This year’s MCAS results provided limited insight into Newton Public Schools’ districts testing performance.
Typically, the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education releases a detailed report explaining how different students performed on each question, with an explanation of why students received their scores.
But this year, according to Superintendent Anna Nolin, only scores were released, with no specific data showing which questions students struggled with.
This reduces the test’s ability to measure if students are learning to the state’s standards, Nolin noted at a recent School Committee meeting.
“We like the data when they actually release it in an actionable way for us to do something with it,” Nolin explained.
Only committee member Rajeev Parlikar, from Ward 1, commented on the MCAS scores themselves.
Parlikar expressed concern over a widening gap in MCAS performance between former English learners and students with disabilities and the district’s average scores.
According to the report created by the department of Data & Research at Newton Public Schools, former English language learners in grades three to eight have shown a decrease on the ELA MCAS over the past three years.
Students with disabilities in grade 10 actually showed slight improvements in their ELA and Math MCAS scores and but also showed slight decreases on the physics section of the high school science, technology and engineering MCAS.
Parlikar also called into question the school districts used to compare Newton’s MCAS scores with the rest of MetroWest.
Both Natick and Cambridge were included in the comparison as the two lowest scoring districts, which Parlikar said “somewhat artificially made Newton look better…”
Nolin responded saying that districts were chosen based on DESE’s Data Analysis Review Tool (DART), which selects districts comparable with Newton based on a variety of factors like enrollment and MCAS performance.
The future of MCAS as a measuring tool for state educational standards is up for debate.
Question two on this year’s state ballot removed it as a graduation requirement for high school.
Nolin said superintendents in the Tri-County Roundtable, a representative organization within the Massachusetts Association of Superintendents, will be meeting with DESE in January to discuss how to assess student learning of state standards without MCAS.