Superintendent's office: enrollment edges up; MCAS gains at lower grades but high‑school results lag
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Summary
District assessment lead Lynn Catteras told the board that enrollment has recovered toward pre‑COVID levels and that 2024–25 showed gains in some elementary/middle grades, a rise in English‑learner share to 44.5%, and a drop in the number of schools in the state's bottom 10% from nine to six; high‑school achievement and growth declined.
The Lawrence Alliance for Education heard a presentation on district demographics and MCAS results showing mixed outcomes across grade spans.
Lynn Catteras, supervisor of assessment and accountability, said enrollment has risen from about 12,700 after COVID to around 13,300 last year and is growing modestly this year. Catteras told the board that the 2024–25 school year had "44.5 percent of our students who were English learners and 20 percent of our students were identified as students with disabilities," and that certain grades saw meaningful year‑to‑year gains on MCAS while others remained flat.
Catteras said grades 3–8 showed improvements on several accountability indicators: achievement, growth and chronic absenteeism improved in ways that led the district to make "68% of our progress" toward state targets in grades 3–8 and to reduce the number of schools identified in the state's bottom 10% from nine to six. By contrast, she said, "at the high school level, we did not see the same kind of results" — achievement and growth declined there, and district leaders are investigating factors including the November vote to remove MCAS as a graduation requirement for certain cohorts.
Board members asked about specific strategies. Catteras and headmaster Victor Caravallo described tiered systems of support (MTSS), daily intervention blocks of 45–60 minutes, and expanded multilingual‑learner curriculum and assessments used in targeted intervention. Caravallo said the district is increasing rigor and AP offerings and expanding pathways — but that academic growth will likely take two to three years to materialize fully.
"We are seeing that increase," Catteras said when summarizing enrollment trends, and she noted the district’s progress on reducing the number of schools requiring intervention. The presenters did not provide new budget allocations linked to the interventions during the meeting.
Board members praised the progress and asked administrators to return with additional detail on interventions for schools with significant declines.
