SAUGUS — Superintendent Erin McMahon told the School Committee at its regular meeting last week the district’s MCAS scores are indicative of the ongoing process of recovering from COVID-19, and Saugus is focused on balancing teaching to the test and preparing students for college and career.
Students’ scores on the 2022 MCAS increased in math, decreased in English language arts, and essentially stayed stagnant in science statewide, McMahon said, citing a Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) report. McMahon also laid out the district’s goals related to the MCAS, which are focused on effective instruction and student achievement.
McMahon said the district is working towards having every Saugus teacher demonstrate proficient or exemplary practice in Standard II-A-2, defined as “consistently us[ing] instructional practices that motivate and engage all students in the content of the lesson and independent work. Models this practice for others,” by June 2023.
The second goal remains the district’s “moonshot” McMahon said, explaining that the district seeks to move from the bottom 10 percent of the state in terms of high school math and reading on the MCAS to the top 10 percent by June 2026. McMahon said to do so the district has set an interim goal of ensuring year-over-year student growth beginning in 2022.
“With that context, our focus has not changed. We are accelerating, we are not remediating and we are working to develop a sense of belonging for all students. Doing that work ensures that we have a healthy and safe learning environment for all kids, because parents have consistently told us the number one priority for me is that my kids are safe,” she said. “We want to make sure that we do that in all aspects both mentally and physically.”
In its report, DESE wrote that the state has “ways to go across all subject areas to fully recover learning losses,” according to McMahon. The two primary areas cited for improvement are writing scores and early literacy challenges, issues that are compounded by student absenteeism both in Saugus and across the state.
MCAS tests were not administered in 2020, and a half-test was administered in 2021, meaning students in 10th grade in 2022 had not taken an MCAS test since 2019, when they were in 7th grade.
“When you look at the results on a statewide level, essentially what we’re seeing is a 20 percent loss in grades three to eight in terms of meeting expectations,” she said. “The good news is that we declined less than the state on each grade level. We’re not happy that we declined, but we saw less of a decline than the state level.”
McMahon said the district was hit hardest by the pandemic in terms of ELA scores for students in grades 3 through 5, where instruction shifts from learning to read to reading to learn. In that range, the percentage of students meeting expectations fell from 53 percent in 2019 to 41 percent in 2022, a 12 percent change. But, McMahon said, middle grades “showed signs towards recovery,” with the rate at which students failed to meet expectations on the tests slowing.
In working to understand year-to-year progress for students, the district looks to the Student Growth Percentile, which McMahon said represents an “apples to apples” comparison.
“It’s comparing you to yourself and other kids who scored characteristically like you. We have a ways to go as a community, but what I want you to really look at is how we are growing, which is very exciting and that also helps us with our data from our lower grades,” McMahon told the committee.
McMahon cited eighth grade math scores as a particular area of improvement, where the number of students not meeting expectations declined by 7 percent between 2021 and 2022.
“It is very significant to move students out of the ‘not meeting’ category. It’s almost as hard as getting them to the ‘exceeding category,’ so it was a really big move and we’re really proud of them,” she said. “Also, the percentage of students considered “proficient” rose from 32 percent in 2021 to 44 percent in 2022.”
The student growth percentile for eighth grade math was 66 percent, McMahon said, a figure that represents “high growth.”
“That’s our big move,” she said. “We want to move from low growth and typical growth to full growth to high growth because that means kids are doing better against themselves the following year.”
Saugus outperformed students statewide in eighth grade math, McMahon said, with a total of 44 percent of students meeting or exceeding expectations in the district as compared to 36 percent of students statewide.
McMahon cautioned that the MCAS does not always accurately reflect students’ mastery of the content, but she said, it represents the best annual measure the district has.
The district, McMahon said, is trying to integrate MCAS preparation with the rest of the curriculum to prepare students for college and career but also for the test.
“There’s always a balance that you have to make, by making sure students have the test taking skills, but that they really are consistent with our curriculum,” she said. “I would say overall, it’s really making sure we are investing time on the lower grades in all subjects. So in literacy and mathematics, really giving them the time to do it. We never feel like we have enough time.”
School Committee member Leigh Gerow praised teachers in non-testing grades for ensuring students are prepared, citing her daughter’s experience moving from second grade to third grade.
“What I really appreciated very much was our weekly updates from the teacher were peppered in with information about what the curriculum was focused on in terms of how it tied into MCAS, and the reasoning behind that. She didn’t announce that to the students … but she let the parents know so we knew that the kids were learning MCAS goals and outcomes throughout the second grade year and she was really preparing them for third grade,” Gerow said.
In a statement, McMahon added that while the district is proud of the growth of students, the goal remains proficiency for all students.
