This is not a student issue. This is not a teaching issue. This is not a oh our para issue or this issue. It is a systemic issue that we have to figure out the way to ensure that we're providing the leadership, the accountability, the tools, the progress monitoring to ensure that we are on a trajectory to be consistent so that it does not become the teacher of the lottery that if I'm lucky enough to get medium, I'm going get the needs met. But if I'm not, then there might be a desperate way in terms of how I saw it. And I see, give me one second. Um Sarah was for Opas. Opas. >> I just was wondering with the nine students that sort of exited that exited the ELLL program. Um so they scored above 4.2 in access for English showing their growth and proficiency, but it didn't meet this ELA standard.
It still isn't grade level, >> right? This is >> they still aren't showing in that number. It says zero. Either those they progress >> they they might so this is MCAST >> access like two two different tests >> right two different tests >> right so they might be uh proceed uh proficient somewhere but they might they aren't >> they aren't grade level >> they are grade level for 10th grade in high school >> and we take that ELA MCAST after we've been here for one year so like a newcomer doesn't take it the first year but they take it the next >> that's exactly right and her point is that we have students that will come here, let's say from from Yeah. And so after they've been here a year, okay, yes, you still take the test. Maybe haven't um figured out the language, maybe haven't figured out, you know, any of those things, but yes, you should get to sit for the test.
>> Has any other town figured this out? >> So here here's what I would say to that. I think there are towns that have gotten close in terms of, oh, let's figure out how do we rise all students, but not all towns in Massachusetts um have the level of diversity that Ammerst has. So, you might not see the gaps and um you'll notice that I said the middle school um Ammerst and I did not mention Pell, right? Somebody tell me why didn't I or Margaret knows why. Why didn't I mention tell them Sarah Best? >> We're too little >> too small. So we can report on numbers less than 10. So not all districts in Massachusetts have the same level of number of students so that we can see whether they're actually closing those gaps. That's why it's important, one of the things we talked to Pelum about is making sure we have tools um we are using digital tools uh the I already diagnostic and things like that so that we can measure on the ground in real time because this is a lagging data point.
So this and what I mean by that is this is what happened last time. So we can't wait a year to say oh well notice there's a problem let's try to fix that. So, we need real in time in the- moment data so that we can figure out how to help students. So, I'm over here. Tanya needs this support. I can't wait till MCCAST come back to say, "Oh, I wish I would have seen that Tanya had trouble with this." Because they give us item analysis and all the things. So, I think one of the things we have to do is look across our Commonwealth to see where else do we have our common schools because they give us some schools that are in common. Where else are we um finding schools that have closed the gap? I have not seen them but again I have only started looking at Massachusetts last year.
Um so I will continue to look and I think that's the um for our department. >> I'm just kind of is it a reasonable is it a reasonable expectation that a student who has just moved to the US and isn't speaking English is going to be proficient enough in one year. Should we be testing them at one year? Doesn't it take years to master a language? >> I love that. I'm not sure that this makes sense. like >> well and now this is math but in ELA should we expect this? I I completely agree that that's this is the way that our Commonwealth Law has it right now for Desian. But I want you to know this is not just a first year newcomer. These are all of our ELLL students that are temporary. So be very clear when I when you see this, this represents everyone in that category, not just the newcomer who arrived last week.
>> I would want to ask the question MCCAST comes at the end of the year. By that time, how many teachers are surprised at the results of MCCAST? Don't 99% of them know these students are the ones who are having difficulty? MCCAST just reinforces that. There's nothing new. How can we find better mechanisms to identify the issues without waiting for state test and a year later? I'm glad you asked because here's the thing. We might not all agree on the way to get there, but we all have to agree that that we have to have some tools in place to monitor progress. We cannot depend to say, well, well, he took this test and so I know it's good. Well, no. We need to be looking at it AC according to the full year, not just when it's time for MCAST prep testing. We need to be monitoring progress and we have to decide and agree that this is important enough for us to do that.
