In Tewksbury, Education Official Urges Caution On MCAS Comparison

TEWKSBURY, MA -- Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Jeff Riley followed up Thursday's release of MCAS scores with a visit to the North Street Elementary School Monday and cautioned students, parents and school officials from making comparisons between last year's data and the data released last week. Like 75% of the school districts in Massachusetts, Tewksbury was categorized as "partially meeting expectations."

Tewksbury Superintendent Christopher Malone said school officials will spend the next several months analyzing the data and coming up with a plan to address some of the shortcomings highlighted by the test.

Riley "reinforced his message that comparisons between newly released data and previous data or accountability levels cannot and should not be made. However, we feel this information will remain valuable for future instructional planning and resource development for both staff and students," Malone said.

Overall, just 41% of students in Tewksbury were meeting targets. Schools needed to have 75% or more of students meeting expectations to move to the highest tier of state classifications for public schools. The complete assessment for Tewksbury Public Schools is available on the DESE Website.

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Dave Copeland can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).