Needham’s MCAS Scores Show Slight Improvement

October 7, 2024
• Needham students scored higher on several of the state-mandated exams compared with last year but still fall below pre-pandemic results in most areas.

With the recent release of 2024 MCAS scores, Needham and other school districts in the Commonwealth have begun to assess how its students are academically recovering five years since the onset of the pandemic.

MCAS, which is short for Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, measures student performance across English, math and science across the state. Students must pass their MCAS tests in order to graduate high school, although an upcoming ballot question may change that requirement.

All Needham students eventually meet the requirement, but some may need tutoring classes or to retake a course. High schoolers have until senior year to pass the test, said Carmen Williams, assistant superintendent of instruction and innovation at Needham Public Schools.

On the MCAS, Williams shared insight into the results and how they compare to performance in previous years. Needham’s MCAS results are provided by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, which administers the exams.

The elementary math scores are of particular significance to Williams. Third, fourth and fifth graders on the 2024 MCAS all scored higher than last year’s students in mathematics, with third grade showing the largest jump from 59% to 68% of students passing and exceeding expectations.

Some of Needham’s math scores actually surpassed results from the 2019 MCAS. Just 59% of fourth graders passed their math test that year, while 70% of fourth graders this spring received a passing score. Grades 3 and 5 also saw slight bumps compared to their pre-pandemic peers.

Those results come after the district implemented a new math curriculum about three years ago, Williams said. Teachers focus more on processing skills and conceptual learning and less on rote memorization, she said.

Between this year and last, all grade levels bettered their math scores except for 10th graders, who dropped from 88% passing and exceeding to 85%. For comparison, in 2019, 88% of Needham 10th graders received a passing score on the math MCAS.

Besides measuring academic skills, MCAS data also helps administrators follow a specific group of students through their education. Third graders in 2019 most recently took the MCAS as eighth graders in the spring, and fifth graders in 2019 took the MCAS as 10th graders this year.

The graph below tracks the MCAS scores of the same cohort of Needham students, starting as third graders in 2019 and most recently as eighth graders in the spring.

For 2019’s fifth graders, who recently completed their sophomore year in high school, scores seemed to fluctuate significantly less as they progressed, as illustrated in the following graph.

Science MCAS performance worsened after the pandemic. In 2019, 70% of Needham students passed that test, but in 2021, the number fell to 62%. Williams attributes the latter to fewer in-person experiences.

“Our elementary science program is very hands-on, which is wonderful. It’s very project-based,” Williams said. “However, I think that is the area that got the biggest hit during school closure and hybrid learning, because we weren’t able to provide our typical strategies for learning science.”

Now back in the classroom, Williams said students re-engaged with their learning and, in turn, science scores rose.

“We’re used to getting students out of their classroom and experiencing science in our community,” she said, “so we’ve been able to return to that which has been wonderful.”

Fifth graders — the only elementary students who take the science MCAS — fluctuated over the last five years but saw a dramatic 8% rise over 2023 in science. Tenth graders, who were in fifth grade in 2019, improved their science competency by 8%, with 65% of them passing their MCAS in 2019 and then 77% achieving the same result this year.

Eighth grade performance on the science MCAS has slowly improved but still falls below pre-pandemic levels.

While the district continues to aim higher on its MCAS, Needham scored well above the state average across all subjects, by at least 20%. The starkest difference could be found in 10th grade math scores, where 85% of Needham’s math scores met or exceeded expectations but just 48% of state 10th graders achieved the same.

What appears significantly less impacted by hybrid learning are 10th grade math scores, which are just slightly below pre-pandemic levels. This spring, 85% of Needham’s 10th graders met or exceeded expectations on that exam, and in 2019, it was 88%. When asked about those statistics, Williams said it’s an indication the district is “maintaining high performance on all levels.”

English scores, however, have substantial room for improvement. Across grades 3-8, 76% of students passed their English MCAS in 2019, but 68% did so in 2024, which is worse than in 2021.

Williams said those results are not surprising, as that cohort of elementary learners missed a large portion of in-person school. This school year, the district is piloting four reading programs at the elementary level in an effort to reassess its curriculum, Williams said.

Despite that, Needham’s 3-8 graders outperformed the state average in English by nearly 30%.

The MCAS, however, fails to test beyond basic academic skills, Williams said, though the district does use the data to support its decision making.

Critical thinking, creativity, resiliency, problem solving, cultural responsibility and more cannot be measured on the MCAS but are areas NPS tries to prepare its students, she added.

“It’s our job to make sure that before graduation, students achieve a basic education as far as an American education goes,” Williams said. “I dare say, in the town of Needham, basic is not enough. We want something more for our students.”

Voters will decide whether to eliminate the MCAS graduation requirement on the November ballot.

Should Massachusetts voters decide to eliminate the requirement in November, Williams said she thinks the district will consider requiring students to create a portfolio in order to graduate. NPS is “already taking steps in that direction,” she said. Students, she said, are more than their test scores.

“When you think about jobs that we’re looking to have in the future, they’re going to need to demonstrate their knowledge, not just provide a GPA or an SAT score,” she said. “They’re going to have to demonstrate their understanding and their ability to navigate something new.”

Williams plans to delve into the results in more detail at the School Committee’s next meeting Oct. 15.