School District Comments On Wakefield MCAS Results

Earlier this fall, MCAS results for Wakefield and other school districts were released. A look at the results can be viewed at this link.
 

With an eye on the recent results, the following statement was provided by the Superintendent of Schools Dr. Stephen Zrike and the Wakefield School District: 

"The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recently released accountability data for schools and districts. The overall data for Wakefield is consistent with previous years, as the school system remains a Level 2 district (range is from 1-5, Level 1 being the highest performing).  More specifically, Walton School and Wakefield High School are Level 1 schools for a second consecutive year and the Dolbeare, Woodville, Greenwood and Galvin are designated as Level 2 schools. In order to receive a Level 1 designation, districts and schools must meet specific gap narrowing goals for all students and subgroups.  For the district to earn a Level 1 designation, all schools in the district must earn Level 1 status.

The Wakefield Public Schools saw gains in the annual Progress and Performance Index (PPI) such that schools made incremental progress in English Language Arts and Mathematics (schools experienced a slight decline in Science).  While these positive results serve to narrow the proficiency gap, the gains are not sufficient enough for the district to meet its cumulative performance targets.  The cumulative performance targets measure trends over the last four years and a score of 75 or higher is needed to demonstrate that a school or district is making progress towards proficiency. 

What is most encouraging is that our student growth data shows significant improvement in student performance.  The Student Growth Percentile (SGP) measures students’ individual progress over time.  In English Language Arts, SGP increased by 7 percentage points in the aggregate and increased for every student group assessed.  In Mathematics, SGP increased by 3 points in the aggregate and improved for every subgroup as well.   Of particular note is the SGP of our 4th graders in both ELA (69) and Math (63) far exceeds the state’s median SGP in ELA (49) and Math (54) at this grade level.

More detailed information is available on the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education website at our district profile page.  As a system, we continue to analyze our data at the school, grade and most importantly at the student level to ensure that we best serve our children’s learning needs. 

I applaud Wakefield’s educators and leaders for their efforts to provide our students with a high quality educational experience.  This commitment continues during the current year as we work diligently to prepare our students for college and career readiness."