performance of our students and strength of our programs, and will continue to be used for both district level and school-based planning purposes.

National Assessment:  The Terra Nova

The 2008-2009 school year marks a change in Bangor's use of a nationally-normed measure of student achievement as the Terra Nova 3rd Edition replaces the Metropolitan Achievement Test (MAT) which no longer is supported by its original publisher. The MAT had been part of the assessment landscape in Bangor since 1979, providing a baseline of student achievement in grades two through ten. Data generated from the administration of the Terra Nova in early spring will continue to be used extensively in the development of individualized instructional plans, as well as for program evaluation, curriculum planning, and continuous improvement planning through the School Core Competency (S.C.C.) Process.

While the Terra Nova will provide valuable data, no test achieves  alignment with our curriculum in all areas; however, a review of Terra Nova contenct revealed strong matches to what students learn at all grade levels. As we gather baseline Terra Nova data, we are eager to gauge the perfornmance of our students against their national peers at grades 2 through 10 in the areas of reading, language, mathematics, science, and social studies.

State Assessment:  The MEA

The Maine Educational Assessment (MEA) underwent significant revisions in 1998 and 2007.  Administered to students in grades 4, 8 and 11 until 1997, the test was redesigned to be aligned with the Maine Learning Results (MLR) in the following content areas: English Language Arts (reading and writing), Mathematics, Science and Technology, Social Studies, Health and Visual and Performing Arts. In 2007, the MLR was again redesigned and became known as the Perameters for Essential Instruction. During the period from 1997-2007 and in response to the passage and reauthorization of the federal No Child Left Behind law, MEA testing has expanded to all grades 3-8, and Maine has opted for the SAT as its correlated state achievement test in grade 11. Interestingly, more changes are on the horizon as the Maine Department of Education has elected to join New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont in a regional testing group known as the New England Common Assessment Program (NECAP). Thus, MEA testing will be replaced by NECAP testing beginning in the fall 2009, a noteworthy change from the MEA practice of assessing students in the spring.

The MEA consists of selected response questions (i.e. multiple choice) and constructed response test items. Given its non-normative nature, the assessment does not allow for the reporting of school district comparisons. Rather, the test is to be used to compare students against a standard of performance set by the MLR. The result is a scale from X01 to X80 divided into four equal performance bands: Exceeds Standards, Meets Standards, Partially Meets Standards and Does Not Meet Standards.


Performance Levels as Defined by the Department of Education:

Performance Levels

*Scaled Score Range

Exceeds the Standards X61 - X80
Meets the Standards X41 - X60
Partially Meets the Standards X21 - X40
Does Not Meet the Standards X01 - X20


*Scaled score ranges vary slightly according to grade and subject matter.  The X in the scaled score range corresponds to the grade that your child is in.  For example:  441-460 would be the Meets the Standards range for fourth grade and 541-560 would be the Meets the Standards range for fifth grade.


Local Assessments

For many years, the Bangor School Department has been developing and implementing our own local assessments of student achievement to drive instruction.  The grades one, two and three literacy assessments are wonderful examples of the quality work done by teachers and administrators across the system in the way of measuring student performance. Additionally, we have developed common units in English / language arts at grades 4-12, a grammar assessment at the middle school level, a district-wide writing prompt for students in grades two through seven, and math “Must-Knows” assessments at grades 3, 5 and 7.  Because we have become more sophisticated with our assessment development over the years, classroom teachers and school planning teams are increasingly dependent upon our local data for the purpose of making decisions about instruction and programming.

  • Achievement  Profiles (PDF Downloads)

Bangor School Department NCLB Report Card, Spring 2008

Fall 2007 Report of Maine Educational Assessment Results

Fall 2007 Maine High School Assessment Report

Fall 2007 Report of Metropolitan Achievement Test Results

Bangor School Department NCLB Report Card, Spring 2007

2006 Adequate Yearly Progress SAT Report

Fall 2006 Report of Metropolitan Achievement Test Results

Fall 2006 Report of Maine Educational Assessment Results

Bangor Schools Outperform, Communique, Winter 2006

2005 Academic Performance Highlights

Certifying Achievement of the Maine Learning Results

2003 Academic Performance Highlights

2002 Academic Performance Report

2001 Academic Performance Report