The elementary school results on the 2018 MCAS test pleased the School Committee, particularly the improvement by students over the last year.
Watertown’s principals and administrators presented the results at Monday night’s School Committee meeting. Efforts were made after last year’s MCAS results, said Assistant Superintendent of Teaching, Learning and Assessment Theresa McGuinness.
“Last year, when we met to discuss the scores we realized we had a curriculum alignment problem,” McGuinness said. “We met to see how we could make changes.”
The growth in the scores particularly stood out, she said.
“Math has good growth, but not as good as the ELA (English Language Arts),” McGuiness said.
The state measures growth of 60 to 99 as higher growth, 40 to 59 as moderate growth, and 1-39 as lower growth.
At Cunniff Elementary School, students showed higher growth in three of four tests, for All Students, and two of four categories for High Needs students. The others made moderate growth.
Principal Mena Ciarlone said that teachers used last year’s scores to target instruction and that the whole school has bought into the effort.
“All the faculty is focused on this. They all have ownership of the students,” Ciarlone said. “We realize growth starts in PreK and goes all the way through grade 5.”
The new MCAs uses four categories for scores: Exceeding Expectations, Meeting Expectations, Partially Meeting Expectations and Not Meeting Expectations
More than half the students at Cunniff fell into the Meeting Expectations or Exceeding Expectations categories in Grade 3 ELA and Grade 5 ELA. In the other categories, more than 40 percent were in Meeting or Exceeding Expectations.
At Hosmer Elementary School, students in three of four categories made higher growth for All Students, and one of four in the High Needs subgroup. The other groups showed moderate growth.
Hosmer Principal Bob LaRoche said that scores improved for all tests except for third grade math.
“We are looking into that,” LaRoche said. “The curriculum coordinators are identifying strands where we need to focus.”
He added that even with the growth, there is always room for improvement.
More than half of Hosmer students were Meeting or Exceeding expectations in Grade 4 ELA, Grade 5 ELA and Grade 4 math. More than 40 percent Met or Exceeded expectations in Grade 3 ELA, but 36 percent were Meeting or Exceeding Expectations in Grade 5 math and 29 percent Met or Exceeded Expectations in Grade 3 math.
Students at Lowell Elementary School showed higher growth in two of four categories for All Students and one of four for Higher Needs students. The others fell into the moderate growth category.
Lowell Principal Stacy Phelan said that it is a result of the dedication of the staff.
“It is a testament to the teachers and their hard work,” Phelan said. She added that Lowell, like other schools, is using iReady to test students to see where they have strengths and weaknesses early in the year so they can be addressed before taking tests.
More than half of Lowell students got Meeting or Exceeding Expectations in Grade 4 ELA, Grade 5 ELA and Grade 5 math, including 73 percent in Grade 5 ELA. Just under 50 percent fell into those categories for Grade 3 ELA, Grade 3 math and Grade 4 math.
School Committee member Lindsay Mosca said the was impressed by the results, especially the districtwide growth.
“In every single category we outperformed the state, and our students out grew others,” Mosca said. “It’s a really exciting set of numbers.”
Efforts have been made districtwide to help students improve. Watertown’s K-8 Literacy Coordinator Allison Donovan said that the district has introduced a phonics program for students in grades K-2 called Fundations. Watertown K-5 Math & Science Coordinator Elizabeth Kaplan said that the district added an extra math coach at the elementary level, which worked well.
School Committee Vice Chair Kendra Foley said she likes the steps that have been taken by the district, and schools.
“It makes me so happy to see all three schools doing the same thing with professional development and curriculum,” Foley said. “It has never been done in this district.”
School Committee member Eileen Hsu-Balzer said she hopes that the individual student results can explained to parents during parent-teacher conferences. She would also like to see them provided information about how they can help their children at home.
Some sort of sheet explaining what the district’s results show would be helpful, said School Committee member Lily Rayman-Read.
The middle school and high school results will be discussed at the next School Committee meeting on Nov. 19, 2018.
See more of the Watertown Public Schools’ results on the State Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website by clicking here.