EAST?LONGMEADOW – The East Longmeadow School Committee met on Nov. 6 to discuss the East Longmeadow Public School District presentation, which included sharing the district’s Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) scores from the Spring 2017 assessments.

This year, a new MCAS test rolled out for students in grades three through eight.  This test is called the “Next-Generation” MCAS, which was created to set a new performance baseline for students, schools, districts and the state.  The Next Generation MCAS features a new “scoring system” where students’ scores are ranked as exceeding, meeting, partially meeting or not meeting expectations.  In the old MCAS, students were ranked as advanced, proficient, needs improvement or warning/failing.

The Next Generation MCAS scores from the spring testing will not be able to be compared to the prior years scores, as the tests are not equivalent.

“Although our percentages look lower, it’s important to remember that this is baseline, they are not to be used to compare to previous years scores, and that’s because the assessment scales are different, the content is a little different, the standard setting that they underwent is different,” Assistant Superintendent for Curriculum Valerie Annear explained.

The School Committee presented scores from the spring tests on bar graphs to show where East Longmeadow students ranked, and how they compared to the state.  Tenth grade students who took the old, “Legacy” MCAS test scored with 95 percent of students in the district in the proficient or advanced category of English Language Arts (ELA).  Comparatively, the State’s Legacy MCAS scores for tenth grade ELA are at 91 percent in the proficient or advanced categories.

As for tenth grade students who took the Legacy MCAS test in math, 84 percent of the district ranked in either the advanced or proficient categories.  In the state, 79 percent of tenth grade students ranked within advanced or proficient.

When it came time to divulge the scores for grades three through eight on the Next Generation MCAS, the School Committee reminded attendees that the scores would be lower than normal due to the creation of the new baseline.

The Next Generation MCAS test for grades three through eight in ELA, as a district, 59 percent of students scored in the exceeding expectations or meeting expectations category.  In comparison to the state, East Longmeadow’s district is 10 percent higher.

“You can’t compare it to our performance from the previous year, it had to do with the scale changing, how they set the standards of what is going to be the cut off for meeting and exceeding,” Annear said.

“One of the ways that they’re [the state] framing it in the conference calls is, Massachusetts has always been a leader of providing standards and frameworks in their assessment, and they continue to be a leader because they increase the rigor and they change the standards, expecting more,” East Longmeadow Superintendent Gordon Smith said. “They feel that the school systems and the students will be able to get there.”

Next Generation MCAS math scores for grades three through eight show 52 percent of the district is exceeding expectations and meeting expectations, whereas the state ranks at 48 percent.

Additionally, the MCAS science scores for all grades were shared.  The science scores were a part of the Legacy test, and was not offered as a Next Generation MCAS exam.  At the current assessment, 64 percent of the East Longmeadow School District is in the advanced or proficient categories.  In comparison, the state ranks at 53 percent.  The School Committee shared that the district has seen improvement in this category over the years, with many students moving from the warning/failing category into the needs improvement category.

All in all, the School Committee assured attendees that the district continues to achieve at a high level across all grade levels in ELA and Math, and to keep in mind that East Longmeadow’s district scores for the Next Generation MCAS were higher than the state average.