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Schools

Weston School Administrators: Let's Bring MCAS Scores Up

Despite consistent "solid" performance, administrators push for improvement.

The report on Weston’s annual student performance and achievement has been released, and for students and parents, it’s good news—but administrators say they want even better results next year.

At Monday's School Committee meeting, Assistant Superintendent Amber Bock outlined findings of the yearly report that revealed mostly consistent performance as measured by the Massachusetts Comprehensive Achievement System (MCAS) and Educational Records Bureau (ERB).

“I would characterize (student performance) as steady,” said Bock. “There are things that are good about that, and things you want to take a look at”—namely, she said, improving standardized test scores to align more closely with scores in communities similar to Weston.

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Bock said current and ongoing efforts to improve scores include specific curriculum updates, like a program review in science “with an emphasis on aligning with MCAS,” and more of a focus on writing across the curriculum in English. Efforts also could include instructional shifts like embedding questions similar to those on standardized tests within unit studies, and assessment changes that could mean updating benchmarks in some grades and changing the way progress is monitored.

“It’s a general awareness of aligning some of our focus” around improving test scores, she said.

Find out what's happening in Westonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Despite the seeming rigors students and teachers could face in trying to boost scores, administrators were quick to refute some committee members’ concerns that such efforts constituted so-called “teaching for the test.”

“The question is really, how do we get the results we want without compromising the kind of well-rounded student we want to produce here,” said Bock.

Weston school superintendent Dr. Cheryl Maloney reiterated Bock’s position, saying, “We want to be careful about not moving into a test-prep scenario,” while speculating that at times, underwhelming student performance could be due in part to “parents and teachers downplaying the seriousness of (MCAS) so kids don’t get too nervous, so perhaps they’re not taking it seriously enough.”

At this point, she said, “Everything’s on the table. We’re thinking of ways to improve scores without altering the (school culture), which is very student centered.”

Other items of note at the meeting included a brief presentation by committee member Court Chilton on the accessibility of the School Committee report, information contained within the town's Annual Report that Chilton said is “hard to find.”

Suggestions for increasing the information’s visibility included asking the Weston PTO to post it on its Facebook page and embedding a link on westonGrapevine.com. “The goal is to make (the report) accessible and to help people understand what to do with it once they get it.”

Also noteworthy is the possible addition of a food services employee who would, among other tasks, maintain relationships with local farms and develop and maintain a comprehensive ingredient list for all food served. In a presentation by Cindy Mahr, director of finance and operations for Weston schools, several school nurses spoke on behalf of adding the position and said procedural improvements with diabetic students and those with allergies could have a “huge impact.” The discussion wrapped with the committee’s approval to move forward with the recommendation.

In other school news, read Weston Patch tomorrow for a story about the successful iPad rollout for this year's seventh graders.

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