MCAS scores come back stronger post-COVID19 as Andover heals from Chronic Absenteeism
By Maddox To
STAFF WRITER
Proud faces usurped the bright of Andover on the 12th of October after residents received their 2023 MCAS scores in the mail, which have gone up dramatically since the pandemic and have even received some honorable mentions for a few of our schools that have ranked at the top for scores.
Massachusetts proudly named Wood Hill Middle School and Andover High School as the top two scorers on the 2023 Schools of Recognition. According to the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Schools of Recognition is a title, given to schools that have demonstrated high accountability and scores in academic performance during the school year. The Andover school committee greatly appreciated the strong performance as it increased discussions about recovery post-COVID in education and accountability percentiles across the district.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, the school district faced challenges on how to hold up the education for the pupils of Andover. Mr. Bucco, Principal of Wood Hill Middle School, stated that there was a lot more negative than positive that happened, therefore it was hard for many to stay positive during those times. “Not because everyone didn’t try their best…[online learning just] doesn’t take [the] place of in-person learning.” “relationships are very important…those of which are harder to create online.” The conditions students faced with learning during the pandemic were strained and immovable, and the accountability to do work was simply not there anymore.
The rules placed in online learning were that as long as you got work done, you would receive a grade that was rarely based on performance. This rule made accountability tangible. Some if not most students during the pandemic didn’t even bother completing or starting an assignment because they knew they’d be graded a 4 from the 1-4 grading scale at the time. A grade mark of (4) was given to anyone who simply attended. Communication had to find its way, becoming 100% digital, and online schools were struggling to come up with ways for teaching to be effective during these times.
After COVID-19, restrictions and constraints were lifted, and hybrid learning was integrated into the school system, where one school such as Wood Hill, separated their kids into two groups that would alternate in-person, and then online learning across the days of a week. Teachers continued to teach the way they would usually teach, but the advantages were strong for traditional in-person learning compared to online learning. In-person learning concluded a stronger sense of community but also accountability for the attendance of a student, due to the power of physical acknowledgment, in comparison to being a square in a meeting for online attendance.
The school district eventually came back in full bloom for traditional in-person learning starting in the year 2022 for the district of Andover. However, the effects of chronic absenteeism from that period of online learning are still persistent in students, as shown in early data on student attendance and work ethic after full-time in-person learning was implemented.
Accountability still struggles in the district today, but it’s getting better as the school committee discusses a recovery path for students falling below the benchmark of accountability this past Thursday, October 19. Teachers are getting better at creating new ways to teach and engage the short attention spans of our generation. “Every generation is different. They all have their strengths and challenges,” said Mr. Bucco, “[We] can get info so quickly now, impacting our attention spans.”
Principal of 2023’s MCAS top scorer, Wood Hill Middle School, Mr. Bucco shares that there wasn’t anything particularly special the school had done to hold such a title, but that being consistent with everyday learning was the key to their succession of the title. He stresses that ironically, stress is a defeating factor in scores for MCAS. He disagrees with the nature of a student’s MCAS score to determine their ability to graduate, arguing that it should instead be based on a student’s daily performance, but there should still be criteria, like how their educators are doing as well. Continually, Mr. Bucco ends with the advice that “Students should focus on everyday learning,” with the condition that we’ve just come out of a pandemic, there is more to come and he’s “expecting an increase in student performance. [and] hoping that it will continue.”
