94 Percent of Third Graders Pass MCAS
      Ninety-four percent of third grade students in Massachusetts passed the state-required MCAS exam this year, education officials announced Monday. In all, 71,520 third graders took the exam, or 99 percent, and performed at relatively the same level as previous years, Education Commissioner David Driscoll said.
      "These results continue to show generally strong reading skills across the state, but the usual achievement gap still exists when you look at the performance of students in our subgroups,” Driscoll said in a statement. “Our task going forward is clear: we need to move our lowest performing students out of the Warning category and focus on getting more of our children into Proficient.”
      According to the Department of Education, 87 percent of African-American students passed the reading exam, and 93 percent of Asian students, 83 percent of Hispanic students, 95 percent of students with a Native American background, and 97 percent of white students. Officials said the achievement gap of students scoring in the highest level of proficient was more noticeable, where 39 percent of African American students scored proficient, 63 percent of Asians, 32 percent of Hispanic students, 57 percent of Native Americans, and 71 percent of white students. Results from individual districts will be released later this summer.