With time to crunch data, school officials are getting a clearer picture about what the latest MCAS results means for teachers, students, and what work is needed in the classroom.

At the October 15 School Committee meeting, Assistant Superintendent Michelle Roy gave an overview of the extensive data she extracted from the district’s MCAS results.

Students in grades 3-8 took the next-generation computer-based tests, while high school students stuck with the old “legacy” paper MCAS test. The science and technology tests were also paper-based.

At the tenth grade level, students are doing quite well. Roy highlighted ten-year trends at the high school level, which shows under accountability metrics, English language arts results are nearly maxing out at 100 percent, and both mathematics and science and technology/engineering are also trending upward in the 90s. For the first time since 2014, students hit a growth target in mathematics.

“At some point it does cap off -- we can’t go any higher than 100,” Roy said, adding that the district would still like to see the results improved.

The next-generation results in grades 3-8 showed strong improvement in English language arts. Every grade except the third grade reported strong results over 2017 and against the state. When broken down by response type, student growth was the strongest in the essay portion of the test, which is worth a large amount of points. Short responses are also up.

Roy noted it is tough to figure out why the third grade did not perform as well. It is the only grade level the district does not get student responses to essay questions back.

“There’s increased opportunities for feedback, we’re building [writing] stamina, offering small group feedback on their own writing, stretching writing and emotion into writing,” Roy said of changes to the curriculum. “They all have the same language now in that instruction. There is a really concerted effort on this piece.”

Next-generation mathematics results were mixed, with some grade levels improving while others did not. Roy said the district is “keeping pace” in math, but the district will take a close look at grades 3-4.

“We’re still working on project-based or personalized work with mathematics and how they are really working with it,” Roy noted.

Roy also explained the state’s new school accountability system. Instead of measuring schools by “levels,” schools are evaluated based on whether or not schools are meeting targets. Each school now has its own targets to meet, and there are more data points which goes into that measure, like how lowest performing students improve, chronic absenteeism, and advanced coursework completion.

Elementary schools except DeMello finished among the top third among schools in the state, indicating schools are improving, Roy said. The high school was right in the middle of the results in the 48th percentile.

The results are giving school administrators guidance on goals to move forward. Roy said collaborative writing across grade levels is a big priority in English language arts.

School literacy leaders will be taking a careful look at reading and writing in the elementary level. All teachers now have access to common planning time thanks to the new high school schedule, after it was already in place at the elementary and middle schools. Staff will get more professional development in math.