Winchendon Public Schools Beginning New Year Targeting Strong Necessary Improvements
When former Murdock High School Principal Thad King was first introduced by the School Committee for the position of Principal before the start of the 2018-2019 academic year, King made one thing clear during his opening statement. "I am a numbers and data driven kind of guy, and I believe all you need to know is in the numbers if you look for it," he said. Since then, Murdock High School, with rigorous curriculum, has realized three strong position advancements on the Massachusetts School Classification system. Now as Interim Superintendent of Schools, he is counting on all levels of his District Office and dedicated teaching staff to help make the next big strides at both the Middle School and Toy Town Elementary.
Gone for several years now is the former school classification system which rated school districts as Level 1 through Level 5, with 5 meaning the district was then taken over by state receivership. It has long since been replaced with a seven tier evaluation system, with the very lowest rating being "Board/Comprehensive Support" and the second lowest rating or next step up being "Focused/Targeted Support." Both ratings fall under "Schools requiring assistance or Intervention" and represent the lowest 15th percentile rating of all public schools.
Proceeding up the sliding scale, the next classification bracket is "Limited or no progress towards targets," next followed by a performance increase of "Moderate progress towards targets." Next up are "Substantial progress towards targets," and then "Meeting or exceeding targets." At the very top and what many would consider the equivalent of the former "Level 1" rating is Schools of Recognition.
During his time as the former Principal, with his philosophy of rigorous curriculum, King and his fellow teaching staff members witnessed a dramatic improvement and turnaround at MHS, with the school advancing from the second worst, up three classification positions to the third best out of seven, "Substantial progress toward targets" at 51 percent, just inside the category's 50 to 74 percentile range. The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) also lists MHS as 60 percent - "Substantial progress towards targets" with an accountability percentile of 25, meaning 75% of High Schools were assessed as better than MHS. Even with that final percentage, MHS made huge strides on the evaluation scale.
Now as Interim Superintendent, King wants to not only to continue building on the High School's progress, but see both Toy Town Elementary and the Murdock Middle School make the same strides in gains as the High School. Both schools currently reside where the High School once was, at "Focused targeted support" or second worst on the classification scale, representing the bottom 15 percent compared to their grade equivalent schools.
Working diligently with Interim Superintendent King on this is Dr. Jonathan Landman, Winchendon Public Schools Director of Instruction, Curriculum, and Assessment, who received his Doctorate in Teaching and Learning from Harvard University. Landman, who started with the WPS District in January of 2019, displayed TTE on a Massachusetts Department of Education website chart at just the 8th percentile versus other elementary schools across the state in standardized testing and other assessment factors. This means 92 percent of elementary schools performed better, and also that TTE is classified as "Requiring Assistance or Intervention." TTE is also listed as "In need of focused/targeted support," and among the lowest performing 10 percent of schools with the Low Subgroup performance for the subgroup "White." The data also list TTE as Progress Towards Improvement Targets, 31 percent - "Moderate progress toward targets."
The Murdock Middle School is also listed "In need of focused/targeted support," among the lowest performing 10% of schools in its assessment. MMS is also listed as Low subgroup performance: White--High needs, as part of its reasoning for classification. MMS is listed at an accountability profile of 7, meaning 93 percent of Middle Schools performed better. However, in a possible "glass half full" scenario, MMS is also listed as 56% - Substantial progress toward targets, or just 4% less in that category than MHS.
With the Mass Department of Education listing both TTE and MMS behind 92 percent and 93 percent of their grade equivalent schools, there is much work to be done which is not lost on either King or Landman. This data is pre-pandemic and measured before the in-person learning shutdown. The above data and classifications for WSD, as with all Massachusetts Public Schools, are taken from data acquired from the 2018-2019 academic year, and do not forward to the present day due again to the prior pandemic shutdown, school closures, and all associated causes attributed as of the time of this story.
The WPS Pre-K and Memorial Elementary School (Pre-K through Grade 2) are below the MCAS grade level for testing and thus not held to the current classification system as its students are considered too young to be assessed with standardized testing. Memorial School, Pre-K, and the Murdock Academy for Success are all listed by DESE as "Insufficient data."
