Foxborough Students Thriving in MCAS and PARCC

Between MCAS and the PARCC exams, don’t blame Foxborough students if 2015 felt like the year of exams.

The school committee went over the results at a recent meeting, which saw Foxborough perform well on both tests.

“It was comforting to see that we came out ahead of the state average,” committee member Stephen Udden said of the PARCC results.

In Foxborough, 65 percent of students in grades 3 three through 8 met expectations in the math exam. The same percentage of students also met expectations on the English exam.

Statewide, 60 percent met expectations in English and 52 percent in math, with a large range of achievement seen across the state.

Only the fifth graders in math and English and six graders in the English test performed below the state average, although Assistant Superintendent Amy Berdos said there was an issue with the equation editor which may have contributed to the result in addition to the time restriction.

Unlike the MCAS exam, students are graded on a five-point scale with the top two graded labeled as met expectations and exceeded expectations.

On MACS, 98 percent of Foxborough students scored advance or province on the English exam, 90 percent in math, and 86 percent in science

Recently, the state decided to go ahead with the creation of a new MCAS exam with elements of both the current MCAS and PARCC tests.

“This feels like the 90s all over again when MCAS started and we said ’what is this?’ I feel the same way not that I felt back then,” Superintendent Debra Spinelli said. “We’re up to the challenge and we’re not afraid to put forward the challenge.”