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Date: 10/26/2022
BELCHERTOWN – Belchertown Public Schools’ MCAS scores remain below pre-coronavirus pandemic levels, according to a presentation made to the School Committee at its Oct. 18 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. Many schools statewide and across the country are struggling with getting their scores up after COVID-19.
The charts were taken from Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) presentation who focused on the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations. DESE’s focus was to analyze the effect of COVID-19 on education.
This 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 subject. Math appeared to hit bottom in 2021 but both math and science scores rose in 2022. English language arts (ELA) scores continued to fall with the greater declines among younger students. Writing scores were particularly low at all levels.
DESE attributes this is in part to student absenteeism. According to DESE, around 28 percent of Massachusetts students missed 10 percent or more of school days in 2021-22, compared to 13 percent in 2018-19.
Admussen said, “All of the research suggests that attendance impacts math scores more than ELA scores. We see though that math scores are coming up and ELA scores continue to drop. It is an interesting phenomenon.”
One of the charts compared the percent of statewide and Belchertown students meeting or exceeding expectations for ELA scores. The state percentage of students who fell in that category were higher for every grade compared to Belchertown students except for sixth and 10th grades.
For example, the percent of students in fifth grade meeting expectation for the state was 41 compared to 28 percent for Belchertown students. That is a 13 percent difference.
Admussen said, “We are making progress in many areas toward regaining lost learning. The progress may be uneven but there are pockets of amazing performance like seen in grades 6 and 10 that remind us of the remarkable things our students and educators can achieve.”
After the presentation, Superintendent Brian Cameron and the committee talked about the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds they received. The School Committee had a joint meeting with the Select Board on Oct. 11 where their request for $617,000 in ARPA funds was approved.
Cameron said that first the committee had to accept the funds and then had to have a discussion whether to use all the money on premium pay or put a percentage of it towards another project the committee may see necessary.
Since the committee was missing two members, the members present agreed that it would be better to have the entire School Committee there to discuss what to do with the funds but voted unanimously to accept the ARPA money.
They hope to discuss at their next meeting what to do with the funds.
Cameron ended the meeting offering a quick update on the owner’s project manager.
He said, “I sent over the contract to the Select Board to sign. Once that is signed, we will send it where it needs to be, and we are already getting a request for services in a draft form from our company Skanska who is our project manager.”
Cameron added, “Once everything gets approved, I will be able to provide a timeline of the next steps.”
The School Committee will meet again on Nov. 1.