Martinez: results are mixed
no student group across the Commonwealth that is above pre-pandemic levels
"we always meet children where they're at"
foundational goal: regardless of what people's opinions are of where we were in 2019
"here in our Commonwealth, I seem advantages, I see alignment, I haven't seen in other parts of the country"
At the end it's about us coming together
"I'm fine having critical friends...there are no shortcuts in this work"
"the data will speak for itself"
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| this sheep has nothing to do with it, but I thought we might need a sheep to get through this |
Curtin:
"a lot of work that goes into the last months"
staff and IT
different than past years in that results were released publicly yesterday (rather than right now)
Rolling release of student results to districts on April 25 for student-level interventions and planning for this coming year
that was a response to McCarthy's public comment, in case you missed it
aggregated results now
Most visited day of the year on the website
grades 3-8: increase of 3 in ELA; no change in math
Grade 10: some impact from Q 2
science: no change in 5; decreases in 8 and 10
first civics in grade 8
55% of schools either substantial progress or meeting or exceeding targets
and now there are slides, which aren't online but are being shown
consider a meaningful difference 2% or greater
"remarkably consistency in results" around 42 (meeting or exceeding)
much of what we're seeing 20 or so on not meeting
far right is how far away from pre-pandemic
particularly earlier grades seeing double-digits off of 2019
two and three point changes grades 3-8 in racial and ethnic groups
always pay attention to gaps between groups; challenge ahead
improve performance of all students
Martinez: not seen proficiency levels this low for multilingual students
only recent changes allowing for best practices for multilingual students
"accumulation of them all"
Curtin: grade 10 in ELA; 6% drop
were getting pre-pandemic levels last year
can see throughout student groups significant drops
50% meeting or exceeding
"I want to be careful here about attribution" not possible for single impact
"some evidence of impact as to the outcome of question 2 in November"
when we look at motivation of students to do well on the test
one way to do that is blanks or "off topic responses"
"students might tell us their feelings about MCAS or about anything"
have substantially increased; off topic answers "tripled" from 2024 to 2025
Hills; "my impression would be that...this doesn't take away from the pretty substantial"
we don't actually need to hear from Hills on every topic
asks Curtin to address that
Curtin: might have expected some lower results
"we were on the trend up" getting close to 2019 results in 2024
"we do seen anomalies on the way the students participated in the assessment"
Martinez: "kids pay attention"
"when we don't pay attention to particular things"
"I don't think we should mince words...we just need to live with that"
Grant: would like to see actual data
Curtin: on average we were 800 or so off-topic per essay; had about 2500 per this year
51 point test
if you leave two essays blank, it's a 16 point drop (8 points each)
Hills: I think this is simple math on doing the right way; if every single one and then goes into a thing about numbers of points and wow he really doesn't want to let this go
Fisher: I think two things can be true: the tenth grade MCAS is obsolete for accountability; it's really problematic to hold districts accountable, given the ballot
even given that, our students are underperforming at a rate that is beyond tragic
Martinez: comprehensive solution (referring to graduation council)
"the reason Massachusetts became number one in the country, was our high standards"
"the gold standard" for measuring that has always been MCAS
"people always love to attack the accountability system and"
watching from elsewhere in the country
"taking it as an opportunity"
access to coursework for opportunity
"you get access to great content: so what?"
