SAUGUS — The School Committee on Thursday heard presentations from school leaders on the district’s 2023 MCAS scores, with officials laying out action steps being taken to ensure scores improve in the future.
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. In Saugus, the percentage of students in grades three through eight meeting or exceeding expectations in science, math, and English language arts were all down in 2023 from 2022 and below the state average. 31% of them 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 statewide, 58%, 50%, and 47% of students met or exceeded expectations in those respective subjects. For Saugus 10th graders, those numbers sat at 56%, 46%, and 45%, respectively.
Acting Superintendent Michael Hashem noted that the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education deemed that Saugus was making “moderate progress” toward targets, and did not identify any of the district’s schools as requiring assistance or intervention. Those marks represented progress, he said, and were the result of a “complete team effort.”
Committee members first heard from interim Belmonte STEAM Academy Principal Maureen Lueke, who is in her first year in that post. Lueke broke the results down by grade and compared the performance of Saugus students to students statewide. While third-grade students were above the state average in ELA and math proficiency, students in fourth and fifth grade lagged behind.
But, Lueke pointed to the fact that a smaller percentage of Saugus students are not meeting expectations than statewide, while a significantly higher percentage of Saugus students are partially meeting expectations compared to their peers. An area of focus for the school will be continuing to move those students forward, she said.
Lueke also said school officials were working to put a growing emphasis on STEAM by incorporating art into science, technology, engineering, and math curriculums as a way to “teach the whole child.”
“Research has shown it really helps different schools, so we have been lucky to really add on to that department as well,” she said.
She also laid out the action plan school officials have implemented to boost student performance, noting that the MCAS is not a be-all-end-all metric, but a useful one for measuring achievement and accountability.
Among the steps listed in the action plan are increased administrative walkthroughs in classrooms coupled with feedback for teachers, grade-level common planning, continued coordination with curriculum coaches for ELA and math, and continued implementation of new curriculums for both of those subjects.
“We’re starting to see some really good changes,” Lueke said.
And, Lueke said, the school has put an added emphasis on social-emotional learning by adding wellness teachers to the physical-education department.
“We’re going to keep working,” she pledged.
For School Committee Chair Vincent Serino, the MCAS results showed that the school was “right there, right on the cusp.”
Next, the committee heard from Saugus Middle/High School Principal Brendon Sullivan and Associate Principal Myra Monto. Middle-school students struggled the most of any of the district’s students on the tests compared to the state average, with just 21% of sixth-grade students meeting or exceeding expectations in ELA, and 20% doing so in math. Seventh-grade students struggled as well, with 22% deemed proficient in ELA and 19% deemed proficient in math.
During the presentation, Sullivan and Monto acknowledged that fact, but said they are confident better results are coming down the line, particularly with the continued implementation of high-quality instructional materials and support for teachers in the form of curriculum coaches.
“We believe this is going to lead to those stronger results that we’re looking for,” Sullivan said.
But, older students did score well on the tests — with Sullivan highlighting 10th-grade math scores and eighth-grade math scores as areas where the district is seeing significant year-over-year progress. For 10th-grade math, 11% more students met or exceeded expectations in 2023 than in 2021. And, while the actual scores for eighth-grade students took a step back, Sullivan said the average student growth percentage, which measures how students are doing compared to their prior performances, was 71%.
“We’re very, very happy with the growth we’re making,” he said, adding that the school has also seen significant growth in proficiency among the 504/IEP subgroup in 10th-grade English and math.
Sullivan said the school’s action plan is “pretty straightforward” and spoke primarily about the continued work on new curriculum implementation. He gave a tremendous amount of credit to the curriculum coaches, who he said have played an integral role.
“We really are just focused on supporting those coaches, and maintaining a high-functioning coaching team at the secondary level, because it really does contribute to that culture of professional learning and high expectations that we have for staff and students,” he said.
Committee members seemed impressed by the results, with Serino saying he was “really proud” of the work the staff had put in.
Vice Chair John Hatch said simply, “this district is moving forward.”
