The Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education named Wood Hill Middle School and Andover High School 2023 Schools of Recognition based on MCAS scores released earlier this week.
The Andover School Committee is scheduled to review the district’s results on the state’s standardized tests when it meets on Oct. 19. The designations for AHS and Wood Hill Middle recognized the schools’ achievement of accountability standards, which were based on a range of targets for improvement in ELA and mathematic scores and MCAS participation rates above 95 percent.
In a statement Wednesday, Superintendent Magda Parvey outlined some of the other key points in this year’s scores:
- Among elementary school students, there was an average 10 percentile point improvement for student writing in grades 3 and 5. There was a 7 percentage point increase in mathematics, a 5 percent in students, and a 5 percent improvement in English.
- DESE rated overall improvement for Andover students in grades 1-5 “moderate.”
- Grades 6,7,8, and 10 all showed an increase in the percentage of students exceeding expectations in ELA when compared to 2022 results.
- Grades six and seven increased by five percentage points; grade eight increased by 11 percentage points; and grade 10 increased by 15 percentage points.
- Grade eight science results showed an increase in students meeting or exceeding expectations by six percentage points when compared to the 2022 results.
School accountability scores ranged from 83 to 95 for the district’s schools. The accountability scores showed APS meeting or exceeding state targets and district-wide improvements in reducing chronic absenteeism.
“While recognizing student achievement increases, we continue to identify areas for improvement across the district,” Parvey said. “In math, we will continue to address the stagnant achievement levels at the middle and high school levels. We will continue to address the needs of students who have historically not met the same growth as their peers, particularly low-income students, students with disabilities, and Hispanic/Latino students. At the high school level, we will focus on improving the four-year graduation rate as well as advanced coursework completion rates.”
For there record, there are many intelligent low income students. It bothers me that many are looped into this category just because of demographics/race/single family etc. Myself, growing up in foster care, six high school my freshman year, I was a low income student in the AP/IB program during my junior and senior year. Scored 3s on all my ap exams. Yeah, please give more credit to low income students and try to not find a way to “point” the finger at them for low test results.
Kudos to all students!