SWAMPSCOTT — The academic performance gap between students with disabilities and all students in Swampscott has dwindled significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an annual progress report sent to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE).
In 2019, only 17% of disabled Swampscott students in grades three through eight met or exceeded grade-level expectations on their English language arts (ELA) MCAS tests, while 62% of all students met or exceeded the standard — a 45% gap. In 2022, this gap diminished by 7%.
“We made strong progress in closing achievement gaps for students with disabilities between 2019, pre-pandemic, and 2022,” Superintendent of Schools Pamela Angelakis said.
The Student Opportunity Act, passed in 2019, earmarks state funding to local school districts with the goal of promoting academic achievement among disadvantaged students. Each year, funded municipalities submit progress reports to DESE tracking success rates for students with disabilities, low-income students, and students who are learning English as a second language.
“When we looked at the data, the group that was most disadvantaged in terms of the gap and their outcomes were the students with disabilities, so we wanted to pull them out and look at that specifically, because that was the most challenged group,” Director of Teaching and Learning Jean Bacon said.
The report notes that much of the diminished gap was caused by disabled students losing less ground during the COVID-19 pandemic than their non-disabled peers. Still, the district reported “significant growth,” in its disabled students’ grade 10 ELA scores from 2019 to 2022.
While the reduced gap between disabled-student performances and all-student averages shows promise, MCAS performance rates among other disadvantaged students have not followed the same trend.
Between 2019 and 2022, ELA MCAS scores from the district’s “high needs” students — a categorization that includes disabled students, students from low-income families, and students learning English — only grew 2% closer to average MCAS scores.
“Overall, that whole ‘high needs’ group had some significant gaps in their learning. So we also wanted to look at them as a collective and see if we could move them as a collective,” Bacon said.
Angelakis said Swampscott Public Schools is currently working to implement an improved curriculum with the aim of boosting academic performance among all students. In 2021 and 2022 the district enrolled two consecutive math-curriculum programs, and in the fall of 2023 it will work to expand literacy programming.
“We’re in the process of selecting a new K through five literacy curriculum for implementation in the fall of 2024, but high-quality material, instructional materials, support the learning outcomes for all students, no matter their subgroup,” Angelakis said.
