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Date: 12/11/2019
AGAWAM – An update on advanced placement (AP) programs and last year’s MCAS scores were the focus of the Nov. 26 school committee meeting in Agawam.
The meeting began with an update on the AP programs from Scott Trahan, who teaches AP calculus at Agawam High School. Trahan first explained what AP classes were, how they benefited the students and how the program has grown over the years.
AP classes, Trahan said, are for “children who want to challenge themselves and take college level classes in high school.” While the classes are challenging, he explained the school provides a “collaborative environment” to support the students during the challenge.
Course selection and the grade a student gets in a college preparation class significantly helps students when being considered for acceptance into college and also prepare them for the workload that comes with a college education, he said.
“Course selection and grades in college prep courses matter most in college acceptance. The idea is that even if they’re scoring a two on an AP test, they’re starting freshman year with a GPA of about 2.3,” he explained to the committee. “So they’re already looking at going into college better prepared and probably going to get a better GPA when they first start college.”
While the district hopes that all students pass the AP exam when they take the exam, Trahan said the goal of the courses isn’t simply to get the students to be able to pass a test at the end of the year. “We’re not looking for students to necessarily pass the AP exam, although we’d love all our students to pass the AP exam, we’re looking for students to get in there and challenge themselves,” he said.
A significant part of this challenge comes with students giving up their free time to participate in Saturday study sessions and mock exams that take place throughout the year. Each student who is enrolled in an AP class is required to participate in at least one Saturday session, Trahan said.
Agawam collaborates with Mass. Insight Education in the Pioneer Valley to host the Saturday session. Mass Insight Education, according to their website, works closely with schools across the state to “drive a school culture of high expectations and dramatically increase participation and performance in Advanced Placement (AP) courses, particularly among underserved populations, to prepare students for college and career success in English, and in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).”
The Pioneer Valley chapter of Mass. Insight, Trahan said, has 11 schools which include Agawam, Chicopee and Ludlow Public Schools. Saturday sessions often are hosted at fellow area schools and when hosted at Agawam include students from participating schools.
Currently, in Agawam Trahan said there are 272 students enrolled in AP courses. In total, he explained those students would take more than 495 exams in 15 different subjects at the end of the year. He said enrollment for AP classes this year is higher than it has been for a number of years despite declining enrollment at Agawam High School.
“Our enrollment for this school year, 2020, is actually higher than pretty much any other year since 2013, and that year is probably the year we started with Mass. Insight,” he noted. “What’s really interesting is the enrollment at the high school is going down, so this just represents a larger proportion of our students who are actually taking AP classes.”
In addition to increased enrollment, the number of passing AP test scores has also increased in recent years. Trahan presented data to the school committee dating back to 2013, when just 53.7 percent of students received a score of three or higher on the test, resulting in a passing grade. In 2019, 62.1 percent of students enrolled who took the exam received a three or higher on the test. The state average for students who pass the AP exam, Trahan explained, is 67.3 percent.
While any student can enroll in an AP course, they’re not required to take the test at the end of the year. However, Trahan said in order to get full AP credit and a weighted GPA, the student must take the exam. He also emphasized that AP instructors at Agawam do their best to encourage every student to take the exam and work to provide them with the resources to do so.
Much like the SAT and ACT, students must pay to take an AP exam, which costs $94. However, Trahan noted that students who qualify for free or reduced lunch could, and were encouraged to, apply for a reduced cost waiver, which brings the exam cost down to $53.
“Along with the $53 exam fee, Mass Insight through their agreement with the state of Massachusetts and their funding has to provide a $48 rebate for every math, science, and English exam that is given to students who participate in their program,” Trahan explained. “So the students who are on free and reduced lunch really in the end are going to pay $5 for the math, science and English exams. So there really is no reason why students can’t take the exam, no real financial reason.”
Trahan said Agawam was also able to provide scholarship funding for four students who receive free or reduced lunch so that they won’t have to pay for the exam at all. “Most of those exam fees will largely be funded by the funds that Mass Insight will provide us,” he said. “We just put up the funds on the front end instead of having the students put up the funds and get reimbursed we’re putting up the funds for those four students and then they won’t get the reimbursement check. We’ll just keep that, but we’re putting up the $5 for them basically.”
