School leaders say state data raises questions of clarity
School Committee members are questioning the data’s usefulness in the first place, citing a vague presentation.
Acton’s high school principals see a lag in closing scholastic achievement gaps, per state academic data; School Committee members, meanwhile, are questioning the data’s usefulness in the first place.
At last week’s School Committee meeting, METCO representative Michelle MacDougall and committee member Michael Williams said a report on achievement gaps wasn’t as helpful as they had hoped.
“The information that was in the presentation was not substantial,” MacDougall said near the end of the meeting. “We weren’t able to identify how many people we were talking about. We were dealing with percentages without any reference number. So I would have to say that I wouldn’t find that acceptable.”
Williams chimed in, saying, “Fair.”
Earlier, Assistant Superintendent of Teaching and Learning Shelly Chin, who created the data charts presented to the committee, explained that the presentation had to be kept somewhat vague to protect student identities.
“We didn’t want anyone to be able to name or [know] those students,” she said, adding that it is similar to how the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education will not include demographic data for smaller populations in Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) scores.
No quick fix
At the beginning of the presentation, CCHS co-Principal Brian Miller said a major goal of the high school has been to get more students from marginalized backgrounds into higher-level courses.
“This takes a little bit of time, of course, right?” he said. “We can’t just all of a sudden decide that we want marginalized students to be in honors classes.”
The data presented shows a slight dip in Black student enrollment in honors English — CCHS did not offer an AP English course until this year — and a slight increase in combined honors and AP enrollment for math and science. Low-income students also experienced slight increases in honors and AP enrollment.
METCO students enrolled in honors and AP classes less often this school year than last.
However, the metrics were presented as percentages alone, with no clear way to determine the actual number of students enrolled. That was the crux of MacDougall’s complaint.
“There’s no total amount of those demographics anywhere in the presentation,” she said. “So, we have 72% of Black students enrolled in math in enriched courses, but what does that translate to?”
Miller said that he understands the numbers might not paint a comprehensive picture, but he maintained that the slides should at least show progress.
Schools Superintendent Laurie Hunter said the issue wasn’t going to be resolved in that meeting.
“We’ve talked a lot about it,” she said, “and we’re still here talking about it. So I don’t know that we’re going to solve it offline with the whole committee either.”
The group agreed to put the issue on the agenda of a future meeting. School officials and committee members are expected to see data for K-8 classes at the Acton School Committee meeting on November 19.
