(This is the first in a three-part series focusing on Superintendent Dr. Patrick Tutwiler’s goals for this school year.)
LYNN — Superintendent Dr. Patrick Tutwiler believes a targeted approach to increasing achievement for the lowest performing student groups in the Lynn Public Schools will increase the performance of all students.
He is aiming to reduce the academic achievement gap by 3 percent for students with disabilities in grades three through eight in English Language Arts (ELA) and math for Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) scores, boost the performance of English Language Learner (ELL) students by increasing the number of those students reaching English proficiency from 48 to 52 percent, and reduce chronic absenteeism in the district.
Tutwiler and Deputy Superintendent Debra Ruggiero recently sat down with The Item to outline some strategies for meeting those goals this school year. The pair says targeting the performance of those groups will be ongoing in future years.
Increasing Achievement for ELL students and students with disabilities
The 20-point academic achievement gap between students with learning disabilities and students without disabilities for grades three through eight in ELA and math “is pretty significant,” Tutwiler said. It is about the same as the disparity between ELL and non-ELL students, making the two subgroups the lowest performing in the district. In Lynn, ELL students are the group most at risk of dropping out of high school.
“I just want to challenge the tendency of the casual observer to say they’re only focusing on certain groups in the district,” Tutwiler said. “Actually by scaling up and meeting the needs of those groups, you weave in strategies and approaches that positively impact all learners.”
Some key actions to meet those needs include a new district-wide “Meeting the Needs of English Learners” professional development initiative; focusing the district leadership team on improving instructional practices through professional development, supervision and evaluation, and analyzing data; and continuing interventions already in place such as extended learning time for math in grades three through eight.
Tutwiler said the district’s after-school interventions for students with disabilities are in their second year. Those interventions are being refined and he expects some impact with MCAS performance in the spring.
Every core content teacher has taken RETELL (Rethinking Equity and Teaching for English Language Learners), a state-required course that outlines ways educators can better meet the needs of ELL students.
Although RETELL is already in place, Ruggiero said the delivery of that training has not yet hit the mark with meeting the needs of ELL students. Teachers had an understanding of the strategies, but the information was so broad that they didn’t walk away with skills that could be used in their classrooms.
Consistency was also lacking, Ruggiero said, so there is now an increased effort across the district to incorporate the same strategies across every school and grade level. The idea is those strategies, although aimed at ELL students, are incorporated into classrooms as a whole and work for all students.
This includes continuity in the language the teachers speak, the vocabulary they use to help students understand those strategies and sentence stems to help develop the oral language. This is unlike RETELL, where the district’s teachers had different instructors teaching different strategies, according to Ruggiero.
“What we sort of ended up with in Lynn is pockets of implementation and then pockets of excellence,” Tutwiler said. “What we’ve done this year is added some concrete uniformity across the district in terms of here are the skill sets and here are the strategies. Here are the expectations and we’re going to be really explicit and clear around what folks should be doing and what things they should be weaving into their lessons and instruction.”
At the elementary level, ELL students are in the general education classroom and get ESL (English as a Second Language) support. At the middle and high school level, ELL students are in the general education classrooms, but have ESL classes with a certified ESL teacher, according to Ruggiero.
Each winter, ELL students take the ACCESS test, which measures their reading, writing, listening and speaking skills. Their scores determine whether they can formally be considered an English learner, meaning their language proficiency is high enough where they aren’t obligated to receive ESL services anymore, according to Ruggiero.
Reducing Chronic Absenteeism
To reduce chronic absenteeism in the district, defined as being absent 18 or more days, or missing 10 percent or more of a school year, administrative officials have rolled out the “Every Student, Every Day” K-12 attendance plan this year.
Tutwiler and district leadership believe the initiative will help student achievement increase as absenteeism decreases.
“We think that attendance is inextricably tied to student outcome,” Tutwiler said. “If you can figure out the attendance issue, you’re more than likely going to figure out other potential learning challenges.”
Last year, the district met its Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education target for non-high school chronic absenteeism, but not for high school. Last year, 35.8 percent of students were chronically absent at the high school level, which increased from 33 percent the previous year and didn’t meet the 32 percent target. State targets have not been released for this year.
Ruggiero said to address the issue, administrative officials have to figure out who the students are and why they are absent. One theory is that a lot of those students may be missing school to work or may be working overnight and can’t get up in the morning.
Other students could be struggling with mental health issues, homelessness, access to transportation or issues at school, or they may be struggling academically and giving up, according to school officials.
When it continues, the trajectory is those students will probably drop out. Four years of chronic absenteeism is a statistic that is almost irreversible, Deputy Superintendent Kimberlee Powers has said.
“No matter how you look at it, 30-plus percent of (chronically absent) high school students in Lynn is screaming for an intervention,” Tutwiler said. “At the core of that effort is getting at root causes, figuring out for a student who is starting to slip in terms of attendance, engaging the family and trying to figure out what it is and connecting families with outside agencies so the student’s attendance improves.”
