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Date: 10/26/2023
BELCHERTOWN — Belchertown Public Schools’ MCAS scores show signs of reaching pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, according to a presentation made to the School Committee at its Oct. 17 meeting.
District Data Administrator Ben Admussen put together a presentation based on the state and Belchertown school scores from the last three years in relation to MCAS.
The charts were taken from a Department of Elementary and Secondary Education presentation and focused on the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations. DESE’s focus was to analyze the effect of COVID-19 on education.
Last year was the first year that all students grade 3-10 took the same test and DESE is considering it a new baseline year.
Admussen showed that scores have not risen to their 2019 pre-pandemics levels in any subjects but gradually improved the last two years.
He said, “Statewide, the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations is well below where it was in 2019, however, student achievement is recovering slowly and 2023 saw improvement in most areas.”
Both statewide and in Belchertown, progress has been made toward regaining lost learning caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
Admussen said, “Growth scores demonstrate that some classrooms and grade levels are characterized by remarkably effective instruction, most notably ELA. Accountability measures have improved signaling that we are making progress in achieving goals set by DESE for our district.”
When it comes to just Belchertown, scores now exceed 2019 levels in about half of grade-level subject tests.
The presentation showed that Belchertown students generally score around the state average in ELA and students’ math scores are also roughly average for Massachusetts.
Admussen said, “We have been more successful in regaining pre-pandemic proficiency in ELA than in math, where some grades are still well behind their 2019 proficiency levels.”
The presentation will be made available for anyone to view at the Belchertown School Committee website, belchertownps.org/school-committee.
The meeting then shifted to Superintendent Brian Cameron talking about a new initiative the schools have launched to help students who have experienced traumatic events.
Cameron said Belchertown Public Schools was one of a few school departments invited to work with the Children’s Advocacy Center of Hampshire County for a new program called Handle With Care.
“What it entails is a communication between the Police Department and the School Department. So if the police are working the night before and they go to a situation where a student is involved in any kind of trauma, whether it be a fire, drug overdose, anything you can think of, we have a QR code that the police have and an officer will scan it and it presents the name, age, the school and the notice that says, ‘Handle With Care,’” Cameron explained.
Information about the traumatic event is not shared with the school.
Cameron added, “We don’t get details, we don’t get anything about the trauma. That information comes to us, and we contact the school principal to let them know they have a handle with care student and then they can let the staff know.”
A letter explaining the program was sent to parents and training was hosted at the Jabish Brook Middle School.
The training offered information on how the program works and what schools can expect.
“We have encouraged staff not to pry for information as to what happened. We have already received a few Handle With Care and it has only been a couple of weeks. I feel like this is just another resource at our hands to help students who experience trauma immediately.”