"Substantial progress?"

The district's report to the Education Committee states that

"In 2006-2007 the District made modest growth in student achievement."

"In 2007-2008 the District made substantial progress across the board."

"In 2008-2009 the District continued to make substantial progress in student achievement at almost all grade levels."

Overall, the impression is that substantial progress was made over the past 3 years, but how well does the data support these claims?

In reading from 2005-2006 to 2008-2009 the change in proficiency was:

Grade 3 51.3% to 62.3%

Grade 4 54.6% to 56.2% Less than 2 percentage point increase

Grade 5 47.6% to 52.1%

Grade 6 51.2% to 47% Decrease

Grade 7 53.6% tp 54.8% Less than 2 percentage point increase

Grade 8 58.3% to 71.4%

Grade 11 51.5% to 50.7% Decrease

So, while progress in reading in three grades over the last three years truly does seem to be "substantial," it is difficult to see how progress in the other four grades can be considered "substantial."