PEABODY — At Tuesday night’s School Committee meeting, Superintendent Dr. Josh Vadala began his report by discussing the Fiscal Year 2026 fair share earmarks.
“In Peabody, we’re very fortunate to have very supportive people in our State delegation,” he said, specifically mentioning Rep. Tom Walsh, Sen. Joan Lovely, and Rep. Sally Kerans.
Vadala said Walsh “led the charge in creating” this earmark. He added, “Rep. Walsh really advocated for $100,000 to go to Peabody Public Schools to continue the Science from Scientists program.”
The Science from Scientists program is in all eight of Peabody’s elementary schools, and Vadala noted that the funding just came through to continue this program. He then provided background information about the program.
“Back in 2020, the West Elementary School PTO was able to bring (in) this great program where scientists from the field come to work with 4th and 5th graders once a month and do hands-on learning activities with a real scientist, and the teachers get the benefit of professional development by co-teaching with a real scientist, and it’s an amazing opportunity,” Vadala said.
Committee member Beverley Griffin Dunne said she was “thrilled that this is continuing because I know how many kids enjoy this, and they’re learning so much from this program.”
She added, “It gives every one of our elementary students a nice experience, great exposure to science and to scientists — and you never know how that’s going to change some child’s future. They might decide to go into science or medicine, and it’s because of that program.”
Vadala then shared that the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) results were published Monday, and student report cards will be out next week.
“As we look at the results this year, there’s a lot of opportunities for celebration and growth,” Vadala said. He added, “We continue to close the gap from the pre-pandemic learning.”
Vadala specifically pointed to “great growth” in English Language Arts (ELA), which comes after the adoption of new, high-quality instructional materials. He also pointed out that Center Elementary was the first Peabody school to be honored by the State as a School of Recognition last year, and now Burke Elementary has been honored as a 2025 School of Recognition.
“Out of 1,800 schools K-12, (Burke Elementary is) one of 61 schools that is a School of Recognition for 2025, and just five years ago, they were a school that required assistance,” Vadala said.
Vadala then turned the conversation over to Assistant Superintendent Dr. Kelly Chase, who addressed the data.
“Each of our schools had a reason to celebrate one thing or another within their experience,” Chase said. “If we look at the Brown School, for example, their grade 5 math scores, 37% were meeting or exceeding expectations, which is a 17% increase from last year. At the Burke School, grade 3 ELA, 54% of our students were meeting or exceeding expectations, which was a 32% increase from the year before.”
Chase added, “At the Carroll School, grade 4 ELA, 25% (are) meeting and exceeding expectations, (which is) a 10% increase. At McCarthy, there was an 11% increase in grade 4 ELA. At the South School, in grade 3 ELA… 48% (are) meeting or exceeding expectations, which is a 19% increase. And then at the Welch, grade 4 ELA, 19% (are) meeting or exceeding expectations, which is a 3% increase. At the West School, you’ll see grade 5 with a 54% meeting or exceeding rate, and that’s a 32% increase from last year.”
Chase continued, discussing the Higgins Middle School data.
“If you think about what’s been happening over time, we adopted K-5 ELA materials. We’re in our fourth year, but last year, we started, in earnest, to bring in new ELA materials for the middle school, and you’ll see that grade 6 (shows) 30% meeting or exceeding expectations (in ELA), which is a 7% increase,” Chase said.
She added, “We’re starting to see the benefits in closing the gaps of our students being exposed to high-quality instructional materials, our teachers really pushing high-quality tasks, asking the kids to quote material, making sure that they’re looking at the text when they’re making a response, so our kids from 5th grade are coming into 6th grade better prepared.”
Chase also said the high school’s multi-language (ML) students are now exceeding their targets by 32.8%, which is a 16.5% increase from last year.
