Following the release of the 2022 MCAS results, school districts put emphasis on recovering learning losses stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.
Statewide standardized test scores released Thursday show students are recovering from the chaos of pandemic learning but reveal losses in English language arts.
Elementary and middle school students saw an overall 6 percentage point gain in the number of students who met or exceeded math expectations while in grade 10, math scores declined by 2 percentage points, a smaller decline than the previous year.
“Results should not be compared to the 2021 test in isolation,” said Springfield Superintendent of Schools Daniel J. Warwick. “We must look at the bigger picture, which is where student achievement was in 2019, before the pandemic. When we analyze the data from that perspective, it makes the 2022 losses more consequential and the gains less momentous.”
For example, math and English scores for children in grades 3 through 8 declined by 7 percentage points in both subjects from 2019 to 2021. This year those students gained 4 points in math, closing some of the decline created by pandemic learning, but their English scores declined again by 1 point.
“Remember, when we compare these results to pre-pandemic levels, we still have a way to go across all subject areas before we recover all of those learning losses,” said Commissioner of Elementary and Secondary Education Jeffrey C. Riley.
Students at all levels statewide showed declines in English scores.
Across the state, third- through eighth-graders had sharper declines in English, dropping 5% from 2021 with only 41% meeting or exceeding the expectations range. Students in grade 10 were down 6%, with only 58% meeting or exceeding expectations.
In Holyoke, which is under state receivership due to low MCAS scores, results are mostly consistent with state trends with math scores increasing slightly in grades three to eight and declining slightly in grade 10. Science scores increased in grades five and eight.
“English Language Arts scores declined overall, although fifth-grade ELA scores remained steady and seventh- and eighth-grade ELA scores increased slightly,” said Holyoke Public Schools Superintendent Anthony Soto. “Compared to pre-pandemic levels in 2019, achievement in grade 10 ELA remained steady but achievement fell in all other grade levels and subject areas.”
“We know that urban centers like ours suffered more greatly through the pandemic for a variety of reasons and the residual effects of those stressors have lingered on,” Warwick said.
During the pandemic, learning losses were worsened by increases in chronic absenteeism and that remains a challenge. “You cannot learn when you are not in school, nor can you learn when you are not feeling well physically or emotionally,” Warwick said.
According to data provided by the state Department of Education, 18% of all students missed 18 days or more in 2021. That number jumped up to 28% of pupils missing 18 or more days in 2022.
“We are hoping for a better year with absences,” Riley said. “We have had an acceleration road map which encourages teachers to teach on grade level and scaffold in any skills that kids may have missed as well as focus on students’ social and emotional development.”
In 2022, students in Springfield on average missed about 15 days of school compared to six days missed in the previous year, Warwick said.
Data does not account for the impact on instructional loss due to teacher absences, he said.
“Good attendance clearly has an impact on achievement. Students with stronger attendance (above 90%) were at least two times more likely to meet or exceed expectations in every subject than students who were chronically absent (missing 10% or more days of school, which is on average 18+ days per year),” Soto said.
“As we move beyond the initial stages of the pandemic, Holyoke Public Schools is taking several important steps to help our students get back on track academically and to improve overall student attendance when absences aren’t related to illness,” he said.
Other districts have also begun implementing recovery work to combat learning losses.
In Springfield, that includes this fall’s option for the extended school day, the dispersal of additional state funds and federal pandemic grants for interventions like the summer enrichment programming for all grade levels.
“Every school is different, and we did not want to prescribe cookie-cutter intervention programs, but rather allow schools to find extra-help programs that are customized to address the unique needs of their student body,” said Warwick.
Additionally, the district has a new emphasis on the importance of students’ social emotional needs and has also implemented a new six-year Portrait of a Graduate framework and strategic plan that rethinks instruction and support systems. The initiative was developed by students, families and the community to address key elements that prepare students for post-graduate success in and out of school.
The Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Systems exam is customarily given in the spring to grades three through eight and grade 10 but was skipped in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic school shut down. In 2021, a shortened version was given to students in grades three through eight.
West Springfield Interim Superintendent Vito Perrone said the district is not where he wants it to be, but it saw gains in English in sixth and seventh grades, in third, fourth and eighth it saw gains in math and district wide science scores have exceeded state average.
It did see a three-percentage point decline in English in grades three through eight and a seven-percentage point drop in the same subject in grade 10.
“We are trying to be mindful of the two and a half years we were out,” Perrone said. “We want to give grace around the challenges and consider that while looking at the data.”
The district is putting its focus on acting on the increases that were made up last year and working to decrease the big dips in score data this year. With West Springfield being a largely diverse town with most of its English language learners at the new Philip G. Coburn Elementary School, a new inclusion model will help mitigate pandemic-related losses, Perrone said.
This model combines paraprofessionals, educators in English, special education and reading with groups of students on the same reading levels to provide intensive support to meet their needs.
Because the COVID-19 pandemic focused so much on masking, virtual learning and protocols, Perrone said, students and educators have gotten away from everyday expectations and resetting those expectations for students, teachers and administration will keep students engaged and make them want to come to school again.
“Teaching and learning was severely disrupted for more than two years so I don’t think anyone was surprised by the state’s data indicating the learning loss experienced by students across the state, and Springfield Public Schools mirrors that trend,” said Warwick.
In Springfield, early crucial points of recovery stemming from the district and community’s vision in the Portrait of a Graduate is to incorporate problem-solving based learning; a responsibility to staff diversity, inclusion, recruitment, and equity; and better social-emotional supports for students, and more.
In Holyoke, some of the focus is on strengthening early literacy instruction, providing families factual information and positive supports to reinforce the importance of good school attendance and helping families find solutions to potential barriers. In addition, the schools are assessing and analyzing students’ unmet learning needs while supporting teacher teams across the district.
According to Riley, DESE has funded acceleration academies, early literacy efforts and summer learning and the state will continue to do so until learning losses are recovered.
“We know that with time and the right supports, our students can achieve and exceed their previous successes,” Riley said.
Content from State House News Service is included in this story.
Related Content:
Ad Choices