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District says ACCESS scores show modest gains; multilingual program flags writing and speaking as focus areas
Summary
Lawrence Public Schools officials reported preliminary ACCESS results showing small upticks in receptive domains and progress toward DESE targets for K–8 and high-school English learners, while noting variability across schools and the need to expand teacher training and instructional materials.
Maria Gutierrez, director of the district’s Multilingual Program, presented preliminary ACCESS testing results and district plans to the School Committee. She said 5,348 students were tested this year and that the district saw slight increases in listening and reading (the receptive domains) while writing and speaking (productive domains) remain an instructional focus. "This year we have seen slight increases in both listening and reading," she said.
Gutierrez described how DESE sets individual growth targets for students and school-level accountability thresholds. At the K–8 level, she reported that 42.3% of students met their projected progress targets (up 2.9 percentage points from the prior year) and that the district preliminarily met DESE’s K–8 target. At the high-school level she reported 14.5% of students met targets, a small increase from the prior year, and said the district also met the high-school target preliminarily.
Committee members asked whether the percentages reflect the same students year over year or include newcomers; Gutierrez said results combine returning students and new arrivals and clarified that newcomers and pre-K are not included in the same progress metrics. Members also asked about dually identified special education students; Gutierrez said some students with the most severe disabilities are excluded from particular domain scores when they cannot complete two or more domains, and she offered to provide subgroup breakdowns (for example, dual-identified students) in a later report.
Gutierrez said district efforts tied to the ACCESS results include purchasing high-quality, aligned ESL instructional materials, expanding training for all teachers in frameworks such as QTEL, investing in benchmark language assessments and progress monitoring, and increasing the number of licensed ESL teachers through partnerships and coaching.
Next steps: staff offered to supply the committee with school-level breakdowns and subgroup (including dually identified special education) data for committee review ahead of final DESE results in August.
