PEABODY — The school district has released its 2021 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) results, highlighting the hard work from both teachers and students during the pandemic.
Superintendent of Schools Dr. Josh Vadala said the district is looking at the results as a diagnostic tool and an opportunity to see where the kids are with their learning.
Assistant Superintendent of Schools Dr. Kelly Chase presented the results in slides provided by the commonwealth’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), which she said identifies some of the gaps that exist as well as areas of strength.
With the MCAS being canceled in 2020 because of the pandemic, the data was primarily compared to that of 2019.
In 2019, 39 percent of fifth-grade students were meeting expectations for the English/Language Arts (ELA) MCAS, compared to 36 percent in 2021, which Chase said is not a huge difference.
“A lot of this shows credit for our teachers,” Chase said. “Teachers really do matter, and I think this shows how important they are. When our kids are in front of our teachers, we get them where they need to be.”
In the results for grade-eight ELA, 25 percent of students were meeting expectations in 2021, compared to 42 percent in 2019.
In regards to next steps going forward, Chase said they will dig into what the questions look like, where the students did well, what types of questions students missed the mark on, and where to go from there.
The district will also look into subgroups of students, which Chase said will include researching if certain groups of students did better than others and how to mitigate those gaps.
For grade-10 ELA, 46 percent of students were meeting expectations in 2021, compared to 47 percent in 2019.
In terms of exceeding expectations in ELA, 12 percent of 10th-grade students saw qualifying scores in 2021, compared to 5 percent in 2019.
“That goes along with … our kids really holding up the progress that they had before the pandemic,” Chase said.
With these results, Chase said they will dig into the root of why older students can maintain an upward trend in MCAS scores; she also mentioned the fact that the older students may be able to work better with technology.
For the math MCAS results, Chase said this is where the work they are currently doing with teachers really starts to matter, as there are significant drops in scores across the board.
Grade-three math scores saw 22 percent meeting expectations in 2021, compared to 32 percent in 2019.
The 2021 MCAS math scores also saw 33 percent of third graders not meeting expectations, compared to 14 percent in 2019.
Chase said this drop may have to do with the younger students having more difficulty using computers and technology and doing things independently.
In fifth-grade math results, 26 percent of students were meeting expectations in 2021, compared to 36 percent in 2019, while eighth-grade math scores in 2021 saw 25 percent of students meeting expectations, compared to 36 percent in 2019.
“It’s kids at all levels and all grades that need to have this addressed,” Chase said. “The data shows us that there is a lot to be done but there’s also a lot to be celebrated.”
Some action steps are already in place to accelerate learning and mitigate gaps, including schoolwide improvement plans formed from the data, common assessments, and professional development to address the needs of all students.
Moving forward in the pandemic, Peabody schools have implemented testing programs that are run through CIC health.
Vadala said this program, which is for those who are unvaccinated or in close contact with someone who tested positive, began two weeks ago and saw more than 150 students participate in the first week.
“This is really designed to keep students and staff in school that would typically be required to be quarantined at home,” Vadala said. “Last year, these same students would have been sent home last year, so this has been a big plus for us this year.”
This “test and stay” program is also available over the weekend, so students can participate in extracurricular activities.
“I can’t say enough about our health department here and our school nurses and our health director. They’ve done a great job organizing this,” Vadala said.
Peabody schools also began diagnostic testing last week, where students with minimal symptoms can get tested in the nurse’s office and stay in school. If a student has multiple or significant symptoms, then they are not able to stay in school.
“Both of these programs, we’re very excited about (being able to) keep kids in school and get them access to their extracurricular and academic programs,” Vadala said.