SAUGUS — Superintendent of School Erin McMahon presented data to the School Committee Wednesday night that showed most students in the district are about one to two years behind in their learning benchmarks.
In her presentation, McMahon used the current baseline data for second-grade literacy as a focal point for the results the school received when it came to the statistics.
“What we found was that the majority of our students — almost 75 percent of our students, three out of four kids — are one to two years behind,” said McMahon.
For the 134 students in second grade, McMahon said that only 35 of those students, or 26 percent, were reading at grade level. Nearly half, or 44 percent of second-grade students, were one year behind when it comes to reading comprehension. Thirty percent of students were a full two years behind, she said.
The data showed that second-grade students had struggled the most with asking and answering questions, as well as applying the information they had learned.
Third-grade students also struggled with asking and answering questions. These students also had difficulty describing characters they had read about. Students in grades 6-12 also struggled with these two literacy areas, which McMahon explained could be due to a learning gap that was not addressed early in their education.
“When we don’t close a gap in our early years the problem doesn’t go away, and when you think about our middle school and high school in the bottom 10 percent, it’s not a lack of hard work and work with students,” said McMahon. “If the gap started then (in second grade) and we did not address it and find it here (in grades 6-12), this is our opportunity to address the standard.”
McMahon said some of this work can be done this year in the second grade. Teachers can focus on providing instruction for specific standards with the aim of bringing students back up to grade level for literacy.
“Our second graders are the first students who have not had a regular school year since March of 2020,” said McMahon.
McMahon recommended that parents work with their children at home. Parents can do this by asking simple questions about stories, as well as working together with older siblings or family members to supplement their child’s instruction.
“Eight-year-olds love to describe characters, ask them to tell you more, (and) ask why the character does something,” said McMahon. “We need to work as a community to move kids to grade level.”
McMahon said she is using the data to improve professional development practices among teachers and faculty.
Hannah Chadwick can be reached at [email protected].
