MicroSociety Academy Scores & 2018-19 Enrollment Plans Announced

The MicroSociety Academy Charter School (MACS), a K-7 tuition free, public charter school in Nashua, just released the results of the school’s 2016-2017 Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium (SBAC) assessments that all New Hampshire Grades 3-8 students were administered in Spring of 2016. The assessments are a measure of a schools students’ proficiency in learning Reading/English Language Arts and Mathematics.

An analysis of the school’s SBAC data was conducted by the School Director Amy Bottomley and staff and announced to the Board of Trustees at a recent monthly board meeting.
Bottomley explained, “In conducting this analysis we compared MicroSociety Academy’s Grades 3-6 student results with overall state results, nearby charter schools, and communities like Nashua and Hollis.”
“We were encouraged to see the analysis revealed MACS Grades 3-6 students scored above the state average proficiency in Reading/English Language Arts and Math. Similar results were also seen for all four grades when MACS student proficiency results were compared with Nashua Public Schools student performance in the same grades.”
When specific State, Nashua, and MACS proficiency grade level scores were compared, wide differences favoring MicroSociety Academy students were of particular note in most areas: *Grade 4 State Reading/ELA 56% & Nashua 48% vs. MACS 74% *Grade 4 State Math 51% & Nashua 45% vs MACS 74% *Grade 5 State Reading/ELA 61% & Nashua 55% vs MACS 90% *Grade 6 State Reading/ELA 57% & Nashua 45% vs MACS 90% *Grade 6 State Math 46% & Nashua 32% vs MACS 70%
When MACS SBAC results were compared with Hollis, MACS students had higher proficiency in Grade 4, 5 and 6 Reading/ELA and Grade 4 Math and were equal to proficiency Math results in Grades 5 and 6 of Hollis students.
In comparing MACS SBAC results to other Greater-Nashua charter schools, MACS grades 3-6 students notably surpassed the English Language Arts and Math proficiency results of students in grades 3-6 at the K-8 Gates City for Arts Charter School in Merrimack.
When comparing MACS Grade 6 results with the Grades 6-12 Academy for Science and Design (ASD), MACS student results were very competitive. MACS grade 6 students scored better than ASD with 90% proficient in ELA compared to ASD’s 77% proficiency. MACS 70% proficiency in Math that was good enough to surpass Nashua and the overall State average results, was just below ASD students’ 85% rate. (More assessment results information is available in the School Director’s November Report at www.macsnh.org.) Board chairperson and MACS founder, Tom Malone, who is a retired MicroSociety principal indicated: “The founders and the Board are very pleased by the latest SBAC assessment progress. We firmly believed a MicroSociety themed school would make a real difference in children’s learning and we are now moving toward proving that.”
In conjunction with the release of the above results, MicroSociety Academy is also announcing MACS is now accepting applications for vacant student seats in grades K-8 for the 2018-19 school year. In order for a student to be enrolled for the new academic year, parents will need to complete an application to make their K-8 child eligible for a vacant seat that will be awarded by a blind student enrollment lottery on March 9, 2018. Prior to the lottery, prospective parents must additionally attend one of the school’s mandatory “Open House Information Sessions”. These sessions will be held in the school's Multipurpose room on Thursday, January 18, 2018 at 6:00 pm and Monday, February 5, 2018 at 6:00 pm. Prospective families should visit the school’s admissions page on the school website at www.macsnh.org for more details.
There are also presently two vacant seats available in Grade 7 and another seat in Grade 2 available for immediate placement at MACS as a result of recent family moves. Parents interested in immediately enrolling their child for those vacant seats (and not be subject to the enrollment lottery) should contact Susannah Williams at swilliams@macsnh.org.
Malone noted, “With the start of this new academic year we are excited that MACS will be expanding to Grade 8 and reaching the school’s capacity of 223 students originally envisioned by the founders when first awarded the charter by the New Hampshire Board of Education in 2014.”
“From the start the founders believed, ‘if we build it, they will come’. So we are very happy to see that in increasing numbers, Greater-Nashua families have shown interest in our school over past two years. They come because they believe in our mission to actively engage K-8 students in a diverse, challenging, learning environment that allows them to create their own ‘MicroSociety’ while preparing them for college, the work force, and citizenship in a 21st Century global society.”
Beyond MACS achievement in the state assessments, the school was also a repeat recipient of awards at the Annual MicroSociety International Conference this past July in Kingsville, Texas. The school received the prestigious “4 Star Award”, the highest rating for a MicroSociety School, for successfully exceeding addressing MicroSociety standards and practices, which are highly comparable to state standards. The school’s director Amy Bottomley was also awarded “MicroSociety Administrator of the Year” for her outstanding leadership of the school for the past three years.
.