By Carol Britton Meyer

While Hull Public Schools is making significant progress toward achieving its improvement goals – as evidenced by the results of the 2023 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System exam administered to students in grades 3 to 8 and 10 – there is room for improvement, administrators told the school committee this week

Overall, students’ post-pandemic performance is showing signs of recovery, with further work needed to accelerate their progress, according to Director of Curriculum and Assessment Christine Cappadona.

The year 2023 represents a return to the full state accountability system aimed at improving student performance at all levels since 2019, due to learning losses from the COVID19 pandemic restrictions and school closures.

“The HPS district does not require assistance or intervention, since it is making substantial progress toward meeting its improvement goals,” Cappadona said.

Participation in MCAS exams has increased, and the percentage of students scoring in the Meeting or Exceeding Expectations categories in math increased by 2 points in grades 3 to 8, compared to 2022. The percentage of students who scored Meeting or Exceeding Expectations in Grade 10 math decreased by 6 points, but is still above the state results by 21 percentage points.

Compared to 2022, the percentage of students scoring Meeting or Exceeding Expectations in ELA increased by 7 percentage points in grades 3 to 8. The percentage of students who scored Meeting or Exceeding Expectations in Grade 10 decreased by 8 points, but is still above the state results by 24 percentage points.

According to the state, Grade 3 data results were flat due to developmental reading and math time lost during the pandemic. That said, Hull third-grade students scored 18% above the state in English Language Arts and 19% above the state in math.

Districtwide, ELA performance in general increased over 2022 levels and exceeded the state accountability targets. Math performance increased across several grades, but continues to fall below the state’s accountability targets. In general, science exam achievement also increased over 2022 performance levels.

At the same time, while scores on the Grades 3 to 8 ELA and math exams increased above, or met, respectively, the district’s accountability target, they are still below the proficiency level.

While grade 10 ELA performance increased and exceeded the district’s accountability target, Grade 10 math performance decreased and fell below the accountability target.

“Our students are working their way back, and what we are putting in place [to improve scores]” will make an impact,” Hull High School Principal Michael Knybel said. “Our target is for 75% of our students to be enrolled in an AP [Advanced Placement] course.”

Memorial School Principal Anthony Hrivnak said MCAS results for middle school students showed improvement in six out of seven subjects.

Jacobs Principal Kyle Shaw said there are reasons for both celebration – including higher attendance rates among elementary students – and improvement in response to the MCAS results, noting, however, that they don’t represent the efforts and hard work put in by staff and students every day.

“There is greatness going on here. We’re just missing an ingredient that we need to uncover leading to better exam results,” Shaw said. He described planned action steps and said he is optimistic scores will improve in the next round of MCAS exams.

In response to the overall results, each school has strategies and action steps for improvement, as is also the case district-wide, including providing MCAS tutoring.

“As you can see, we’ve made progress. There are also challenges in all three buildings that we are addressing,” Cappadona said. “We’re going to stay the course and continue with what we are doing and looking at the data to help support our students. The principals are taking a proactive approach and looking at MCAS as the baseline. We realize the critical need for collaborative efforts among our teachers.”

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