Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 12/2/2021
GRANBY – The Granby School Committee met to discuss a variety of agenda items including an update on pool testing in schools, district-wide MCAS results and ways to improve these scores moving forward at their Nov. 16 meeting.
To begin the meeting, Superintendent Stephen Sullivan spoke on COVID-19 testing. He said that the district has successfully completed three weeks of pool testing with their program coordinator and certified nursing assistant.
Sullivan noted that they had one positive pool, which resulted in one student testing positive for COVID-19 and their close contacts staying in school through continued negative results with the Test and Stay program.
Right now, Sullivan said they are distributing between 40 to 50 tests a week. He said that they hope to grow this to 120 to 130 tests after the Thanksgiving holiday.
“We’re gonna try to ramp up testing, scale it up to what we had hoped to be because of the support and our goal is the week after Thanksgiving to test everybody who’s consented,” said Sullivan.
The meeting also discussed 2021 MCAS scores and how they compared to 2019. Curriculum Director Susan Crago first went over 2021 testing conditions.
In 2021, students were tested both in-person and remotely and subject tests were reduced from two sessions to one. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) recalibrated scoring because of these changes so the results can be reasonably compared to pre-COVID-19 results. DESE will not issue updated district and school accountability determination in 2021.
“It’s useful to us to see where the kids were on that day at the end of last school year. So coming into this year, it gives us a sense of what we need to focus on and which kids need a little more attention,” said Crago.
She then gave the results of district-wide data in both English Language Arts (ELA) and Math. In 2019, seven percent of students received a score of exceeds expectations in ELA, 47 percent met expectations, 43 percent partially met expectations and 6 percent did not meet expectations.
In 2021, six percent exceeded expectations, 39 percent met expectations, 43 percent partially met expectations and 12 percent did not meet expectations.
In 2019, six percent of students received scores of exceeds expectations in Math, 35 percent met expectations, 52 percent partially met expectations and seven percent did not meet expectations.
In 2021, two percent exceeded expectations, 30 percent met expectations, 50 percent partially met expectations and 18 percent did not meet expectations.
“It’s not a catastrophic difference, really. And we also reflect the national trend, which is that kids suffered more learning loss in math than they did in ELA,” said Crago.
According to Crago, there were definite positives to the 2021 MCAS results as well. She said that, in Granby, 100 percent of low-income, high needs, English Language Learners and students with disabilities participated in MCAS and they outperformed their peers in the state in nearly all categories.
She also said that Granby had a 99 percent overall participation rate, which exceeds the statewide average of 95 percent. Granby also averaged fewer students not meeting expectations than the state average.
As for areas for growth, Crago said that the district was consistently below the state average on open response questions in ELA. She said that they were also consistently below the state average on constructed response in Math and that they need to work on the percentage of students obtaining exceeds expectations results.
For district-wide actions, Crago said that they will be focusing on standards related to argument and exposition writing in ELA from grades Pre-K to 12. In Math, teachers will be targeting instruction to address areas of weakness identified in item analysis.
The district will also be using MCAS, IXL and DIBELs data to target instruction for all students in these challenging areas.
“The kids are being asked to do some pretty complicated things, especially beyond fourth grade and fifth grade and up,” said Crago.
Both the Principal of East Meadow School, Bill Lataille, and the Principal of Granby Junior Senior High School, Alison Jordan, were in attendance to speak on school-based actions to improve MCAS scores.
Lataille said that East Meadow plans to use the DESE Acceleration Roadmap to support accelerated student learning, offer additional support to students such as tutoring and targeted interventions and look at data and work with both staff and students to address areas of concern.
Jordan said that Granby Junior Senior High School will also be using the DESE Acceleration Roadmap, will offer Acceleration Academy and tutoring, will share open response scoring with students and families, provide MCAS sample tests to classroom teachers and will offer collaborative work with instructional leadership.
Superintendent Sullivan noted that schools will be offering more sample tests throughout the year to prepare students.
“We need to, every now and then, dip our toes in the water to check the temperature and see where kids are growing, progressing, feeling stunted and respond to that,” he said. “It’s a lot of work, but that’s really the foundation of who we are as an organization. It comes down to teaching and learning.”
Those interested in viewing the Granby School Committee Meeting in its entirety are encouraged to visit the Granby Community Access & Media YouTube page.