The Commonwealth’s 2023 MCAS scores are in.
Statewide, 42% of students in grades three through eight met or exceeded expectations in English language arts, 41% did so in math, and 41% did so in science. For 10th-grade students, 58%, 50%, and 47% of students met or exceeded expectations in those respective subjects.
Along with the scores statewide were accountability reports for the Commonwealth’s school districts with data ultimately quantified into a single number between 0 and 100%, with 75% or higher signifying that a district is meeting or exceeding targets.
This number, the criterion-referenced target percentage, measures each district’s and school’s progress toward improvement targets and combines multiple years of data related to achievement, growth, high-school completion, English-learner progress, advanced-coursework completion, and chronic absenteeism.
Districts in the area received scores ranging from 35% for Peabody Public Schools to 75% for Marblehead Public Schools.
Lynn Public Schools, which enrolls 15,433 students and serves grades pre-K-12, notched a 2023 criterion-referenced target percentage of 36%, which the state Department of Education classifies as “moderate progress toward targets.”
The city’s MCAS scores continue to lag behind state averages for expected test scores, with the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations in grades 3-8 decreasing across all subjects. The percentages dropped from 15% to 14% in math from 2022 to 2023 and from 21% to 19% in English in the same period.
“We recognize the opportunities for growth and improvement within our district,” Superintendent Evonne Alvarez said. “Lynn Public Schools stand apart from many other districts in Massachusetts, and we remain steadfast in our commitment to meeting the unique needs of our student population.”
Compared to 2022, grade 10 saw no change in the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations in math, staying at 18% in 2023. For English and science, the district improved the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations from 33% to 34% in English and from 14% to 20% in science from 2022 to 2023.
According to the state, 14 of Lynn’s schools are designated as “requiring assistance or intervention.”
Based on the data available, the lowest-performing schools in the district based on school accountability percentile were Washington Elementary School at 3% and Lynn English High School at 2%, both of which were classified as “needing assistance or intervention.”
The schools in the city with the highest accountability percentiles were Aborn Elementary School at 56% and Lynn Woods Elementary School at 70%.
“Our strategic partners are working with LPS this year to continue to move towards student-centered instruction and pedagogy that supports high engagement for all learners,” Alvarez said. “Our unwavering focus remains on fostering student growth, proficiency, and mastery of standards.”
Marblehead had more than 50% of students meeting or exceeding expectations in all three phases in both grades 3-8 and 10th grade. The district also saw a significant increase in performance from 2022 scores across all three categories in both grade-level groups.
In ELA, 11% of Marblehead students in grades 3-8 exceeded expectations, and 49% met expectations. 9% of those students exceeded expectations in both math and science, and met expectations in math and science at 50% and 46%, respectively.
32% partially met expectations in ELA, 33% did so in math, and 35% did so in science. Less than 10% of students did not meet expectations. 8% did not meet expectations for math and ELA, and 9% did not meet them for science.
Most notably, the 10th-grade group performed very well overall, with more than 75% of students meeting or exceeding expectations in all three categories: 79% for ELA, 77% for math, and 76% for science.
Science had the highest percentage of 10th-grade students exceeding with 24%, while math was third with 12%. ELA saw 23% of students exceed expectations.
When it came to meeting expectations, however, math saw 65% of 1oth-grade students meet that standard, with ELA (56%) and science (52%) right behind. 18% of students partially met expectations in ELA, 21% did so in math, and 22% did so in science.
The percentage of 10th-grade students that did not meet expectations for all three categories was 3% or less.
In Peabody, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education found the district was making moderate progress toward its goals, with a criterion-referenced target percentage of 35%.
The percentage of students in grades three through eight meeting or exceeding expectations in science, math, and ELA remained relatively stagnant this year as compared to 2022, aside from a decline in science.
32% of students met or exceeded expectations in ELA, 33% met or exceeded expectations in math, and 31% met or exceeded expectations in science. For 10th-grade students, those numbers rose to 42%, 36%, and 26%, respectively.
In 2022, 30% of students in grades three through eight met or exceeded expectations in ELA, 31% met or exceeded expectations in math, and 37% met or exceeded expectations in science. 43% of 10th-grade students met or exceeded expectations in ELA that year, 35% did so in math, and 32% did so in science.
Superintendent of Schools Josh Vadala said the district was encouraged by the data it received this year, noting that the city’s elementary schools implemented a new ELA curriculum last year.
Vadala said the district’s third-grade students continue to struggle, which he attributed at least in part to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Their foundational skills have been impacted greatly by the pandemic,” Vadala said. “This group of third graders missed a large portion of kindergarten and were in a hybrid model for much of first grade. They are now in fourth grade and will be a big focus of our work moving forward.”
