Gains Made in MCAS Progress Reports, But MHS Special Ed Slips

More subgroups of Melrose students met progress goals in 2010 than in 2009, according to MCAS results released by the state last week, but Melrose High School slipped in one area, with special education students failing to meet the progress goal intended to drive all students scoring proficient or better on MCAS exams by 2014.

The federal No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) requires student achievement to improve each year. That progress is measured by "Adequate Yearly Progress" (AYP), a calculation made by the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education that, based on past performance, sets annual improvement goals in English and math for each district, individual school and subgroups of students within each school.

As a school district, Melrose Public Schools made AYP in 2010, although its math scores "improved below target," meaning that the scores improved above the baseline, but below the target range set for the district in 2010.

If a school or one of its subgroups fails to make necessary progress two years in a row, the state designates the school as needing improvement. The Lincoln School and Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School are both in Improvement Year 2 for subgroups under NCLB.

When AYP goals are not met for four years, the school enters "corrective action" under NCLB, and after five years, the school is designated for restructuring. A school must meet AYP goals for two consecutive years to return to normal status.

Elementary schools see improvement in English, no change in math

In 2009, in Grades 3-5 district-wide, the subgroups of white students, special education students and low income students failed to make AYP in English.

Those grades made significant gains on the 2010 MCAS exams, as only the special education students subgroup failed to make AYP in English. According to the individual school results, only the Lincoln School failed to have all of its student subgroups make AYP.

Overall, all five Melrose elementary schools met their aggregate AYP goals for 2010.

In math, the Melrose elementary schools' progress remained unchanged. In both 2009 and 2010, in Grades 3-5 district-wide, the subgroups of special education students and low income students failed to make AYP.

According to individual school results, the Hoover, Horace Mann and Winthrop Schools each met their aggregate AYP goal in math and all their subgroups met AYP goals in math as well. The Lincoln and Roosevelt Schools failed to meet aggregate AYP goals in math.

Middle school improves in both English and math

Melrose Veterans Memorial Middle School saw adequate improvement in both English and math on the 2010 MCAS results.

In 2009, special education students at the middle school failed to make AYP in English, but all subgroups at the middle school made AYP this year.

Also in 2009, the white students, special education students and low income students subgroups at the middle school failed to make AYP in math, but in 2010, only the low-income subgroup fell short of making AYP.

High school slips in English special education

All Melrose High School subgroups made AYP in English in 2009, but on the most recent results, the special education subgroup failed to make AYP.

In math, all subgroups at Melrose High School made AYP in math, the same as in 2009 and in 2008.

Click here to see the Melrose Public Schools' AYP report for 2010 and click here for the 2009 report. The individual school results are available in the PDF document attached to this article.