SWAMPSCOTT — Last Thursday, the town’s school committee discussed the overview of district MCAS data. They provided further explanation of how Swampscott students are doing compared to before the pandemic.
MCAS testing consists of three parts, English Language Arts (ELA), Mathematics (MATH) and Science (SCI). Students’ results are categorized as exceeding, meeting, partially meeting or not meeting the state’s standards.
The state did not administer MCAS tests in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and there were limited tests given in 2021. Therefore, the comparison relied heavily on 2019 and 2022 data.
In English Language Arts at the elementary, middle and high school, there was a steady pattern of decline between 2019 and 2022, especially at the elementary and middle schools, according to the data.
The percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations in elementary school was 72 percent in 2019, and 51 percent in 2022; in middle school it was 58 percent in 2019, and 49 percent in 2022, in high school there was only a one percent drop.
The school committee said that their youngest learners were most affected by the pandemic in reading and writing.
In Mathematics, the elementary students did better than before the pandemic with a two percent increase, while middle school and high school saw a drop.
“The declines that we experienced in Swampscott are not unique and are still holding us above the statewide averages,” said Jean Bacon, Director of Teaching and Learning.
The data also provides the differences between Swampscott Public Schools’ result and statewide results in meeting or exceeding expectations criteria. In the data, elementary students were outperforming the state by over 20 percent in 2018, but that number has now dropped to only 10 %, which raised concern among the school committee.
“That may be an area for us to think about what we can do to sort of improve that because we’re actually losing ground,” Bacon said.