“We were pleased with our fourth- and fifth-graders demonstrating increases in proficiency in ELA from the previous school year. Similarly, eighth-grade students increased proficiency levels by 7 percentage points from the previous year (compared to only 1% gains from their grade-level peers statewide),” Vadala added.
Vadala also addressed DESE’s determination that the Brown School required “assistance or intervention,” writing that officials look forward to partnering with the department to provide additional support to students and staff at the elementary school.
“We believe that efforts to increase the rigor for all students and the ability for every student to receive small group instruction from their teacher every day will serve our students well,” Vadala said.
Districtwide, officials’ focus “remains on recovery and supporting the holistic needs of all students,” Vadala said.
“I appreciate the work of our dedicated staff and our wonderful families to support our students as they continue to demonstrate steady improvements,” he concluded.
In Saugus, DESE said the district had made “moderate progress” toward its goals with a criterion-referenced target percentage of 40%.
The percentage of students in grades three through eight meeting or exceeding expectations in science, math, and ELA were all down in 2023 from 2022 and below the state average. 31% of students met or exceeded expectations in ELA, 31% met or exceeded expectations in math, and 34% met or exceeded expectations in science. For 10th-grade students at Saugus High, those numbers rose to 56%, 46%, and 45%, respectively.
In 2022, 41% of students in grades three through eight met or exceeded expectations in ELA, 39% met or exceeded expectations in math, and 42% met or exceeded expectations in science.
For students in 10th grade at the high school, those numbers sat at 48%, 36%, and 36%, respectively, last year.
Saugus Middle School fared the worst of the three schools, with students falling short of the state benchmarks by 17% in ELA, 15% in math, and 13% in science.
The district’s acting superintendent, Michael Hashem, said in a statement that the district was pleased with its progress, but noted that there is still work to be done.
Hashem pointed specifically to DESE’s accountability percentage for Saugus High School, which sat at 15% in 2017, but rose to 24% by 2023. He attributed the increase to the rising performance of the school’s students.
“The state is still dealing with a learning loss caused by the pandemic,” he said. “We are pleased to be trending in the right direction.”
“As we attempt to move all students towards meeting the standards, we used those data points, (percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations), for our initial reflection,” he continued. “We will be continuing to work with students on a daily basis to review real-time data to drive our instruction.”
And, Hashem said a full detailed analysis of the results will be presented to the School Committee next month.
Superintendent Erin McMahon, who has been on paid administrative leave since January, set a goal upon her hiring in summer 2021 that Saugus Middle/High School would move into the top 10% of high schools statewide in both math and reading for MCAS in the 10th grade. When McMahon was hired, Saugus was in the bottom 10%.
In Swampscott, 46% of students in grades three through eight met or exceeded expectations in math and science, and 47% of elementary- and middle-school students who took the MCAS met or exceeded expectations in ELA.
The town’s results for grades three through eight mark a slight decrease in science and English scores and a slight improvement in math scores from last year, when 48% of test-taking students met or exceeded expectations in both English and science, and 43% of students met or exceeded expectations in math.
For 10th-grade students in Swampscott, test scores decreased in all three subjects between 2022 and 2023. This year, 61% of high-school test-takers met or exceeded expectations in science, with only 58% meeting or exceeding expectations in English and 55% doing so in math. In 2022, 69% of the 10th-grade students met or exceeded expectations in science, while 66% of students did so in English and 62% of students did so in math.
Nahant’s Johnson Elementary School saw a 45% decrease in math scores this year, with 32% of third-grade students who took the test meeting or exceeding expectations in 2023 and 77% meeting or exceeding expectations in 2022. English MCAS scores, on the other hand, improved by 20%, with only 38% of students meeting or exceeding expectations in 2022 and 58% hitting the same criteria this year.
Lynnfield has been identified as making substantial progress toward its targets. The district’s criterion-referenced target percentage is 71%. All schools in the district have been classified as not requiring assistance or intervention.
This year, 50% of students from grades three through eight exceeded expectations in ELA, which is a slight increase from last year’s 49%.
While in 2022, 53% of students from grades three through eight exceeded expectations in math, this year the percentage dropped to 52%. Science saw the biggest percentage drop, with 46% of students from grades five through eight exceeding expectations in comparison to last year’s 56%.
53% of 10th-graders exceeded expectations in ELA — a decline from the previous year when 66% of 10th-graders exceeded expectations. There was a similar drop in science too, with 61% of students exceeding expectations in 2022 and 46% of students exceeding expectations in 2023. 61% of 10th-graders exceeded expectations in math — a welcome increase from last year’s 56%.
