Earlier this week, the Massachusetts Department of Education (DOE) released yesterday the spring 2012 scores for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System--also known as MCAS.

The Brookline School District's full results are available on the DOE website. Below, you will find some useful information about the MCAS test, and what the scores mean. 

1. No more 'No Child Left Behind'

In previous years, the district has had to work on meeting benchmarks outlined by the federal No Child Left Behind act. However, starting in the 2012-13 school year, Massachusetts has waived NCLB requirements. Instead of meeting the NCLB requirements of 100 percent proficiency in the district, the state's new accountability goal looks for reducing proficiency gaps by half by 2017.

A full explanation of the state's new accountability system is available online.

2. Grade 10 Improves From Last Year

Brookline's 10th graders--the kids who are now Juniors at the school--showed improvement over last year's groups--as well as beating averages around the Commonwealth.

The biggest leap was in the science and technology/engineering section, where 53 percent of students scored Advanced--an increase of last year's 44 percent. The number of failing students also went down in this category, down to 2 percent from last year's 4 percent. 

3. High Needs Students Short of Targets

With a target of 75 Cumulative Progress and Performance Index (PPI) score, Brookline schools met that target when all students were taken into account, but the PPI score falls short when looking at "high needs" students, scoring only a 65. 

"High needs" students are those from low-income homes, English language learners (and former ELL students) and students with disabilities. Of the three groups, ELL students scored a 90 PPI, while both other groups were at 62. 

According to the DOE's MCAS glossary, "The cumulative PPI combines information about narrowing proficiency gaps, growth, and graduation and dropout rates over the most recent four-year period into a single number between 0 and 100."

Breaking the student body down in different ways, the highest PPI score was among students identifying as Asian, who exceeded the target and scored a 93 PPI score. White and multi-racial students also beat PPI targets, while Hispanic and black students were below the target of 75. 

4. Math a Strong Suit for 8th Graders

While the maths section is a strong point for kids in the 8th grade, the bulk of them scored "proficient" in both english lanugage arts and the science, technology and engineering categories. 

More students scored proficient or higher this year in the Science and technology category than last year, and fewer were "Needs Improvement" or lower. 

But compared to the mathematics category, where 50 percent of students scored "Advanced," or 36 percent scoring "Advanced" in English Language Arts," the 12 percent of advanced students looks fairly low. 

5. Brookline a Level 2 District

The DOE Ranks four of Brookline's schools, based on MCAS scores and participation rates, at a level 1: Baker, Driscoll, Heath and Lawrence. The rest are ranked Level 2.

Level 1 schools/districts have high overall achievement and meet all the goals for narrowing achievement gaps between the whole student body and minority student subgroups. Level 5 schools are the lowest on the scale and the districts/schools most in need of improvement.

Because the level ranking is determined by the lowest-level school, Brookline is designated a level 2 district. 

Brookline High School was ranked number 15 in the greater Boston area, which is an increase from number 23 last year. However, this is down from number seven in 2010.

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Below is the full breakdown of MCAS results by grade and subject.

The above chart originally appeared on the Department of Education's website.

Melanie Graham contributed to this report.