BCAT News

Newly released data on the most recent MCAS scores showed declines in the percentage of Burlington students who met or exceeded grade-level expectations fell in some categories, but in many, those declines were in line with similar dips statewide and left Burlington overperforming the state average. 

“What you’re seeing in our scores is the impact of a global pandemic over time,” said Superintendent Dr. Eric Conti. “A lot of our kids are making a year’s worth of progress in a year’s time, but if they’re starting behind already, they actually have to make more than a year’s worth of growth in a year’s time if they’re going to catch up. So my personal belief is parents should pay more attention to the growth percentiles.” 

The state groups like students – for instance, students who did not meet grade-level expectations on their last MCAS tests – and measures their growth over time in a metric they call Student Growth Percentile, or SGP. An average SGP between 40 and 60 is about a year’s worth of growth in a year’s time, and in most cases, Burlington is within that band and slightly above the state average SGP. 

In Grades 3-5 English Language Arts, for example, the percentage of students who either met or exceeded expectations in Burlington fell from about 60 percent in 2019 to about 50 percent in 2024, but remained well above the state average, which fell from about 50 percent in 2019 to just under 40 percent in 2024. 

“Our kids are making typical progress,” Conti said. “If you look at the right [graph above] first and then the left, our overall performance is tracking with the state. We want to turn that up, but the chart on the left isn’t going to turn up until we see greater growth on the right.” 

The data is complex and can be broken down by grade, student income, disability, and multilingual status, and district administrators are working now to parse the findings down to the level of individual questions: If 80 percent of students failed on a particular question, maybe the teacher just didn’t get around to teaching that topic before test day.

But some key findings are already clear. The 2024 data showed that some groups continue to struggle to meet standards, notably students with disabilities and English Language Learners – Burlington’s ELL population has risen dramatically in recent years. 

“When it comes to equity, when it comes to our reporting groups, the two groups we really need to focus on – we need to focus on all groups – are our multilingual students and also our students with disabilities,” said Assistant Superintendent Dr. Lisa Chen. “And that’s something we continue to dig deep down into to ensure that all of our students have access when it comes to all of the multiple pathways, and there’s no ceilings that we’re putting on our students.” 

School Committee Member Katherine Bond suggested it was unfair to ask newcomer students, who might have missed some months or years of formal education and are now learning in a foreign language, to perform as well as other students on standardized tests – and if considering those students was impacting Burlington’s averages compared to other communities and the state as a whole. 

“If we’re talking averages, that is 100 percent true,” said Superintendent Dr. Eric Conti. “I would also say that many of our newcomer students also experience significant growth, and that’s due to the efforts of their teachers. Ms. Kerri Lamprey, who speaks to you all the time, is our director of multi-lingual learning, and she does a fantastic job. It’s a complex task. But I do think our teachers are looking for support and looking for tools and looking for curriculum experience that is going to impact a more diverse student body. I always look at that diversity as a strength, but it does make our classrooms more challenging.” 

Conti added that the MCAS is only one metric of student success, and a limited one. The district has other metrics, including Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills (DIBELS) and iReady, which offer more frequent feedback for teachers and administrators. 

Burlington is currently in the middle of reviews of its math and literacy curricula, and expects those changes to improve student outcomes as they are implemented. 

“Growth is the priority,” Conti said. “We’re looking at making sure our curriculum is aligned with state expectations, and if we can focus on individual student growth and curriculum alignment, our overall scores will improve.” 

The full presentation on the MCAS results is available here.