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Date: 10/5/2021
NORTHAMPTON – With the 2021 MCAS results now available, Northampton Public Schools Superintendent John Provost discussed what he and the rest of the district learned from the test.
Two of the biggest areas of concern shown through the MCAS results was that school closure impacted math scores from grades 3 through 8 and English Language Arts (ELA) scores for English learners and economically disadvantaged students.
“The closure definitely impacted mathematics much more severely than it did English Language Arts. We have seen those impacts through our own internal testing from kindergarten through eighth grade. Our economically disadvantaged students and our English learners were disproportionately impacted by the closures compared to students not in those categories,” Provost said.
To address the lower scores both from the MCAS and the district’s internal testing, Provost said the district implemented an after-school program at the elementary schools and tripled the number of math intervention teachers at the middle school.
“For that we implemented an after-school program at the elementary known as ‘Lift off Learning’ for students who need extra help in English Language Arts and math. In the middle school we have tripled the number of math intervention teachers so my hope is that combination will help students get caught up as quickly as possible,” he said.
Despite some of the concerns, Provost said there was cause for celebration with the strongest performances ever recorded across the schools.
“Bridge Street and Leeds showed their strongest performance ever in English Language Arts. At JFK they had their strongest performance ever in science, we had improved achievement for students with disabilities in English Language Arts at the elementary and the high school. We also had greater achievement and racial equity in ELA at the high school,” he said.
Provost said to take the MCAS results for the middle school with a grain of salt simply because the participation fell below an 80 percent participation threshold, which he said is below what the district looks for in reliability.
“Middle school students in Northampton seem to be especially impacted, including our current seventh grade group. I say that with a grain of salt because we had lower test participation that falls below the threshold we would like to see for reliability,” he said.
Because of the different year for MCAS, between students taking the test in person or remotely, shorter form tests and the timing of the test, Provost said the state told districts to use the test for diagnostic purposes only.
“One of the things that is important is that the state has said the test should be used for diagnostic purposes only, not for school or district accountability because there were so many things going on this year that have never happened in any other year,” he said.
Rather than focusing on curriculum when schools reopened in the spring, Provost said the district prioritized emotional support and building relationships with peers rather than content coverage
“As we were reopening schools, we were intentionally prioritizing relationship building and emotional support for students who had been separated from their peers for months over content coverage. I was advocating strongly for reopening schools so students could be with peers, teachers and get the types of learning that happens between classes that is such an important part of the educational experience,” he said.
Provost said the district must do everything it can to keep schools open to prevent learning from being impacted again this year.
“Keeping schools open is absolutely essential, we had some bright spots, but we also saw some signs that learning was impacted by the school closure that took place last year, so I think we need to make sure that does not happen again this year,” he said.