very comprehensive set of solutions from us: more to come
Curtin: math
overall 41% meeting or exceeding expectations: flat
quite a bit off from 2019; a little closer, but the 2019 results were a little lower
consistency is 41% meeting; 19% not meeting
flat results overall; also by student group
almost no significant or meaningful change by group
grade 10 math: drop in terms of meeting or exceeding expectations
45% of students meeting or exceeding expectations
almost 60% grade 10 math in 2019; now 45%
don't vary greatly by group, either
grade 10 math results: careful about narrowing achievement gaps by one group dropping
want to see forward progress in narrowing achievement gaps by groups going UP
science: just about completely flat
42% meeting or exceeding
grade 10: drop much like math 46%
"data are telling us exactly what the truth is this year"
first operational assessment for grade 8 civics
two components: end of course test
state-level performance task done locally
administration went well; almost no problems in first year of administration
scoring first year: standards setting
teachers go through where the cut scores should be based on what students should know to meet each of the achievement level cuts
done over a few days in August
39% students meeting or exceeding expectations on first administration of test
gaps exist like they do in other subjects
chronic absenteeism results
saw a small improvement in results this year; at least 10% of days missed = chronic absenteeism
grades 3-8 for those who miss less than 10%; average scaled score in ELA is 496 (just below meeting or exceeding)
for those chronically absent 482
average student who was chronically absent missed 32 (? I think he said) days
not being chronically absent is worth half an achievement level
grade 10 its worth 2/3rds of an achievement level; it puts the average non-chronically absent student above the meeting or exceeding level
lowest performing students are performing at a level lower than they ever have
bottom quartile
63 districts have met or exceeded 2019 achievement levels in grades 3-8
9 districts that have done that only ELA
41 districts in math
13 districts that have done it in both ELA and math
Martinez: this is not the goal
"want us to ground ourselves in where we're at"
"yesterday is not a one and one...elevating practices throughout the year"
"nobody talked about test prep...nobody talked about this drill...teachers will stop tier one instruction and go right to remediation...that's not what was talked about"
"and a lot of hard work and really trying different things"
over 90 schools that have also reached 2019 ELA and math levels
almost 200 that have done it in at least one of the two subjects
"to elevate practices in the classroom"
"welcome everybody to be a critical partner...what are the strategies and practices"
turnover at the classroom or district level "all for naught"
"so many assets...that I do see a path forward"
Grant: only offer is the role that we place "such a resource rich Commonwealth...alignment of resources"
"eye opening to see this data against the level of resources that have been invested"
another "we don't understand inflation" question
Craven: who is using aligned curriculum
Martinez: as we highlight those practices, bring them to the Board
Hills says something about these not being higher income districts (to a murmur from the crowd, which knows the demographics of the districts better than Hills seems to)
Curtin: learn from a variety of districts
Roche: chronically absent: can talk about curriculum all we want
if we aren't making sure that students who are absent aren't taking the time to ensure they get there rather than jump
resources aligning their needs
talk more about these resources aligning; students from third grade not on grade level, how to be sure for the students who are not on grade level
Martinez: nothing happened by accident, true rolling up sleeves, happening with their families
if students don't feel supported or don't feel challenged, they're going to feel disengaged
part of us, as we go deep into the practices, around the supports of the children
"We talked about students feeling joy, feeling a sense of community"
Grant: parents need to know what the implications for 30 days of missed days
I am not convinced that they don't, but I also think that this comment misses why children miss 30 days
tremendous investment that the taxpayers of this Commonwealth have made
"relentlessness" of that
"hold people accountable"
Martinez: joy is students feeling confident about their future
children not feeling seen and not feeling part of the community
Roche: students feeling seen and heard in their sadness and their joy
Curtin: accountability results
two components to the system: normative of schools compared to one another; compared to targets
measured through multiple measures
end up with two things
"does a school require assistance or intervention or not?"
"how schools are doing relative to making their targets?"
not talking today about individual school decisions: will bring back to Board perhaps as early as next month
six different ways schools can get that: chronically underperforming or underperforming; lowest 10%; very low performing student group; not meeting federal or state participation; 6something graduation rate
almost 1600 schools 82% not requiring
18% requiring assistance or intervention
how are they doing at making progress towards targets
55% substantial progress or met or exceeded; drop of 60% last year; change much attributed to high school results
Blue Ribbon included in recognition, even as federal government has cancelled program
61 schools of recognition; 6 Blue Ribbon
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