Superintendent shares MCAS results, flags attendance as top driver of student outcomes
Summary
Superintendent Bill Metzger reviewed 2025 MCAS results and student‑growth metrics, said the district returned to pre‑pandemic math performance for grades 3–8, and stressed attendance as the primary lever for improving achievement.
Superintendent Bill Metzger briefed the School Committee on changes required by the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) for career and technical education admissions, then reviewed the district’s 2025 MCAS results and prioritized attendance as the most important factor affecting student performance.
Metzger said the Department of Education asked districts to formalize processes around career and technical education (CTE) admissions and that the district will document existing practices: distributing CTE informational materials, sharing student information with receiving schools with parental permission, arranging school presentations and middle‑school visits, and organizing a yearly field trip to Bay Path and other technical schools.
On MCAS data, Metzger noted statewide declines compared with pre‑pandemic levels and offered district metrics for context. He said statewide the pre‑pandemic rate for grades 3–8 meeting or exceeding expectations was 52 percent and that the 2025 results are down 10 percentage points. He reported district averages for all students (grades 3–10) of 14 percent meeting or exceeding expectations, an average scaled score of 474 in ELA (state 494) and 473 in math (state 495), and student growth percentiles near the mid-40s. For tenth grade specifically, he reported 13 percent meeting or exceeding expectations and a student growth percentile of about 34.5.
Metzger said middle school was a relative bright spot: Southbridge Middle School returned to pre‑pandemic proficiency in math and posted student growth percentiles above 50 (ELA student growth percentile 56.1 was cited). He recommended studying how that success can be replicated in elementary and high school grades.
On attendance, Metzger said it is the district’s single strongest predictor of performance. He cited scaled-score differences by absence group (0–2 absences average scaled score 486 versus 18+ absences at 468) and said roughly one third of students were chronically absent last year. He described district responses: daily family outreach, targeted home visits, partnerships with wraparound services and social‑service agencies, attendance teams in schools that meet weekly, and court involvement in some extreme cases. He urged community help in emphasizing school attendance.
Committee members asked about common reasons families cite for absences. Metzger described a range of causes — single‑parent households, work schedules, transportation constraints (middle/high school location distant from town center), student mental‑health issues, older students working or caring for siblings — and emphasized the complexity of the problem.
Metzger closed by reiterating data will be shared with the public and that district leaders will continue targeted efforts (new elementary writing curriculum, building-based student-support teams, outreach and attendance work) to close achievement gaps. No formal action or vote resulted from the presentation.
