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State school systems will be required to provide targeted assistance to more than 230 schools where results have been lower than the last set of MCAS scores or other measures, as part of a new system of accountability. accounts.
Schools account for 14 percent of all states. They include 41 in Boston – nearly half of the 102 schools in the city that were scored under the new system – and will likely add to the challenges facing acting superintendent Laura Perille, who is struggling with school buses that are chronically delay and fate of the aging school buildings of the system.
These newly identified schools fall into a category just above 30 other state-wide in previous years as "underperforming" or "underperforming" because of persistent low MCAS scores, including nine in Boston. These schools persist with these labels as part of the new accountability system.
Jeffrey Riley, Commissioner for Elementary and Secondary Education, pointed out that the idea behind identifying schools for targeted help was not meant to be punitive, but rather an attempt to provide the support needed for students to flourish.
Riley said the majority of schools requiring assistance are among the lowest performing in the state. "These are schools we work with and work with to move the needle forward," he told a news conference.
If targeted interventions do not work, however, the government may decide to designate these "underperforming" schools under the rules of the accountability system, which has been under development for over a year. Some of the newly identified schools will likely need to create a recovery plan, similar to poorly performing schools.
The new system of evaluating academic results comes just a year after state officials have updated a revamped version of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exams from 3rd to 8th grade online and introduced more difficult questions than previous exams.
With less than half of students meeting or exceeding expectations last year on most new exams, public education officials hoped the results would increase this year as schools became more familiar with new tests and adjusted their exams. course. Although schools have mostly shown benefits over English / language tests, math scores have been largely stagnant or decreased.
In English / language arts, students' grades 3 to 8 fluctuated between 46% and 54% of students meeting or exceeding expectations and grades in mathematics ranging from 46% to 50%.
In grade 10, who passed the last MCAS exams last spring, the results were static: 91% of the students were advanced and proficient in English and 74% in science, as in the previous year. In mathematics, students with superior and competent grades lost one percentage point to 78%.
Massachusetts has revised its accountability system to comply with changes to the federal law, which requires the use of additional data to judge schools beyond standardized tests and high school graduation rates.
While the new system still relies heavily on MCAS scores, it also weighs on schools' progress in teaching non-native English speakers, providing college-level courses, and reducing the number of students absent from school. .
Depending on the extent to which most of the state's 1,800 public schools are up to standard, they will be considered as meeting their goals, partially meeting their objectives, requiring targeted assistance or requiring broad-based overall support. The latter requires schools to be formally identified by the state as underperforming or underperforming. No additional schools this year have received these designations.
In a field of good news, the state has recognized 52 schools for the success of their MCAS or exceeding their performance goals. Most schools are in suburbs such as Hingham, Lexington and Winchester, but seven of them are located in cities, including Manning and Winship Elementary Schools in Boston and Brown Elementary School in Somerville. .
Boston School officials – led by former Superintendent Tommy Chang – predicted that dozens of schools in the city might require targeted assistance and have begun to take steps to address it. Consultants were asked to dissect performance issues in about two dozen schools, while the school department began organizing schools in small administrative networks to provide more support, Perille said.
Perille said many Boston schools have fallen under new accountability measures, such as offering college-level courses in high school, teaching English to non-speakers, and the reduction of chronic absenteeism.
Almost 20% of students in Grades 1 to 8 and 36% in Grades 9 to 12 were absent last year, a slight increase from the previous year.
Other schools were labeled for targeted assistance, as fewer than 95 percent of students passed the MCAS exams, which could be due to students who were absent from school chronically. The accountability system has also highlighted another long-standing and persistent problem: student achievement gaps between students of different backgrounds.
"There is still a gap, and this must be a top priority for Boston," Perille said in an interview. "It is clear to us that historically marginalized groups have made less progress than the district as a whole."
Perille said that the Winthrop Primary School could offer a roadmap for improvement. Designated by the state in 2013 as underperforming, one of four schools across the state will lose this designation Thursday. As part of its recovery strategy, the school increased the learning time of reading and literacy interventions, increased the use of technology and integrated math and English classes, which allowed achieved all of its performance objectives.
Boston has largely seen improvements during the MCAS review review, increasing scores on most tests while undergoing a drop on a single test. But the performance of the school system is still much lower than that of the state.
For example, in fourth-grade English / language arts, where Boston experienced the largest increase in the entire district, the proportion of students who met or exceeded expectations increased by six points to reach 35% .
Yet, at the state level, 53% of students landed in these two categories.
Twenty-nine other schools were judged partially in line with the objectives and 23 schools met their goals, which included the Manning and Winship schools, depending on the school system. Manning's director, Ethan d'Ablemont Burnes, attributed some of this success to providing "high-level academics for all students and creating an inclusive environment in which students with emotional disabilities can succeed. "
Monakatellia Ford Walker, Director of Winship, also stressed the importance of high standards and expectations and "creating a positive and welcoming school culture for all".
James Vaznis can be contacted at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @globevaznis.
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