The MCAS Controversy

The MCAS Controversy


There has recently been a great deal of questioning about the results of the MCAS exams for the Everett Public Schools, prompting one elected official to request that a member of the School Department appear before the Common Council to shed some light on the issue. Since this request was made, the Superintendent of Schools has published a statement in the October 7 edition of the Everett Leader Herald to address the subject, but his statement serves to raise even more questions, particularly, what is the School Department trying to hide?

The Superintendent claims in his statement that the various sources reporting on MCAS scores – newspapers, Boston Magazine, even the Federal Government – have “put a different spin on the MCAS results of 2004 . . . this evaluation has been all over the lot. In my opinion, there is only one number that matters and that is the number of Everett students who will graduate next June with their diploma.” One could deduce from that statement that the Superintendent, and by extension the School Department, is saying that it doesn’t matter how well a student graduates, as long as s/he picks up that diploma and walks out the front door. It is noteworthy that nowhere in this statement does Mr. Foresteire make a full-throated defense of this year’s MCAS results, while in previous years there were numerous annual statements touting the advantage that Everett held over communities like Revere and Medford. Interestingly enough, both of these communities ranked higher and stronger than Everett this year in MCAS rankings. Based on these observations, the Everett Mirror has put together the following analysis of MCAS scores provided through the Department of Education Website and the Boston.com analysis of statewide scores. Relevant links to detailed data will be provided as well. For the purposes of this piece, only 2004 scores have been examined.

In previous years, the Administration has repeatedly pointed specifically to Revere and Medford as surrounding communities worthy of comparison, yet makes no such analysis this year – perhaps because in this ranking, Everett is listed at 304 out of 373, while Revere checks in at 278 and Medford at 264. The actual MCAS numbers reported on the DOE website, along with the listing of urbanized centers obtained from the Department of Revenue and their respective MCAS rankings support the contention that the Everett MCAS scores are less than one would hope from a school system that has been touted as one of the best in the state.

MOVING TARGET: School Department Comparisons

In the past, when the School Department has compared spending rates, it has used the cities and towns identified by the state as “urbanized centers.”* This was not the case when the School Department, faced with a below optimal MCAS ranking, used only “cities,” the weakest scorers in the state, for comparison purposes. In political terms, this is called gerrymandering. One reason that the School Department shifted their focus from urbanized centers to cities could be that Everett ranked 23rd out of 45 urbanized centers, coming in at 304th in the state. Although School Committee member Lester McLaughlin claims that “Everett is the best blue collar school district” in the state….the numbers tell a different story. Listed below are the overall rankings given to urbanized school districts.**

Attleboro – 266 Greenfield – 298 Pittsfield - 315
Ayer – 193 Haverhill – 291 Provincetown - 213
Boston 353 Holyoke – 369 Quincy - 243
Brockton – 344 Lawrence – 370 Revere - 278
Cambridge – 311 Leominster – 290 Salem - 313
Chelsea – 336 Lowell – 354 Somerville - 320
Chicopee – 340 Lynn – 333 Southbridge - 335
Clinton – 256 Malden – 312 Springfield - 361
Everett – 304 Maynard - 214 Taunton - 294
Fairhaven – 253 Medford – 264 Waltham - 250
Fall River - 345 Methuen – 278 Watertown - 204
Fitchburg – 325 Milford – 210 Webster - 324
Gardner – 286 New Bedford – 352 W. Springfield - 277
Gloucester – 261 North Adams – 323 Westfield - 283
Great Barrington – not ranked Northampton – 215 Worcester – 356

* The listing of urbanized centers was obtained from the Department of Revenue website.

** FROM THE BOSTON. COM SITE: The Boston Globe ranked public school districts on their average rank on all MCAS tests taken Spring 2004. The ranking includes all school districts: regular, charter, regional, and vocational. For each of the 10 tests, districts were ranked on the percentage of students reaching proficient or better by combining the "advanced" and "proficient" students into a single figure for each test, then by figuring an average rank for all tests. The two lower levels on the state scoring system are "needs improvement" and "warning/failing." The tests are reading (grade 3), English (4, 7, 10), math (4, 6, 8, 10), and science (5, 8).

In a recent press release (Everett Leader Herald, September 30, 2004), the School Department stated that the Boston Globe gave two caveats to lower performance, the first being the number of children that come from families where English is not the first language, and the second as a function of family income. What’s interesting is the fact that while the School Department states that nearly 40 % of Everett’s school children come from homes where English is not the first language, only 6.9% of the children taking MCAS were considered “limited English proficient.” This percentage is based on the 3,935 who took the test figured against 273 categorized as “limited English proficient.” Yet, in examining the MCAS scores for “Regular Education Students” – that is, removing limited English students or disabled students from the mix -- the numbers indicate that Everett needs to do more. 79% of Everett 8th graders fell into the “Needs Improvement” or “Warning/Failure” range in Science and Technology. Likewise, 65% of 8th graders fell into that category for Mathematics. In fact, 60% of Everett’s 6th graders and 4th graders, and 45% of 10th graders fall into the “Needs Improvement” and “Warning/Failure” categories. Boston.com website, the MCAS summary of district results. Everett is located on page 68.

The School Committee met on Monday, October 4, and made a presentation concerning the MCAS scores which, according to one source in the Oct. 8 edition of the Everett Advocate, would answer any questions there might be concerning the 2004 results. However, upon viewing a re-telecast of the meeting on Channel 15, the audio was difficult to hear and the various tables used to make the case for a positive viewpoint did not give a clear look at the bottom line of the results. The issue will be up for discussion once again at the October 18 meeting of the Common Council, where a representative of the School Department has been requested to attend. The Everett Mirror will provide an analysis of that meeting and the information provided by the School Department in an upcoming issue.