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Date: 10/25/2022
HOLYOKE – Holyoke Public Schools (HPS) results for MCAS are in and are showing signs of impact on students scores due to disruption from the coronavirus pandemic.
During the School Committee’s Oct. 17 meeting, Superintendent Anthony Soto gave a summary of results for the districts MCAS scores. Soto said the latest results had some positive trends in math and science but overall were not at the level they were at a year ago.
HPS has been under receivership since 2015 after the Massachusetts Board of Elementary and Secondary Education found that student performance in the district was behind compared to much of the state.
According to Soto, the 2022 MCAS results showed mixed results compared with 2021 scores, which is consistent across the state. Math scores increased slightly in grades 3-8 but declined in grade 10. English Language Arts (ELA) scores declined for most grade levels and science scores increased slightly.
Soto explained that the latest results should be more so compared to 2019’s scores as that was the last year before the coronavirus pandemic started impacting students and testing. In 2020 the MCAS test was canceled and in 2021 only half of the test was administered.
The state released the 2022 results for all public-school districts in late September. Results are divided into four categories: exceeding, meeting, partially meeting and not meeting expectations. Holyoke scores are measured against state averages.
The superintendent added that the district’s trends are “very consistent” with state trends and that fourth graders have become an area of concern across the state. Soto noted that one concern was on elementary students scores as some children may have missed out on foundational elements of school in the earlier grades due to COVID-19.
“It is so important looking at third and fourth graders, you can see the impact it had,” Soto said. “They missed a good foundational base in pre-K and K. Then they are asked to take the third-grade test after such learning loss from the [coronavirus] pandemic.”
Soto noted that, as he is hearing around the state, Holyoke students were impacted due to learning loss and students who missed more time during that period have seen their scores more impacted. He added that when a student exceeds a 90 percent attendance rate, they are twice as likely to meet or exceed expectations in all subjects compared to chronically absent students.
It was also noted by the superintendent that with some of the districts already relevant challenges with chronic absenteeism, it remains a challenge across the board in recovery efforts and helping improve student performances.
“What I am leaning into heavily this year, because its so clear, is the coronavirus pandemic had an impact on attendance which impacted learning loss which impacted scores,” Soto said. “Scores don’t tell the true picture but it’s easy to see kids who missed more school struggled compared to those who didn’t.”
According to Soto, the district has identified ELA as a top area of improvement. The district had already been identifying ways to improve early literacy through their new strategic plan after low scores in the subject identified an area of concern for younger elementary students.
When looking at the ELA data from this year both third and fourth grade scores saw a significant 11-point drop-in students meeting or exceeding expectations from 2019, the last pre-coronavirus pandemic test. Ten percent of that 11 percent for fourth graders came in the last year while third graders were a 2 percent change from 2021.
Soto said this is due to a variety of factors like parents not sending their children to pre-K or K and opting to learn remotely caused some issues with time on learning that could not be avoided due to the circumstances.
Grades 3-8 as a whole dropped 9 percentage points in ELA from 2019, but only a three-point drop from the year prior. Grade 8 alone saw 1 percent of students exceeding expectations and 10 percent meeting expectations while 45 percent partially met expectations and another 45 percent did not. This result was within a few percentage points from last year.
Grade 8 math scores showed 0 percent of students exceeding expectations while 6 percent met, 37 partially met, while 57 percent did not meet expectations.
Grade 10 ELA results showed 1 percent of students exceeding, 27 percent meeting, 55 percent partially meeting and 17 percent not meeting expectations.
Math scores in grade 10 showed no students received scores that exceeded expectations, but 9 percent met, and 61 percent partially met. Thirty percent did not meet expectations and was within range of a few points in comparison to last year’s number.
While going through the different statistics, Soto noted again these results were consistent with state trends and reinforced the view that the coronavirus pandemic interfered with student learning.
Another notable MCAS results saw grade 5 ELA scores stay the same while seventh and eighth grade increased slightly.