MCAS: Swampscott super: ‘We’re happy with our results’

SWAMPSCOTT – Students in Swampscott fared better than their peers statewide in all content areas tested by the MCAS exam.Superintendent Lynne Celli said despite the strong showing on the standardized exam, the district is continually striving to improve.”We’re happy with our results,” she said. “We’re all in a trajectory towards 100 percent proficiency. We’re maintaining our own but are not comfortable sitting back.”My people have done a ton of work putting the kids at the forefront.”The only school in the district that did not make adequate yearly progress (AYP) on the English Language Arts (ELA) portion of the MCAS exam was Clarke Elementary School.The performance rating in ELA among students at Clarke declined from Very High to High among students tested last spring. The most dramatic change in test results at the school was in the 2009 and 2010 ELA test results of the fourth-grade students at Clarke. In 2009 only 15 percent of fourth-grade students at Clarke fell into the needs improvement and warning categories and 41 percent of students fell into those two categories in 2010.AYP measures district and school progress toward annual performance targets in English Language Arts and Math. Schools that fail to meet their targets for two or more consecutive years receive an accountability status and are required to take steps to focus efforts on improving student performance. Because Clarke met AYP in 2000 and 2009, it will not be placed in accountability status this year.All schools in the district made AYP on the mathematics portion of the MCAS with the exception of the special education sub-group at Swampscott Middle School.”The middle school special education population is the area of most challenge right now,” Celli said. “That is something we’re addressing with programmatic changes.”Celli said all the principals are taking an in depth look at the scores of individual students in order to ensure the district meets the needs of every child.”We’re ratcheting it down to the student level,” she said. “We’re looking at the scores for each child in order to meet their needs. We don’t want a single student falling through the cracks and not getting the services they need. We’re doing some creative things that we’re happy with.”