Chicopee MCAS scores show improvements

Date: 9/25/2014

CHICOPEE – Although the school district is still designated as Level 3, progress was made as evidence of the results of the most current Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS).

Deborah Drugan, assistant superintendent for instruction and accountability, explained to Reminder Publications the district now has three schools at Level 1 including two that made significant improvements with the test results. Lambert Lavoie Memorial School went from Level 2 to Level 1 and Stefanik Memorial School jumped from Level 3 to Level 1. The Anna E.Barry School maintained its level 1 status.
   
Drugan said state educational officials assign the overall status of a district based on its lowest level school.
   
“We’re still striving to do better,” she said. “We’re pleased at the gains we’ve made.”
   
Drugan added that Bowie Memorial  School has experienced a drop in the past, but “exhibited gains this year.” The city’s high schools also had a high composite performance index.
   
“We looked at them [the schools] individually and we’re on the right track,” she said.
    
The challenge for the district she said was addressing the performance gap between sub-groups, such as low income, special education and English Language Learners (ELL).
   
“We look at the various needs of those kids; where they are on the learning curve,” she said.
   
The assumption that ELL students are younger children is not necessarily correct, Drugan said. The district has ELL students entering high school. The state gives those students one year’s grace before they take the MCAS, which she said is “very difficult.”
   
Drugan added, “Those gaps are challenging.”
   
Chicopee currently has 250 homeless students whose families have been relocated to the city and living in temporary locations such as motels. Drugan said these students don’t make up a subgroup, but they may fall into one, such as low income.
   
While not all of the students are in a year of school during which the MCAS is administered, Drugan said there are an “appreciable amount” who do take the test.
   
“They are living in a very difficult situation,” Drugan said. She added that some of the students come from states in which the educational standards are not as rigorous as ones in Massachusetts, which adds to the gap.
   
The district has been giving the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers test (PARCC) for the last two years to the elementary and middle schools, Drugan said. The PARCC test is given twice a year to third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth graders as well as the MCAS. In the high schools, MCAS is the only test that is given.
   
PARCC is aligned to be the test for the Common Core curriculum and the test has yet to be officially adopted by state education officials. Drugan said PARCC may be adopted as the standard or the MCAS may be revised.
   
In either case, the scores will be adjusted to reflect the school assessments that result in classification of four different levels.