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Methuen superintendent reports reading gains, expands early college partnerships
Summary
Acting Superintendent Dr. Gowski told the committee the first year of the Amplify CKLA launch produced above‑norm growth in grades 1–4 and outlined plans to expand early college pathways and mental‑health and attendance initiatives ahead of fall implementation.
Acting Superintendent Dr. Gowski presented a year‑two update on the district strategy plan at the Methuen School Committee workshop on June 22, reporting early literacy gains, details on assessments and steps to broaden early college access.
On literacy she said the district exceeded national MClass growth norms in grades one through four after the first year of the Amplify CKLA ELA curriculum rollout: "we exceeded that in grades one through four in terms of growth and we're just below in K," she told the committee. The administration also described a pilot feature from the publisher, Amplify, that provides a "science of reading" coach and reporting access to MClass growth data; the district will request the vendor produce regular reports or open a portal so administrators can analyze growth and classroom inconsistencies.
Committee members asked whether teacher-facing access to individual or class growth scores would be provided; Dr. Gowski said class-level results will be shared with teachers and administrators and that the district is considering the timing and privacy around showing individual student-level scores. The presentation also covered DreamBox results for upper-grade benchmarks, with school-level end-of-year percentages reported in the discussion.
On college pathways, staff said the early college program produced 264 college credits for the class of 2026 and that nine seniors earned 12 or more college credits. The district plans to maintain pathway offerings — including engineering, law/criminal justice and general-education courses — and pursue an additional partnership with Northern Essex to provide more in-person options; the administration said 57 rising juniors have expressed interest and the budget covers up to 150 participants across grades 11–12.
The superintendent also reviewed objective three actions: mental-health family resources, Parent University materials, and a corrected attendance-reporting formula in the student information system that had previously over-counted some partial-day absences. The administration said it will publish a one-page resources guide for families and continue to investigate absenteeism trends and state-level supports.
The presentation closed with plans to add K–12 bullying-prevention lessons (Second Step) and to move the upper school to MClass screening next year to enable longitudinal tracking across grades.
