MELROSE — Tenth graders at the city’s flagship school fared better than many across the state in the latest round of MCAS testing.
According to data released Monday, Melrose High sophomores taking the English language arts MCAS test proved quite proficient, with 21 percent exceeding state expectations and 59 percent meeting them. Just three percent did not meet state expections. In math, 63 percent met expectations, a very minor drop from pre-pandemic levels. In the vital areas of science, technology and engineering, 71 percent of Melrose High sophomores met or exceeded state exceptions.
Compared with the state average, local high schoolers fared 29 percentage points better in English language arts, 18 percent better in math and 25 percent better in science, technology and engineering.
Fifth and eighth graders, however, struggled in science, technology and engineering, performing worse last spring than they did before the COVID pandemic arrived and threw everything out of order. According to the results released by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, just 55 percent of local fifth and eighth graders exceeded state expectations in those area. Across the state, 42 percent did.
In the elementary schools, 83 percent of Horace Mann test takers met or exceeded expectations in math and 81 percent met or exceeded English language arts test exceptions. At the Hoover, 58 percent met state expectations in English language arts while 68 percent met or exceeded state expectations in math. At the Lincoln, 61 percent met state expectations in English language arts while 58 did in math.
At the Roosevelt, 69 percent met or exceeded expectations in English language arts while 67 percent of students met expectations in math. At the Winthrop, by contact, 72 percent of students tested met English language arts exceptions, while 76 met expectations in math.
A smaller percentage of Massachusetts schools made significant progress towards, met or exceeded their goals in 2025, state officials said Monday as they released “sobering” results from the latest round of MCAS testing.
The results, which Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler and Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Pedro Martinez made public during an event at an Arlington middle school, show slight improvement in English language arts scores among students in grades 3 through 8 and no change in math scores for that cohort.
Results for 10th graders, the first class to take the standardized test knowing that voters had already scrapped it as a high school graduation requirement, were down across the board. Officials at the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education said they think last fall’s vote might have something to do with the slide.
In a call with reporters Monday morning, Martinez pointed out that there is not one single statewide student group that has bounced back to its pre-pandemic level of achievement in Massachusetts.
“There are other states that have actually already, as a state, already reached pre-pandemic levels. And there’s many states who have some of their groups of students who have reached their pre-pandemic levels,” the commissioner, who started here in July after having run Chicago’s school system, said. “We also continue to see achievement gaps, specifically for students of color, our students with disabilities and English learners. Look, these results are sobering, but they’re not insurmountable. I am confident that we can improve and that Massachusetts can continue to be a national leader in education.”
Tutwiler added, “I have long suggested that recovery from the pandemic will be a process, not an event.”
In English language arts, 42% of students in grades 3 through 8 met or exceeded the state’s expectations, an increase of 3 percentage points compared to 2024 but still 10 percentage points below statewide results from 2019. Most 10th graders, 51%, met or exceeded the English expectations, but DESE said that represents a drop of 6 percentage points from 2024 and 10 percentage points from 2019.
In math, 41% of third-through-eighth graders met or exceeded expectations, unchanged from 2024 but lagging 2019 results by 8 percentage points. Among 10th graders, 45% met or exceeded expectations. DESE said that is 3 percentage points below 2024 levels and 14 percentage points below pre-pandemic 2019 levels.
Forty-six percent of fifth graders met or exceeded expectations on the MCAS science exam, up one percentage point from last year but still down 3 points from 2019. For eighth graders, 37% met or surpassed expectations (down 2 percentage points from 2024 and 9 percentage points behind 2019 levels). Forty-six percent of tenth graders met or exceeded the science expectations, a drop of 3 percentage points compared to 2024. DESE officials say comparisons to 2019 are not meaningful for 10th graders because the exam has changed since then.
DESE’s Chief Officer for Data, Assessment and Accountability Rob Curtin said the state sees signs in the 10th grade MCAS results that students were likely influenced by the outcome of last November’s successful ballot question to break the link between MCAS passage and high school graduation. He said the “evidence” includes increases in the number of students who either left answers blank or “answered a question in an off-topic manner, in other words, they didn’t answer the question” compared to 2024.
“So these are things that we’re going to continue to look at and examine, but there is some evidence to suggest that there was an impact of motivation as it relates to the results from Question 2 back in November,” Curtin told reporters.
Across the state, 55% of schools either made substantial progress towards, met or exceeded their own accountability targets. And while DESE officials pointed out that a majority of schools at least made serious progress in 2025, it represents a decrease from 60% of schools that at least made significant progress in 2024.
Of 1,590 schools that serve MCAS-tested grades and had sufficient student populations, there are 280 schools, or 18%, that the state has classified as “requiring assistance or intervention” for meeting at least one criterion from a list.
Tutwiler and Martinez chose Arlington’s Ottoson Middle School as the site of the annual MCAS results announcement because the district is one of just 63 (of nearly 400 statewide) where MCAS scores have at least returned to pre-pandemic levels in English language arts, math or both.
Arlington is one of 13 districts where scores for grades three through eight have at least rebounded in both English and math, along with Amherst, Benjamin Banneker Charter School, Central Berkshire, Cohasset, Excel Academy Charter School, Farmington River Regional, Libertas Academy Charter School, Pioneer Charter School of Science, Rowe, Sizer School: A North Central Charter Essential, Wakefield, and Williamsburg.
Lawmakers created the MCAS system in a 1993 education reform law that was aimed at improving accountability and school performance. The first tests were given in 1998, and students starting with the high school class of 2003 were required to achieve sufficient scores to graduate until voters approved a measure last November to decouple the two.
A panel assembled by Gov. Maura Healey has to make at least initial recommendations for a new statewide high school graduation standard by the end of the year and last week unveiled its first rough sketch of its thinking. Tutwiler, who co-chairs the group, said last week the recommendations “will include rigorous learning experiences and a mechanism to give us confidence that all students are meeting these high expectations.”
The Massachusetts Teachers Association that pushed for the elimination of MCAS passage as a graduation requirement responded by warning against the continued use of a standardized test to assess students.
“Educators and voters have made clear that such essential skills cannot be assessed by a standardized test. We will only nurture students to be ‘critical problem solvers, intentional collaborators, effective communicators, self-aware navigators, and responsible decision-makers’ if we design educator-led systems of assessment and provide the necessary resources that educators, students and schools need to fulfill these goals,” Max Page and Deb McCarthy, president and vice president of MTA, said.
MCAS results are sometimes accompanied by DESE’s corresponding school and district accountability determinations. But Monday’s announcement did not include any details on schools exiting or entering “underperforming” or “chronically underperforming” status. DESE officials said Martinez will evaluate each school’s status in the coming weeks.
— Material from the State House News Service was used in this report.