Trahan explained there was just one student who didn’t qualify for free or reduced lunch who will be paying the full exam price, but in installments. Six students, he said, had elected not to take the exam. “There were six students who opted not to take the exams, none of these was due to a lack of funds or financial need, but due to anticipating either not doing well or not needing the credits for college,” he noted.
Currently, of the 272 students participating in AP classes, 266 have signed up to take 483 AP exams.
Two notable events that took place for the AP program during the past year were students visiting the Massachusetts State House to advocate for AP legislation, and Matthew Stinson, the AP computer science principles instructor, being recognized by Mass. Insight with a Partners in Excellence Award.
“It was the first year he taught the program and all his students passed. We’re really proud of him and he’s really gungho,” Trahan said. “He’s actually worked with us teaching some of the sessions in the cluster and everything else and has actually done some presentations across the state for some other clusters so that’s been kinda fun.”
Trahan emphasized that the district spends a significant amount of money each year on the AP program, so their staff tries to push students to utilize it as a resource. “The program is actually expensive, we spend about $20,000 a year running this program. And so we’re trying to encourage our students to take advantage of it, and when you have a teacher who’s really involved and gungho about it, attendance is really good. Like our math Saturday where we had all but eight students out of 80 showed up, so we had 90 percent attendance,” he explained.
He continued, “We’ve been lucky enough to sustain this now for 10 years. It costs about $1,500 to $2,000 depending on how many teachers are involved and how many speakers we have to bring in, as well as opening the building, so I really want to thank the district for allowing us to do this, and to fund it and just want to make sure we encourage all those parents to get their kids there.”
Trahan also recognized the students and teachers hard work and said, “They’re really committed and they know what they’re doing, and the teachers really step up.”
Upon the completion of the presentation, Agawam Mayor William Sapelli, thanked Trahan for his commitment and dedication to the program. “You are the reason our scores are where they are,” Sapelli said.
Next, Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum, Instruction and Human Resources Sheila Hoffman gave an update on changes for the MCAS scores and how the district ranked following the release of 2019 scores.
“Last year was the first year of the new system, so we only had one year of data. This year what they do, as you’ll see, they use two years of data,” she explained. “The other change is we now have four categories for progress toward our improvement targets.”
Those categories include meeting or exceeding targets, substantial progress towards targets, moderate progress and limited or no progress. She said overall the district is in the category of substantially making progress.
“I’m happy to report our district overall is at substantially making progress, most of our schools are in that category. We have Robinson Park that it’s in meeting or exceeding targets and Dearing School is at moderate progress right now but they’re at 49 percent,” she explained. “One more point and they would have been at substantially making progress. So all of our schools are in substantially making progress target, except for Robinson, Dearing is one point away which I think is good.”
She also explained the district standing, overall, is also good as they are listed as “not requiring assistance or interventions.”
Hoffman added, “Our progress toward improving targets is at 58 percent, and again I’d like to point out that last year our annual criterion referenced target percentage was at 45 and this year, 2019, went to 67 percent. So we’ve made some nice improvements in meeting our targets.”
Right before the meeting adjourned, Superintendent Steven Lemanski made the announcement that the school is working on implementing a manufacturing program.
“We’ve now entered into a partnership where we’ve written for a planning grant in conjunction with West Springfield High School, and Lower Pioneer Valley Career Tech, where we’d like the three schools working together to not only provide additional support for students in manufacturing, but we’re also looking in the area of health and we’re also looking in the area of IT,” he explained.
He continued, “So if we can increase our opportunities to build or put students out there and let them know what those careers are in IT, manufacturing and health, we think we can do a really good job in conjunction with our AP. If we can do that we’re preparing our kids the best we can.”
Lemanski said that he hopes the district is able to get the grant and is able to move forward with West Springfield and Career Tech. He also said he’d “monitor the progress” of the grant.