By Eric Eisenberg
ALLSTON – Jackson Mann Elementary School and Thomas Gardner Elementary School have shown signs of struggle with the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, the standards-based test for students in grades three through eight.
“Our scores are based on the population that we are servicing,” said Dr. Joanne Collins Russell, the principal at Jackson Mann. “Our kids are learning, maybe not to the line that they are learning in a Brookline or a Harvard, but they are learning.”
Students in Allston elementary schools are performing below state averages in English, math and science, according to the Massachusetts Department of Education. In grades three through six, at Thomas Gardner Elementary, only 30 percent of students performed at or above proficient, compared to the state average of 60 percent. Jackson Mann Elementary had 40 percent of students perform at the same level.
While there is no district wide test-taking class in Boston schools, Jackson Mann Elementary offers a tutoring program for test-taking and students receive strategies in class relevant to subjects they are learning.
“Children receive test-taking practice in school consistent with what they are doing in curriculum,” Russell said. “It is using the curriculum to advance their test-taking strategies.”
Principal Erica Herman of Thomas Gardner Elementary School was unable to be reached before deadline.
Test scores determine the quality of education that students are receiving in their schools. Russell says the comparison of test results should only concern Allston schools when comparing them to other urban areas, but Jonathan Palumbo, a spokesman for Boston Public Schools, says the MCAS is used primarily to provide educators with student data that they can use to track educational progress of individual students, not to compare schools.
“The purpose of MCAS is not to compare school A to school B or school district A to school district B, because there is not a lot of power in ‘my kids did better than your kids,’” Palumbo said. “The purpose is to drive instruction to improve teaching and ensure that students are getting the education they deserve.”
Using the test, which is released in its entirety by the state each year, teachers can look at students’ answers to questions and identify areas where students may need additional help.
“[The MCAS] gives feedback directly to the teachers so that they can do two things: get the kids extra help and figure out if there is something they can do with their lesson planning that could realize some improvement,” Palumbo said.
For better results in future testing, Allston educators say extended preparation for testing, such as a good night’s sleep and a large breakfast, as well as expanded knowledge of the test is of the utmost importance.
“I think that children have to have a range of experiences and a body of world knowledge that will equip them to do an effective job,” Russell said.
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