Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Education topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Swampscott Public Schools reports gains in reading and math, adds Media Arts pathway
Summary
District officials told the school committee that targeted instruction and tiered data teams helped boost elementary ELA to 76% at grade level and raised math proficiency; the district also secured a DESE-designated Media Arts & Communication career pathway and will run a three-week Title I summer program for rising grades 1–4.
Swampscott’s director of teaching and learning told the school committee on June 11 that the district saw measurable gains in both reading and mathematics this school year and won state recognition for a new career pathway.
Miss Ken, director of teaching and learning, summarized three professional-development themes and said 96% of 187 teacher respondents rated this year’s PD series favorably. She credited a combination of collaborative, choice-driven PD and a targeted-instruction initiative that uses tier-2 data teams to create intervention groups.
The department reported that 76% of K–4 students were on or above grade level in English language arts in spring measures, and 57.6% of middle-school students were at or above grade level in ELA. For mathematics, the district said roughly two-thirds of elementary and middle-school students were at grade level; staff cited notable reductions in students scoring three or more grade levels below expectations. “We cut the number of students in the most severe reading category roughly in half from fall to spring,” Miss Ken said.
District staff described tier-2 data teams—reading and math specialists who analyze assessment data, propose small-group placements and then collaborate with classroom teachers—as central to the work. Miss Ken said the teams produce proposals that teachers adjust based on classroom knowledge: “The tier 2 team was really just using numbers. The classroom teachers then tweak it based on their experience of the children.”
The district will pilot an expanded targeted-instruction model in grade 7 next year, and high school staff will pilot STAR assessments for ninth- and 10th-grade math and ELA to mirror the data used at lower grades. Officials also plan to post common unit maps and assessments to improve coherence across classrooms.
Separately, the district announced it had been designated by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education as having a Media Arts & Communication innovation pathway, joining the district’s existing advanced manufacturing and business-and-finance pathways. The designation allows students to earn pathway recognition on diplomas and is intended to formalize work already underway in the high school’s media program.
To combat summer learning loss, the district will offer a condensed three-week summer program for rising first through fourth graders—four days per week, with 1 hour 15 minutes of math and 1 hour 15 minutes of literacy each day—funded with Title I dollars. Miss Ken said about 87 students were enrolled at the time of the meeting.
The presentation drew questions about teacher planning time, how tier-2 teams are organized, and whether special-education and multilingual learners are included in the reported data. Committee members praised the results while pressing staff to keep refining protocols and sharing implementation details with families.
