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On Monday the Sudbury Public Schools School Committee met, and MCAS results were back on the agenda. You can watch the presentation at 1:20:00, but the slides were also included in the packet for the meeting.
A big focus in the presentation was a comparison to 2019 results. Apparently something happened in 2020 that may have had some sort of impact on education…
SPS is reporting that students are generally moving in the right direction:
“Sudbury as a district and as individual schools are in the accountability category of “Not Requiring Assistance or Intervention,” meaning that we are making progress towards our 2019 pre-pandemic achievement, growth, and attendance metrics. The Curtis, Haynes, Nixon, and Noyes schools “met or exceeded” their targets, and the Loring school made “substantial progress” towards their targets. These accountability ratings are strong indicators that the Sudbury Public Schools are meeting the needs of most students.” (Page 80)
The results indicated that there are some disparities for different grades and cohorts. Notably, Grade 3 and Grade 5 students were highlighted at various points, as were students from lower-income backgrounds. Here are the results for English Language Arts (ELA) by grade and year (page 63):
And here are the math results by grade and year:
The presentation made a point to call out performance improvements as students move through the grade levels:
“In grades 3-6, written language was the lowest ELA domain. However, by grade 7 student proficiency levels met or exceeded proficiency 2019 levels.” (Page 70)
However, today’s Grade 7 and Grade 8 students were not in kindergarten, first grade, or second when Covid hit. Those students are still making their way towards Grade 7, and the national trend indicates that there is some urgency to get the younger kids caught up. There is also research available that indicates younger students experienced greater impacts during the pandemic. That raises the stakes, because the consensus among most education researchers is that third-grade reading proficiency is a critical milestone, and is considered to be a reliable indicator of a bevy of academic and adult outcomes.
However, the narrative summary of the results from SPS would later go on to minimize the disparity for the younger grade levels, even while citing the negative impact of the pandemic in those critical years:
“As students progress through the grades, they demonstrate increasing proficiency as measured by the MCAS. Grade 7 exceeded 2019 proficiency targets in Math and matched in ELA. In grade 8, students approached (within 1 point) 2019 proficiency targets in ELA and exceeded in Math. This correlates to more opportunities to participate in in-person learning. Third graders had their kindergarten year interrupted by a pivot to remote learning and experienced most their first grade year in a hybrid mode, although some families elected a fully remote learning model. There is only a 5 point difference between 2019 proficiency levels for grade 3.” (Page 81) [Emphasis added by Sudbury Weekly]
While the ELA proficiency level in Grade 3 shows “only a 5 point difference,” the percent change is a nearly 7% decrease in proficiency for an area that is fundamental to all other studies. To further illustrate the point, grade 5 students declined in ELA proficiency rates from 79% in 2019 to 65% in 2023. That’s a 14 point swing, meaning it’s nearly an 18% decline.
Again, those grades are the students who were impacted by Covid-19 during their earliest elementary school years, whereas the 7th grade students had completed much of their Grade 3 school year when Covid-19 shifted everyone to remote learning.
The report concludes by highlighting the considerable resources that SPS has marshaled towards addressing the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic. Those resources include:
- Increased staffing for student supports, coaching and tutoring
- Curriculum and sequencing optimizations
- Added programs and targeted offerings during the school year and extended opportunities in the summer (SMILE, Explore)
- Professional development for teachers focused on literacy
- Visit packet page 76 for the full summary
On a relative basis, SPS is in the middle of the pack with peer districts selected by the School Committee. For example, here’s a comparison on the ELA results (page 55):
Following the presentation the school committee members didn’t have very many questions. Most mentioned that they received the presentation on a Friday evening prior to a Monday evening meeting, leaving them little time to analyze the data. There was some light discussion about disparities for lower income students, as well as Loring Elementary School, as that school has the highest level of students fitting that description. But there wasn’t much discussion about Covid-19 impacting students at different stages in their development. (2:00:00)
Overall, members seemed satisfied with the results, while the administration repeatedly pointed out that MCAS was just the “tip of the iceberg.” Benchmarking reports and in-district evaluations were held up as a much more effective means of gauging student progress, and the scoring of the MCAS ELA tests was called into question.
And finally, it’s important to note that MCAS testing has been a source of controversy for many years. WBUR has a good summary of different perspectives on the validity, usefulness, and alleged positive and negative impacts of the MCAS testing and accountability system.