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Framingham reports 39% on state accountability; committee presses for turnaround on declining MCAS and absenteeism
Summary
District staff told the school committee Framingham earned about 39% of its possible accountability points, cited several schools below the 10th percentile and said chronic absenteeism remains high (about 27% in grades 1'8). Committee members pressed for clear steps and timelines to reverse declining results.
Framingham Public Schools staff presented 2024 accountability results from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), telling the school committee the district earned approximately 39% of possible accountability points and remains in "moderate progress" toward state targets.
Amy Bright explained DESE's accountability system: districts and schools receive an accountability percentile (1—99) and a criterion-reference component calculated from multiple indicators including MCAS achievement and growth, ACCESS English-language proficiency, chronic absenteeism, and high-school completion and advanced-coursework metrics. "For Framingham Public Schools, we are in the 30 ninth percent. We are we received 39%, which means that we received about 39% of our total points," Bright said.
Bright listed schools with particularly low percentiles: Barberi, Brophy, Harmony Grove, McCarthy, Fuller and Cameron were named as below the 10th percentile and some schools are therefore flagged by DESE as "requiring assistance or intervention." She stressed that the calculation blends the current year's MCAS (60% of the score) with the prior year (40%), so year-to-year comparisons must account for scoring changes.
On absenteeism, Bright said chronic absenteeism for non-high-school grades improved from about 29.2% to roughly 27% (students missing 10% or more of school days), a change she described as progress but still concerning. "I would argue that 27 percent of our students or 1 in 4 students being chronically absent in grades 1 through 8, provides some barriers to their learning," Bright said.
Committee members pushed for clearer timelines and actions. Miss Moshe called the decline "pretty shocking" and asked what the school committee could do on policy or budget to accelerate improvement. "We need to see positive change... we really, really, really start a turnaround," she said.
Presenters pointed to several contributing factors: district demographic churn (about 10% annually), a high McKinney-Vento population (nearly 1,000 students), ongoing mental-health impacts from the pandemic, and the time required to implement curricular and instructional changes, including adoption of new literacy materials and an upcoming math curriculum process. Staff emphasized layered supports: tiered intervention systems, instructional coaching, improved professional learning, and strategies to reduce chronic absenteeism (including changes to transportation and expanded out-of-school learning).
The committee did not take a formal vote on any accountability action at the meeting; members asked staff to continue monitoring progress and to provide the committee with data and materials for follow-up.
