MCAS Scores Improve

FRAMINGHAM - Keefe Tech's push for academic improvement got a boost yesterday when MCAS results showed that 62 percent of last year's sophomores passed the first time, up from 46 percent in 2004.

About 16 percent - 33 of 203 students - passed only the English portion of the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test last spring, while 9 percent, or 18 students, passed only the math portion.

About 79 percent of Keefe's students passed the English half of the MCAS, up from 68 percent in 2004. In math, 71 percent passed this year, up from 56 percent last year.

"Obviously our numbers of those who are failing is shrinking," said Keefe Tech Superintendent-Director Peter Dewar. "And the vast majority of those who are failing are right on the edge."

Indeed, on the English test, 17 of the 18 Keefe students who failed scored between 216 and 218, one notch below the Needs Improvement threshold of 220, which is considered passing.

In math, the numbers were similar, with 40 of the 54 failing marks falling between 216 and 218.

School Committee member John Kahn, who has made MCAS improvement one of his platform issues, called the results "very encouraging," but said he plans to take a closer look at the results to examine demographic inequities, specifically whether there was great racial and ethnic disparity in scores. He wasn't sure whether the jump in scores was a result of academic emphasis or a targeted effort by Keefe administrators to improve the MCAS bottom line.

"These kids now realize it's a make-or-break situation," said Kahn. Any student who doesn't pass both parts of the 10th-grade MCAS before graduation cannot get a high school diploma. With programs during the day, after school and in the summer, Dewar said students have started to realize the importance of the test.

"The only ones who aren't improving are the ones who reject our offers," he said. "If you don't pass, it means you refuse to do any work with us. We don't see that very often anymore though.

"It's a message these kids have really embraced," Dewar said.

Statewide, 82 percent of last year's sophomores passed both halves, with 7 percent passing only English and 3 percent passing only math.

Students who failed the first round of MCAS testing will have another shot in November. Much of the work to get those students ready for the retest started long before the current round of scores went public, said Dewar.

Kahn emphasized the need to get students' eighth-grade MCAS scores earlier so pretesting work can start even sooner. He knows the administration shares his concerns.

Keefe Tech includes students from Ashland, Framingham, Holliston, Hopkinton and Natick.
"By the time you get the scores, there's only (about) a month until you get to the retests," said Dewar. "You have to move quickly and identify these kids early."