Educator Effectiveness

Teachers' Top Three from ESE - September 24, 2015

1. FYI: MCAS and PARCC results released
   At Monday evening's meeting of the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education, ESE released statewide MCAS scores for all 10th graders and for those students in grades 3–8 who took MCAS in spring 2015. The Department also released partial, preliminary statewide PARCC results for students who took PARCC using a computer (approximately 54 percent of districts used PARCC for grades 3–8, and of those students, 59 percent took PARCC on a computer).
   
   "I would like to thank all the students, teachers and administrators whose experiences will help the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to determine whether to adopt PARCC," said Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Mitchell D. Chester. "I am pleased to see the MCAS scores reflect continued progress in narrowing some of the achievement gaps that persist between groups of students. We also have our first look at partial PARCC scores, which will ultimately help establish a baseline for comparison with other PARCC states and with our own progress over time, should the board choose to adopt PARCC as our statewide assessment."
   
   Highlights from those results and from school and district results released today include (more information is available in the press release, Board materials and MCAS Results):

   • The percent of students scoring Proficient or higher on MCAS rose in most subjects at most grade levels compared to 2014. Between 2007 and 2015, the gaps between white students and their African American/black and Hispanic or Latino peers narrowed in all grades in both English language arts and math. (The baseline year is 2007.)

   • Statewide MCAS results showed that 91 percent of 10th graders scored Proficient or higher in English language arts, 79 percent in mathematics, and 72 percent in science and technology/engineering.

   • Student achievement statewide improved on 11 of the 17 MCAS tests administered in 2015.

   • The preliminary PARCC results showed that in most grades, students who took PARCC math and English language arts tests on a computer were less likely to score in the "meeting expectations" range than MCAS students were to score Proficient or above. (In other words, student achievement on PARCC for those who took the test on a computer appears to have been lower than for students who took MCAS.) The fact that there was a difference was not unexpected, given that PARCC is a different measuring stick.

   • The exception to the trend in preliminary, partial PARCC results was in grade 4, where the percent of students who scored in the "meeting expectations" range on a computerized PARCC test and the percent of students who scored Proficient or above on MCAS were virtually the same.

   • The high school PARCC results are not representative of the state as a whole. Relatively few Massachusetts high schools volunteered to give PARCC tests in grades 9 and 11 because of the 10th grade MCAS requirement, and only a subset of the schools that used high school PARCC tests administered it on a computer.

   • "This early report on PARCC results is preliminary and incomplete and therefore cannot yet be directly compared to this year's MCAS results," Secretary Peyser said. "I look forward to seeing the complete results as they become available."

   Find results for the state and individual schools and districts on ESE's School and District Profiles website and on this statewide report. Though the initial scores are available now, school and district accountability determinations will not be released until later this fall.

2. Get Involved: Nominate a colleague or yourself for a $1 million prize
   Here in Massachusetts, we wish we could honor our great teachers with $1 million apiece. The Varkey Foundation is making that reward a reality for one teacher in the world each year with the new Global Teacher Prize, an annual $1 million award intended to "raise the stature of the teaching profession, so that children will dream of becoming the greatest teacher in the world." Applications close on Oct. 10.

3. Did you know? There are almost 72,000 teachers in the state of Massachusetts. You can look at teacher data (such as how many teachers teach in our state or in your district, average teacher salaries, race/ethnicity, retention rates, and even ages) on ESE's School and District Profiles website.
   
   As of today (September 24th), we are reaching about 600 teachers via Teachers' Top 3. Help us reach more by sharing this email with your colleagues and friends! Tweet about it, Facebook it, start a viral video about it, announce it at staff meetings, add it to union updates. We have a long way to go and want to reach 1,500 teachers by December 31st.