We might not all like this particular uh mechanism or this tool or that tool. But we need a tool, a consistent tool across all of our districts to monitor progress. And right now what we're using is allowing us to see that student data allowing us to see and find those students and not only find the student but provide some support around it by giving suggestions and recommendations for closing gaps. It is the thing we have to do not because our teachers aren't great, not because they don't have great curriculum that they've produced. It is because we're trying to close gaps. And when you have the closed gaps, you have to dig in a little deeper to really diagnose what's happening. Um, so what we're going to take a look at is Stephanie's going to come talk about something different, not just MCAST. We need other data points.
We need to take a look at other things. How are we truly doing? The great thing about today and about state of the districts as state of schools that happens across the nation is it's really an opportunity to not only listen to what's happening from a a leadership level, but you get to see it and try to really grapple with it. And I like the word grapple. We're grappling with this because I believe everybody in this room and online wants our kids to do better. We want there to be less of an achievement gap. Our differences might be around how we get there, but at least we're all, as long as we can all agree to road in the same direction, we won't be going backwards. Thank you. So, I'm Stephanie Joyce and I'm the curriculum instruction assessment administration officer in that under that big beautiful umbrella of student academic services.
Um, my allergies are acting up at the moment. You know, they'll call me. Um, so I'm going to take us through some of the math and literacy. uh data that we collect for some of the very reasons that you're asking about because we need we need kind of data and information in the moment. We are going to count it as a win some of what Tom has already shared with us. We're going to count it as a win that we continue to outperform state, students in the state, and students in our nation. And we want to look more closely at what's happening within our district. Um, not just how we compare outside of the district. And what you see here is that well, 52% of our students are at or above grade level in green. In yellow, we have students who are one year below.
And in pink and red, we have students who are two to three or more years below grade level in performance. what we would expect to have performance meet by for expectations by the end of grade level. If we think of that in a waffle, you can see that we've got 52% of our students meeting grade level expectations and 48% off. So, we're going to take that we're going to take that a little further down, break it down by some grade levels, not just thinking about the district on K to six, but starting with fifth grade and then moving sixth to 8th grade. And again, you're going to see that with the trajectory in math of improvement from K to five, we've got 65% of our students at the grade level um for meeting performance benchmarks. And look at what's happened here. We were able to shrink for our students that are performing two and three years below grade level to 12%.
And then we see that some of that trajectory begins to dip from sixth grade from 65% to 60% and dip a little further in seventh and eighth grade. But we see this gigantic spike in sixth grade to 22% of students um who are two two or three more years below grade level. That grows to 26 and stalls there at 26 and seventh and eighth grade. If we start looking at cohorts, which is another really important way to look at our data, so we're not just looking at different groups of students from year to year because then it's a little harder to compare. So this is our current fifth graders looking across three years of their growth. We can see some fairly steady math growth that's happened here. Again, getting to this fifth grade with 65% of our students um achieving at or above grade level.
Um but we see this tremendous vulnerability that's also occurred as we see those large numbers of students two and three grade levels below um that that continues across middle school. So it's important for us to look again take this data apart and look more deeply at what that growth looks like with our student groups. And we've got really compounding equity gaps here in math performance. So again, overall for our district, um we're seeing that where our students are at 53% um at or above grade level, but for our Hispanic Latino students, only 27%. For our students who are learning English language proficiency in their classrooms, at the same time they're learning academic content, just 18% of those students in K6 um are at those levels and even smaller at 17% for our students with capabilities and needs who are who are most effectively met by having uh individualized education plans as well.
This is performance. At the bottom, I want us to glance at what we call typical growth because that's a really that's another very important measure for us. So that we have um as district leaders, our building leaders have this data, our teachers have this data because of the platform, the data platform that we've been able to evolve and have access to in our districts. Um so typical growth is what we would expect to see by the end of a school year. 100% typical growth across the year. that works if you came into your grade level not like that sixth grader Tanya talked about who was functioning at third grade level. They're going to need way more than 100% typical growth to catch up over a year. Um principal Robert is shaking his head and um so what we see here sorry >> I'm sorry I'm sorry >> I don't mean to interrupt it.
