At an event in Arlington, Massachusetts, this week state education officials announced the most recent scores of the MCAS, the state's standardized assessment exam.
A 2024 ballot initiative un-coupled MCAS results from graduation requirements, but the test continues to be used by the state as a measure of learning, required by the federal government.
Only 13 districts saw students meet pre-pandemic learning levels in both Math and English Language Arts. Among them five western Massachusetts districts and one Springfield charter school.
NEPM's Jill Kaufman asked Massachusetts Education Commissioner Patrick Tutwiler about the learning lag across the state, and if there were any commonalities among schools that met the state's benchmark of 2019 learning levels.
Massachusetts Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler: They very much focused on meeting the needs of the whole child. The challenges related to mental health issues around food security, issues around housing stability, supports there.
As one superintendent said, we find out what they need and we provide it, or we connect them with resources in our community who can.
Also, they talked about elements of joy in the work; how do we create environments that students feel seen, valued and heard, feel connected?
And then the final thing that they talked about is, what does the data tell us about where students are, what they need, and how do we align supports to meet their needs?
I think those are really nuggets of wisdom that can be shared and embraced by other districts who are working in earnest to meet the needs of their students.
NEPM’s Jill Kaufman: So many students and districts did not meet those pre-pandemic levels. Do you want to break that down by student group, by demographic in any way?
I will say definitively that no subgroup, you know, by race or by socioeconomic status, students with disabilities, those without —- no demographic is back to pre-pandemic levels of performance in Massachusetts.
This process of pandemic recovery, and we've named the benchmark of getting back to 2019 as an important benchmark, when we look at the ...apples to apples assessment, the National Assessment for Education Progress, no state is fully back.
Everyone else is still working on this. It's going to take time and so while we remain, you know, sort of disappointed that we're not back to 2019, it's also understandable and to some degree predictable that we are making incremental progress toward that benchmark.
And I understand there's headway being made on the chronic absenteeism — and the early literacy focus is a key. What is the realistic next measure, do you think, that might indicate a significant change?
I continue to watch the absenteeism rates. Every state is still dealing with challenges around chronic absenteeism.
Remember, chronically absent means 10% or more of days out. We're just around 20%. That means about 20% of Massachusetts students missing the virtual equivalent of a month of school.
I don't think you're going to see the kind of shifts and improvements in achievement until you see shifts and improvement in chronic absenteeism.
This MCAS data could have been a determinant, or is a determinant still of how districts are doing and whether districts are chronically underperforming. Is receivership still a tool in the state's toolkit of helping students learn? Is it possible that any district goes into receivership, knowing some of what we know about its success rate or lack of?
Well, what I would say is, you know, the existence of receivership lives in statute, so it still exists.
I really appreciate what current Commissioner Pedro Martinez has said about really 'leaning into support.'
And so that's our mindset right now. How do we provide robust supports? I mean, there, of course is an accountability piece, right? There's an expectation that's been set and that's important. But how do we make sure that we're going to the end of the earth to support districts, to support teachers, to support district leaders.
Things like, you know, the entire Literacy Launch initiative is a support initiative, right? How do we provide the professional development, provide the resources, provide the technical assistance for districts? That's where our mind is right now, and we're going to lean into that pretty heavily.
"The existence of receivership lives in statute, so it still exists," said Patrick Tutwiler, Massachusetts education secretary, "I really appreciate what current Commissioner Pedro Martinez has said about really 'leaning into support.'"
Okay. So maybe something that isn't receivership but something in those districts? It is statute, but...
I don't I don't foresee that, you know, anytime soon.
MCAS is still used by the state. It's a federal mandate. Will it remain in place as the Healy administration creates its [vision] of a graduate? Is the MCAS going to still be the measure?
The federal government requires every state to administer ELA and math assessments in grades three through eight, and then again in high school.
Right now, the MCAS is that feature, meeting that requirement for high school. The [state's] Grad Council has wide latitude to make recommendations to the legislature on how to proceed.
You heard last week, we announced the Vision of a Massachusetts [High School ]Graduate, a very clear articulation of what we want all students to know and be able to do. Now we're working on backfilling with what learning experiences must all students engage in and then how do students show mastery.
So, much more to come on that. But we have wide latitude to make recommendations that we think will best serve students.