Lawrence Public Schools officials presented preliminary ACCESS 2025 English‑language‑proficiency results at the board meeting, reporting increases in participation and modest gains on several measures used for accountability.

District Multilingual (ML) Department lead Ms. Gutierrez said the district tested 5,795 students on regular ACCESS and 98 students on alternate ACCESS this year; the preliminary participation rate was 94 percent and the district expects the final participation rate to rise to about 98–99 percent after accounting for student withdrawals.

Gutierrez summarized two main indicators DESE uses: whether individual students met their DESE‑calculated growth targets and whether students met the score thresholds to exit the English‑learner (EL) program. ACCESS scores run on a 1–6 scale, where 1 is beginning and 6 is near‑native fluency; DESE sets individual targets and school accountability percentages.

Key district figures presented: among K–8 students, 38.7% met their individual growth targets (up 7.3 percentage points from 31.4% in 2024), exceeding the K–8 accountability target of 33%. At the high‑school level, 12% met targets (up 3.2 percentage points from 8.8%), exceeding the high‑school accountability target of 10.1%. At the district level 55.6% of schools exceeded their individual targets; overall 77.9% of schools showed improvement. On exit criteria (DESE exit thresholds are 4.2 overall and 3.9 literacy on the ACCESS scale), 8.1% of EL students met the exit criteria this year (up 2.1 percentage points from 6% the previous year).

Gutierrez said final ACCESS scores are expected in August; she and trustees discussed targeted supports for schools that declined and the importance of professional development in sheltered‑instruction strategies and high‑quality ESL materials.

Trustees praised gains and asked for follow‑up on schools with downward trends, and the district said it will study the declines and provide additional professional development and fidelity reviews of service delivery.