>> That's okay. Um I have a question Son. >> Well no no no but but I have a question about grade placement. >> So for incoming students especially maybe from other countries are they tested in any way before being placed in a grade or is it simply based on their age? That's one question. Or even students from from other states or districts. And Dr. Z knows what I'm going to say. And then how are we deciding if we do whether a student can advance to the next grade? Because if we are advancing students a student let's say who is one year behind in math to the next grade almost by definition they're going to then be two years behind because they're not going to catch up. So um yeah, so I it seems very important to be putting students in the grade that is appropriate based on their level of learning, not just their age.
>> So I'm going to say when students come to register on district, there is a grade level equivalent, especially when they come from another state. So students may come in and their last report card or last placement from the school confirmed that they were in second grade and then they need to be placed in third grade. Um it's not solely based on age. Usually we look at their records to determine what grade that they want to go. When a child is then placed within that classroom, it's our what I've seen when I've gone in is a level of differentiation and scaffolding based on the classroom instruction. And that's what kind of talks about the teacher lottery. So our system currently doesn't place children if they show up and they take the diagnostic and it says that they're on in fifth grade but they're in third grade we don't immediately pick pluck them and put them in fifth grade.
Um because there are other factors too to placement whether or not that is like I want to say socially emotional but I want to say whether it's they're socially able to engage with their peers and favor and those types of things. What the expectation usually is is that instruction is shifting or differentiated where I may be teaching a standard um that's a third grade standard but I need to advance this work for the student who in geometry is far out but whereas in algebra I'm in third grade they might be not performing that well. So there's also things in terms of domains that we look at. So it all happens in terms in the classroom. So we need entry points at what we consider to be the floor of the grade level. Um thinking about the curriculum as the floor and then scaling excellence um for for our teachers and our learning environments that bring those students along but also that are well.
Um, now we move to literacy. And again, we're going to take the macro evidence as a win. But as we look more closely here, again, we see this trajectory of growth that's happened across the fifth grade. Look what's happened to our students that are three years below. It shrinks to 5%. That more than triples in sixth grade to 17%. and continues to widen gaps in our middle school and seventh grade at 27 20% of those students and then 20 21% in eighth grade >> and I learned how to actually use the mic. So I also know how to beh So the middle school entry point is interesting, right? Because now that is also an entry point just to the whole system. So, it's not just um our own elementary students moving into our middle and high school, but it is also an entry point where other families choose.
Like I was my own family when I moved here. I was going into seventh grade and I came from a district where wasn't as academically strong and so the supports were not that great. And when I came to seventh grade, it was the first time someone was like, "Oh, she's smart, but she can only read at a third grade level." So, it is a place that not it's not just our own students metriculating up, but it is an entry point for lots of families when they come to the area. >> Thank you. It's it's a really valid point and we spent the morning talking about that multitude of factors that contribute to how we interpret this data. So, we're being very careful not to climb a ladder of inference here about about what it means. Um, but the need, as Tommy said, about systemic indicators that are going to help us drive progress forward is something we're going to continue to keep our lens on, and have support.
So, again, if we take a look at another cohort and some cohort trends um in literacy for our K to2 students, we see a real trajectory of growth here again. and the students that are two and three years below actually one to three years grade levels below diminishing um districtwide K to six and we see that same kind of upward momentum and we've actually garnered a 9 percentage point advantage um over over the years from K to six. Um and then we take a look at our current eighth graders and we look at them as a cohort. So we can look back at seventh grade. We see this win here again where there's 4% growth uh compared um to what they were in seventh grade. But we've got to really look at this gap again because the gap grows in seventh grade to 20% of students uh two and three years below grade level and expands to 21% in 8th grade.
I call our attention again to typical growth over here because over here we see that this year middle of the year winter assessments that even seventh graders who are mid and above grade level 0% typical growth. Our seventh graders who were two grade levels below 0% typical growth. what we would expect to happen by the middle of the year about 50% typical growth to get that 100% typical growth in June. Let's get some eighth graders who are that early on grade level 8th grade made only 25% typical growth. And what this reminds us of is when there are big gaps that build and are persistent, these students at two grade levels below with 0% typical growth would need 267% typical growth by the end of the year to get to grade levels. Those are big gaps to close that you want to rectify. And finally, looking at some literacy data.