Landman was asked what steps needed to be taken to bring both Toy Town Elementary and Murdock Middle High School up to the same level or better than the High School. Landman first explained, "The Middle School has its current accountability rating for both the High Needs subgroup and the White subgroup, and Toy Town Elementary for its White subgroup. The state assesses students' and schools' performance overall, while also looking at how the lowest performing students in the school are doing, for 50 percent of the schools' accountability rating based on those two things, and for the purpose of accountability ratings, the state also looks at [how] specific subgroups are performing. When subgroups are performing at a relatively low level, that can get you into the 'Focused/Targeting Support' category" which DESE has both MMS and TTE listed in.
Currently the WPS student body, with a listed population of 1,178 according to the Mass Dept of Education district profile, is composed of the following percentages. White - 86.1, Hispanic - 6.5, African American - 1.9, Asian - 1.7, Multi-Race, Non-Hispanic - 3.6, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander - 0.3, and Native American - 0.1 percent. Total student population fluctuates almost daily with families either moving, or students exercising school choice both either into or out of the district. However, in the WPS district, the dominant subgroup statistically has always been White or Caucasian students.
Concerning the part of the WPS District profile regarding "Special Education" and its Selected Populations (2020-2021 data posted), 22 percent of its student body is listed as Students with Disabilities, versus a state average of 18.7 percent. DESE goes on to list 58 percent of WPS students as "High Needs" versus a state average of 51 percent. WPS Economically Disadvantaged students are listed at 49.7 percent versus the state average of 36.6 percent, a full 13 percent above the state average. These numbers are based on a DESE listed 1,178 WPS district student population. By comparison, the neighboring Narragansett Regional School District is lower with 43 percent of its students with High Needs, while the Ashburnham-Westminster District High Needs students are just 34 percent or a full 17 percent below the state average. Much higher local districts include the Gardner Public Schools with 65.4 percent of its students with High Needs and Athol, listed at 64.6 percent of students as High Needs.
Continuing with the question about "How do the schools move forward?" Landman went on to say, "Even starting with Memorial School, all the schools have to be working and pulling together in the same direction. We are truly working on moving into a true evidence based approach to literacy instruction, and we have brought in materials for students with helping them to learn how to read in ways which scientific evidence has shown to be really effective. This is a paradigm shift which is truly important, and the state is also pushing hard for this. Next we are working to create standard aligned curriculum which [is] a standard that is under way and we have done that work with Pre-K up through eighth grade. Pre-K through 8 in Math and Grade 3 through 8 in Language Arts, with History and Science next to follow in the elementary grades." Landman also clarified, "This year there will not be a new announcement of accountability ratings. There could possibly be an announcement of outcomes, but not accountability."
Landman went on to add, "Another big piece of the work moving forward is developing our approach to writing instruction. Also a work in progress is constantly monitoring how students are doing, and using that data from that monitoring process to adjust how we are teaching to make sure we are meeting kids' needs. It's important that elements of instructional practice need to get stronger over time and as we get better at that I think we will see real improvement. It's a combination that we are teaching a curriculum that is in line with the standards, and really monitor that what we are doing is meeting kids' needs and make adjustments along the way based on what the monitoring is telling us."
Also important, Landman wanted people to know, "Creating classrooms that are warm, welcoming, supportive environments in which classrooms are the same is also key. Children have had a really rough year and a half now and they are going to need a lot of support to get used to the demands of school and to be able to stay really focused."
Conversations are taking place all over the state regarding how to accelerate learning for students who fell behind during the pandemic and remote education, whether from a lack of interest in staying in front of a computer during the academic day, or not being able to get that extra in-person one-on-one attention during the shutdown. Landman was asked what is being done to help offset the individual educational loss experienced by some students? Landman responded, "Assessing students to find out what are the key gaps each or a particular student may have right now is very important. We could have a group of students in the 5th grade, as an example, who could have missed some of the 4th grade level content last year. We really want them to experience a 5th grade year this year and excel. Re-teaching 4th grade is not appropriate putting those kids behind, so we may pause based on what we have seen without assessment data, and say here are a few things we may need to go back and consolidate for children. We will be working in not re-teaching everything, but where they as students had fallen behind. It will be different for students, as some will be ready to sail in to that grade 5 content, and others will need to get assistance. Some students may need emotional support and have to meet with a guidance counselor. We also want students to know it's OK to say they are having a hard time with material, and it's safe to do that."
No matter if your child and student needs academic or emotional support, Landman wants you as either parents or guardians to know, they want your child to be able to feel they can come forward with their difficulties to staff, and not feel embarrassed or feel a need to hide their difficulties. The district will work with each child to help them get to where they need to be in a safe, friendly, and understanding environment where they will get the support they need.
