Sewell-Anderson just misses award

LYNN – Excitement turned to disappointment in the School Department this week when it was learned that the Sewell-Anderson Elementary School would not be receiving a national award, despite having already been announced as winners.Based on an official announcement by U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings on Sept. 9, Superintendent Nicholas Kostan announced the school had been named a No Child Left Behind Blue Ribbon School at the Sept. 10 School Committee meeting.As it turns out, Spellings and Kostan may have jumped the gun with the announcement.Sewell-Anderson Principal Patricia Mallett and Deputy Superintendent Catherine Latham both confirmed Tuesday that the school just missed receiving the award because of a “glitch,” despite having been listed as winners on an official press release and on the U.S. Department of Education Web site.Mallett said she suspected the school would come up just short of the award and her fears were confirmed this week even as word of the victory spread through the city.The Blue Ribbon Award is given to schools that perform well on state standardized testing, such as the MCAS, by way of having at least 40 percent of students from disadvantaged backgrounds who still perform at a high level on the MCAS exam, or by scoring in the top 10 percent in the state in MCAS scores at its particular grade levels.Based on 2007 MCAS results, Sewell-Anderson appeared to be eligible, but Mallett said the school just missed receiving the award.In 2007, 86.7 percent of students met the state’s Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) requirements, which indicate the school’s mandatory yearly progress on the MCAS test as set under the No Child Left Behind Act.The results are a 5.4 percent increase from 2006, and a vast improvement for a school that was tapped for corrective action status in 2005.MCAS scores for the 2008 test, given last spring, have been released to the School Department by the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, but is embargoed from public release until Sept. 23.Sewell-Anderson is still listed as winners of the award on the U.S. Department of Education Web site, and Latham said she is yet to hear from the USDOE regarding the mix up.Earlier this year, Sewell-Anderson was named a Title 1 Distinguished School by the U.S. Department of Education, recognizing the same improvements made on the MCAS exam by a population of disadvantaged students.The elementary school, located on Ontario Street, was the only school in the state to receive that recognition, booking a trip for Mallett and some of her staff to Nashville’s Opryland Hotel as the only Massachusetts representatives at the awards ceremony.