Official pushes effort to teach beyond MCAS

In a town known for top-notch schools, a Sharon School Committee member has launched a grassroots movement that she and other officials hope could lead to less emphasis on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System statewide.

"Accountability is a good thing. Learning standards are a good thing. But is focusing on one test a fair measure of student success? I think that answer is, 'No,' " said Laura Salomons, a School Committee member since May and a mother of four.

Salomons has submitted a proposal that seeks community support for allowing teachers to avoid tailoring their lessons to the MCAS. Instead, she would like to see teachers directed to instruct students on skills the district has deemed necessary for survival in the 21st century, including critical thinking, invention, problem-solving, and multicultural collaboration.

"I have come to the conclusion that we, as a school district, may be overly consumed with doing well on MCAS," Salomons began in her eight-page proposal. "The focus is a detriment to reaching the school committee and superintendent's goal of 'providing students with . . . learning opportunities that encourage lifelong learning skills and that support a student's artistic, social, emotional and physical development.' "

Sharon officials are organizing an MCAS discussion panel for November. Salomons said she hopes to garner support to change the focus locally to the extent that the state will notice.

Salomons, who has a master's degree in social work, said the need for action was underscored this year when the state Department of Education put the Heights Elementary School in a "needs improvement" category. The school was cited because its special education students failed to improve on the language arts portion of the tests for a second consecutive year.

This year's "needs improvement" rating means Heights administrators have to revise its school improvement plan and provide technical assistance to the special education students, which will cost the district more money. Despite the rating, the school's overall population scored 92.7 percent proficient, placing it in the top 12 percent in the state in Grade 3, top 11 percent in Grade 4, and top 8 percent in Grade 5 for language arts.

Salomons and School Superintendent Barbara Dunham object to the way the state compares special education students to other students when evaluating the MCAS scores, saying the practice is like comparing apples to oranges. They stress respect for how different students learn, they say.

The state, however, promises that the MCAS is here to stay, said a spokesman.

"There is a real value in measuring how students achieve," said J.C. Considine, spokesman for the state Department of Education. "We owe it to students to make sure that if they need additional assistance, they receive it."

Considine also cautioned against getting nervous about one school in a district being put on the "needs improvement" list.

"Just because a school has been identified for corrective action, it doesn't mean the school is failing," he said. "It means the school hasn't met its target, and this is a very rigorous target."

But it is not a target that should be all-consuming, said Salomons.

"If we don't worry about the test, don't get stressed about it, don't get overwhelmed by it, we're going to do just fine," she said. "It may mean we don't meet annual progress every year. And I'm OK with that. I'm not going to worry about this two-hour test."

Salomons said she has no intention of advocating that teachers ignore MCAS tests, which could cost the district state funding. What she proposes is to allow teachers to gear their curriculum toward teaching the whole student, and if missing annual improvement benchmarks set by the state is a price, then so be it. She recognizes it could be costly but said providing a well-rounded education is worth the price.

Dunham agrees and favors change in the way the state calculates progress for students.

"Statistically, it does not make sense to measure growth of one group of students against another group of students in the same grade and then put a school on an 'improvement plan' when apples don't do better than oranges. It does not make sense," she said.

At least one Heights parent is already thinking this way.

"There is always room for improvement," said Karen Romanow, who has two children at the school. "That is the nature of public schools . . . But my children are getting a good education. This is certainly a discussion and debate that should happen, but I'm not overly concerned because of the ranking the Heights school got. If you look at the progression for Sharon school district and overall scores, they're fantastic."