In closing Landman said, "Education is a partnership between schools, educators in the schools, administrators, and families. We believe deeply it's our mission in schools to help every child achieve their potential and thrive every way in their life. We are only able to do that by partnering with their parents, guardians, and families. They are their children's teachers when they are not in the school room. We welcome input from families, and what is both working and not working for their children, and invite families to talk to their children about what's happening in school and engage them about their school work. For parents of younger children it's important they are reading to the children and having conversations about their reading, the more the better. As the children get older, the more they are having those conversations about how school was, what they learned today, what they are interested in, and what was frustrating, the better. The level of challenge of what we are going to give the students is going to rise. As we teach more in line with the standards, it will be all the more reason for parents and guardians to talk with their children about what they are learning, and to help them think it through."
Monty Tech Awarded $250,000 in Latest Round of Skills Capital Grants
FITCHBURG -- The Baker-Polito Administration recently announced $9.7 million in grants from the Skills Capital Grant Program to 47 educational organizations across the Commonwealth to update equipment and expand student enrollment in programs that provide career education. One of the 47 recipients was Monty Tech, the area's popular vocational-technical school, serving more than 1,400 students from 18 cities and towns.
These awards mark $102 million in total funding provided to high schools, colleges and other educational organizations since the program's inception in 2015. Of that, Monty Tech has received more than $2 million, improving eight of the school's twenty-one training programs.
The Skills Capital Grant Program was originally launched in 2015 with the goal of replacing outdated equipment and technology, mainly at vocational technical high schools and community colleges. Since then, the program has evolved into a crucial component of local workforce training efforts by expanding the number of young people and adults trained and experienced with the newest technologies used by local employers. Approximately 40,000 students across the Commonwealth have directly benefitted from these grants.
"The Skills Capital Grants have helped give thousands of young people opportunities in high-demand jobs, and the grants have had a tremendous impact on students, schools and local businesses," said Governor Charlie Baker. "These significant investments made over the past six years in this program with our partners in the Legislature will help train students to adapt to the changing needs of our economy."
"North Central Massachusetts depends on a talented and trained workforce pipeline to keep our economy going," said Monty Tech Superintendent-Director Sheila Harrity. "These grants have given us an opportunity to visit with area employers to determine their specific needs, retrofit our shops to include the most current technology, and train our students to fill vacancies when they graduate. The relationships we have with our business partners, coupled with this incredibly generous grant funding, keep us at the forefront of career and technical education in Massachusetts."
The competitive grants are awarded to educational institutions that demonstrate partnerships with local businesses, as well as align curriculum and credentials with industry demand to maximize hiring opportunities in each region of the state. About two-thirds of the investments made with the grants are directly aligned to reduce skills gaps in high priority industry sectors, including health care, manufacturing, IT and skilled trades. A percentage of the funding, about 5 percent, has been invested in multi-year strategic projects in manufacturing, healthcare and energy training programs which are projected to have significant regional impact. The most recent Monty Tech award will benefit the school's Welding & Metal Fabrication program, providing funding for additional welding booths, replacing outdated equipment and technology with newer tools and equipment that align to regional workforce demands.
"As we continue to address economic disparities across the Commonwealth and provide solutions to employment gaps in high-demand industries, the Skills Capital Grants play a significant role in training students of all ages for successful long-lasting careers," said Executive Office of Labor and Workforce Development Secretary Rosalin Acosta. "The impact of these grant funds on students, educational institutions, and local business partners is incredibly positive and moves us toward a more equitable economy."
Approximately 68 percent of the funds have been awarded to traditional high schools and vocational technical schools, 24 percent going to colleges, and another 8 percent to community-based organizations. A focus of the more recent grant awards has been the launch and expansion of the Governor's Career Technical Initiative (CTI), which supports vocational-technical schools in expanding their impact by operating programs in the afternoons for local high school students and in the evenings for workers and adult learners.
"Monty Tech is also very proud to have recently received two CTI grants, so that we can expend access to training programs aligned to high-need industries in our area. Area residents will have increased access to valuable training in Welding, HVAC, and Health Occupations through the School of Continuing Education," explained Dr. Harrity. "We are thrilled that the Baker-Polito Administration continues to prioritize the expansion of high-quality career training, and we continue to seek ways to bring more training and certification opportunities to more local high school students and adult learners."