By Carol Britton Meyer

Following a recent overview of the spring 2022 Hull Public Schools MCAS results, Superintendent of Schools Judith Kuehn and Director of Curriculum and Assessment Christine Cappadona presented target strategies for improvement and “indicators for success” to the school committee this week as a follow-up.

While some MCAS results were praiseworthy, there are areas of concern that are being addressed, including absenteeism and a lower-than-expected MCAS participation rate.

Among the goals is analyzing current MCAS data to make instructional shifts to close achievement gaps, and to improve student outcomes in all grades.

Part of this effort will be to determine grade-level standards that need additional instructional focus, analyzing “Galileo” benchmarks and other content-focused assessments to inform instruction, and holding meetings to review student progress and to plan targeted interventions.

The Galileo assessment system used by the school district for grades 1 through 8 is considered to be an effective tool to gauge students’ academic achievements beyond MCAS exams.

In addition, the “Pirate Time” program at Jacobs helps meet students’ educational needs where they are, based in large part on data related to reading and math skills, supporting all learners with the goal of students “getting what they need.” Hull High School offers Pirate Time quarterly, and Memorial Middle School features a remediation and enrichment block offering various activities in the middle of the day such as a homework club. STE (Science Technology Engineering) Boot Camp helps fifth- through eighth-graders prepare for the science MCAS exam.

There’s also a focus on best practices for writing, writing instruction during middle school social studies classes, building-based Student Intervention Teams to identify and implement interventions for at-risk-students, Social Emotional Learning strategies incorporated into the curriculum, a focus on sustaining positive relationships among educators, students, and families, and consistent communication. Students’ spirits are bolstered by district-wide efforts to “celebrate successes.”

Goals include increasing the district percentage of students meeting and exceeding English Language Arts scores by 5%, from 45.2 to 50.2% or above; the district percentage of students meeting and exceeding math expectations by 5%, from 46.4 to 51.4% or above; and the Student Growth Percentage by 5% from 45.4 to 50.4% or above.

Another goal is increasing MCAS participation at each grade level through communications with students and their families. While taking the exam is not optional, some HPS parents have chosen not to have their children tested.

There is also a focus on increasing student school attendance, which greatly impacts learning.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education defines chronic absenteeism as when a student misses more than 10% of the school year, or 18 school days, without taking into consideration whether an absence is excused or unexcused.

“As we transition from COVID, we are navigating a new health challenge coming off of the pandemic. The district will continue to educate and work with families on when it is appropriate to keep children home from school and when it is appropriate to send a child to school,” Kuehn said. “This is a delicate matter. We want families to understand that attendance is crucial, but we understand that illness and the need to stay home at times is unavoidable.”

State law requires a letter be sent to parents after a student has five absences, a second letter for between 8 and 10 absences, and a third letter if there is no improvement, followed by a meeting with school administration.

An evaluation and analysis of the end-of-year district attendance summary will be compared to the previous year’s to help ensure that progress is being made.