Despite an optimistic tone for a plan of action following last year’s MCAS scores, Wareham’s overall scores on the test this year dropped.

The scores, released Thursday morning, show Wareham performing lower in all categories. Superintendent Kimberly Shaver-Hood said the district’s administrators are “currently in the process of dissecting the information, and going over where students did not do as well.”

“When the different schools have all the information completed, then we will be putting a plan of action in place,” Shaver-Hood said. “That is certainly a high priority for us.”

In 2014, the English language arts and reading scores showed 55 percent of students ranked Proficient or Higher, 31 percent ranked at Needs Improvement, and 13 percent ranked at Warning/Failing. In 2015, 53 percent ranked Proficient or Higher, 34 percent ranked at Needs Improvement, and 13 percent ranked at Warning/Failing.

The math scores showed a similar drop. In 2014, 46 percent of students ranked at Proficient or Higher, 33 percent ranked at Needs Improvement, and 21 percent ranked at Warning/Failing. In 2015, 43 percent ranked at Proficient or Higher, 32 percent ranked at Needs Improvement, and 25 percent ranked at Warning/Failing.

Science scores showed the most severe drop. In 2014, 45 percent of Wareham students scored at Proficient or Higher, 43 percent ranked at Needs Improvement, and 12 percent scored at Warning/Failing. In 2015, just 38 percent scored at Proficient or Higher, 46 percent scored at Needs Improvement, and 16 percent scored at Warning/Failing.

However, the differences in the overall scores were less pronounced than in the grade-by-grade scores. For instance, in fourth grade, the percentage of students who ranked at Proficient or Higher in English language arts scores dropped by 15 percent, from 53 percent to 38 percent. In grade 10, the percentage of students who ranked Proficient or Higher in science fell from 54 percent to 29 percent.

Minot Forest Elementary School principal Joan Seamans said the scores for the third- and fourth-graders this year were not a reflection of the “multitude of talents” the students at Minot Forest possess, and that they didn’t reflect the growth the students had made over the last year.

“They make those huge leaps during the year, and may fall short of the state,” Seamans said.

Seamans said the school has been strapped for resources, and has had to allocate accordingly.

“In 2012, we had four part-time reading interventionists,” Seamans said. “Now we only have one full-time grant-funded reading interventionist, and one para-professional [teacher]. When it comes to our budget season again this year, I will ask for more interventionists, because that’s what we need.”

Seamans said she also believes the school's new Chromebooks, funded by a Town Meeting article, will help the students with reading and math, but said parents also need to be reading with their kids at home. Reading with children at home helps immensely with vocabulary and comprehension skills, she said.

“I can’t stress vocabulary enough,” Seamans said. “Anything that will reinforce practice, and help close some of those gaps.”

Wareham High School Principal Scott Palladino said part of the issue the school faces is new students coming in from other districts, who don’t have the same foundation as students who have been in the system for a longer period of time.

“I have one kid who moved in three days before the English test,” Palladino said.

He also said the snow days inhibited the science test results.

“With all those snow days, we lost a lot of momentum in February,” Palladino said.

Middle School Principal Dan Minkle said in an email that the school "tested close to 800 students" in the spring, and, though the school had not achieved its personal goals, "students took the tests seriously and very real progress was made."

"The admin team has been busy digesting and analyzing the scores and planning ways to support students and teachers so that we will continue to move all of students to proficiency," Minkle's email read.

Palladino, Seamans, and Shaver-Hood all stressed that the MCAS results are not a complete picture of what is happening academically in the district.

“There are areas we need to improve, but we believe our students are receiving a quality education,” Shaver-Hood said. “Unfortunately, people judge the quality of education by a snapshot picture. While it is part of the indicators, it doesn’t indicate everything that’s going on.”