Congratulations to students and teachers at Beverly High School, North Shore Regional Technical High School and Salem Academy Charter School for leading the region in terms of their achievement on the latest MCAS exams.
Beverly and North Shore Tech were cited by the state Tuesday for "narrowing the proficiency gaps for high-needs students," while Salem Academy was recognized for making significant gains in student achievement on the math and English tests.
These were the standouts in a region where many schools scored well above the state average in the 10th-grade exams. Ninety-seven percent of Hamilton-Wenham Regional High School sophomores scored proficient or better on the English test (as compared to a state average of 84 percent), while Masconomet led the local field in terms of math and science and technology (93 percent proficient or better on both, as compared to state averages of 74 percent and 67 percent, respectively).
Danvers High School saw decided improvement in its 10th-grade English and science scores with a 10-point gain in the number of students scoring proficient or better on those tests. And in Ipswich, the number of sophomores scoring proficient or better on the English and math portions of the test increased 5 percent and 3 percent, respectively.
Trying to negotiate the state Department of Education websites that chart district, individual school and school "sub-group" achievement in terms of MCAS results and "adequate yearly progress" (AYP) can be a daunting task. And based on the byzantine federal standards included in the No Child Left Behind law, 64 percent of Massachusetts schools and 39 percent of the state's districts failed to make AYP for two or more years in a row and will now be required to take corrective steps to improve student performance.
(According to The Associated Press, "The Obama administration has called for an overhaul of the No Child Left Behind law ... and recently announced that it would give states the opportunity to seek a waiver from the standards. U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan has warned that 82 percent of the nation's schools could be labeled as failures next year if the law is not changed.")
But overall, Gov. Deval Patrick and state education officials declared themselves pleased with the latest results during a press conference at Lowell's Charlotte M. Murkland Elementary School which, though labeled "underperforming," managed to improve its English and math scores by 13 and 20 percent respectively over the last year.
And certainly the results for many schools in this region seemed equally impressive.
The only districts in which students finished below the state average on the 10th-grade exams were Salem and Peabody. Worth noting, besides the fact that both are large, urban communities with diverse populations, is the that schools in those two cities must take in anyone who walks in the door seeking an education, while at least two of three schools receiving state commendation — North Shore Tech and Salem Academy — have a certain degree of leeway in determining who goes there.
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