Monfredo: Worcester School District Continues to Make Progress - New Data Shows
Sunday, October 27, 2019
John Monfredo
New data released by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and presented by Robert Curtin, the state’s associate commissioner of data, showed gains in MCAS scores, progress in reducing discipline usage and a reduction in chronic absenteeism.
Compared to other urban districts, Worcester is among the highest performing school district.
In addition, two schools were designated as School of Recognition for their growth … West Tatnuck and Belmont Community School. In terms of reviewing the data for the last two years, 58% of the students showed substantial progress toward their individual targets and 16% met or exceeded their targets.
English Language Arts across the district showed improvement, but math is an area where more work is needed.
The group who attended the meeting from the Worcester Coalition for Education Equity wanted information on discipline and that was the main focus at the meeting. They found out that the district’s overall rate dropped from 8.5% to 6.5% and that was a new five year low. The report covered out of school discipline infractions of students missing school due to suspensions.
Latino students were disciplined last year at a rate of 8.5%. Superintendent Binienda spoke about the Latino rate and stated that her administration’s focus will be on closing the racial gap in the district’s discipline rate. The district will be looking at lower-level offenses such as violating school rules or general disruption behavior and see what can be changed so that the students can get additional help and not be sent home for those infractions.
The top reasons for suspensions have been physical attacks, the threat of a physical attack, fights, and non-drug, non-violent or non-criminal related offenses.
More in-service training for staff has taken place and will continue this school year and additional services for students and finding alternatives for suspensions has had an effect on lowering the suspension rate. However, as the superintendent stated she hopes to see more progress in the future. “At the present time, it shows that we are trending in the right direction.”
The remaining data was on chronic absenteeism, for if you’re not in school you’re not learning.
Worcester topped all of the urban centers by reducing their percentage to 13.6% as compared to other districts that were at 19.0% and above.
The highest percentage of students who were absent was Hispanics with 18.5%.
However, that was a slight drop from the last year of 1.3%.
More work by the administration is taking place within the Hispanic community and with Hispanic inner-faith groups to lower that number this year.
To summarize the data report, the Worcester Public Schools is a school district that has continued to do all that it can for ALL STUDENTS and demonstrates that commitment each and every day. The community and especially our parents need to continue to be partners with the Worcester Public Schools as we all strive for excellence for our students.
Related Articles
- Monfredo: Reading in Our City Week Starts June 9
- Monfredo: Report From Early 2000’s Asked for Additional Goals Funding
- Monfredo: Attendance Critical to Success in School - Improvements Seen This Year
- Monfredo: Parents, Don’t Let the Summer Slide Enter Your Home
- Monfredo: Parents, Make Fun Math Ideas a Priority This Summer
- Monfredo: Students Input Taking Place as South High is Under Construction
- Monfredo: New Program in Worcester Public Schools - Seal of Biliteracy
- Monfredo: A Strong Summer School will Help Solve the Achievement Gap
- Monfredo: AVID - Helping Students to Succeed
- Monfredo: Annual Book Drive Ends May 20, Have You Donated Yet?
- Monfredo: Needed in This Community - Random Acts of Kindness
- Monfredo: Could a Future Worcester Teachers Program be the Answer for Recruitment?
- Monfredo: Mix Up Summer Learning With Play Time
- Monfredo: Parents & Teachers Working Together on Teaching Kindness
- Monfredo: Let’s Continue to Focus This School Year on Attendance
- Monfredo: New School Year - Let’s Prevent Bullying from Taking Place
- Monfredo: Should Worcester Public Schools be Self-Operating Their School Buses?
- Monfredo: Let’s Support the Student Opportunity Act Bill
- Monfredo: Worcester Public Schools Open at the DCU
- Monfredo: It’s Back to School Time - Parents Are Key to a Great Year
- Monfredo: Superintendent Binienda Releases Goals for Upcoming School Year
- Monfredo: Financial Literacy Course Could Benefit High School Students
Follow us on Pinterest Google + Facebook Twitter See It Read It