By NEIL ZOLOT
WAKEFIELD – All of the town’s schools have been designated as Not Requiring Assistance and Intervention by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education based on 2023 MCAS test scores.
“We’re focusing on the long game, with students doing well regardless of their school,” Assistant Superintendent Kara Mauro said while presenting the results to the School Committee at their meeting Tuesday. “I think we’ll have some great outcomes for our students.”
At the various schools, 91 percent of Walton students were found to be making progress toward Improvement Targets, with 84 percent at Dolbeare, 76 percent at Woodville, 64 percent at Greenwood, 47 percent at the high school and 39 percent at Galvin Middle School.
Walton was recognized as a school demonstrating high achievement and high growth and meeting or exceeding targets in English Language Arts and Math, one of only 66 schools and 40 elementary schools in the state to receive that distinction. Superintendent Doug Lyons called it “an amazing achievement.”
“Walton is doing an excellent job of coordinating curricula across the school,” Mauro added.
Across the system, achievement gaps between high needs and all students have been narrowed and progress towards meeting state targets at all grades levels and in all content areas as a result of addressing the writing process and development to increase ELA scores, focus on horizontal and vertical curriculum alignment so all students at each grade level are at the same achievement level and work in each prepares students for the next and continued forces on professional development and teacher collaboration to ensure equity. Dolbeare principal T.J. Liberti noted a positive byproduct of the pandemic was increased collaboration among teachers. “We want consistency in instruction to ensure students are getting similar experiences at all schools,” he said.
“One of the things we picked up in reviews was we want consistent access across the system,” Mauro added. “Curriculum coordination has been a pushed area for the last five years to get curriculum aligned so there isn’t unnecessary reteaching. We’re all working together towards the same goal.”
An example is from 3rd to 10th grade, there was an increase in the number of students who exceeded expectations in math.
At the elementary level, there was an increase in the number of students that met or exceeded expectations in ELA and a reduction of the achievement gap between high needs students and the general population in 3rd grade ELA.
In math, each school met or exceeded all accountability targets with growth for all students, including low performing students. There was also a reduction in the number of students not meeting expectations among students with disabilities in 4th grade.
At Galvin, growth measures improved for all students in ELA, including low performing students and there was an increase among students with disabilities meeting or exceeding expectations in 5th and 6th grade. There was also a reduction among students with disabilities not meeting expectations in 5th grade.
All students met achievement targets in Science, Technology and Engineering. STE grades 5-12 curriculum coordinator Joanne Marks feels the addition of science teachers in 4th grade helped.
At the high school, there was significant growth in cohorts from 2019-2023, tracing a group of students as they progress through school, in ELA and progress in closing the gap between high needs students and the general population. “We’re trying to dig in and think about how to support students with high needs so kids keep progressing,” grades 9-12 Math curriculum coordinator Kim Connelly explained.
“The heart of testing is student growth and improvement from wherever they start,” Lyons feels. “It’s our responsibility to meet students where they are.”
There was also a 30 percent increase in students who met or exceeded expectations for their math scores in 8th grade.
Plans at the elementary level include continuing to focus on implementing ELA and math curricula, continuing coordinating curricula, reviewing the science curricula, scheduling enrichment and intentions and increasing family communication and sharing of student performance data and progress. “It’s the third year of the math curriculum and we’re seeing results of that, but only the first year of ELA,” Mauro said.
“We want to integrate reading and writing and build content knowledge,” Greenwood principal Tiffany Back added. “We want high expectations for all students and use of complex texts for all children not leveled texts.”
Plans at the secondary level include continuing implementation of vertically aligned curricula, administering formative and summative writing benchmarks for each type of writing with assessment using vertically aligned rubrics and developing interventions and activities in What I Need or Advisory blocks during which students can get extra help.
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In discussion, School Committee member Stephen Ingalls, participating remotely, noted discussions of MCAS results are taking place while legislation — namely the Thrive Act — is pending to eliminate the MCAS as a graduation requirement for high school and develop an alternative method of assessment. This could also be a ballot question next November.
The legislation is sponsored by the state teachers union. “High stakes testing and the associated accountability measures have undermined our public education system for far too long,” their briefing on the matter reads. “Massachusetts is one of only eight states that ties its standardized testing to graduation, but there is no correlation between having a standardized graduation exam requirement and academic achievement. The punitive aspects of MCAS are especially detrimental to students with Individualized Education Plans, students learning English as a second language, students of cold and students from groups that have been historically marginalized from an equitable and supportive education.”