PITTSFIELD, Mass. — On the surface, standardized testing scores for the Pittsfield School District distinguishes the system as Level 3 in the state's rankings.

 

But Superintendent Jason McCandless says looking deeper into the numbers, the scores show progress in the areas the district has focused on. The district revamped its English curriculum in the elementary school to a unified one and this year expanded it to the middle school level, is piloting math curriculum this year to do the same.

 

But maybe even more importantly for McCandless, the district's recent focus on cultural proficiency is paying dividends with those "subgroups" of students.

 

"Cultural proficiency lies at the heart of academic achievement," McCandless said. "I think we have much to celebrate this year, as well as realizing we have miles and mile to go in closing the achievement gap."

 

The district has made it a focus to provide an inclusive education, recognizing that each student comes into the district with diverse backgrounds. Through the district improvement plan and professional development, the district's philosophy has been on improving the outcomes of those who are low income, are learning English as a second language, or have disabilities. With a predominately white, middle-class teaching staff, McCandless said he wants teachers to not only understand the diverse background the students are coming from but be experts in how to educate those students.

 

"Who do we need to be in order to work with students that are increasingly walking in the door with cultural experiences and home experiences that are unlike ours as a predominately white middle-class teaching staff? You can see one of our highlight areas are in terms of economically disadvantaged children, in terms of narrowing the proficiency gap, we were above the target the state set for us," McCandless said.

 

"That would say to us that this work we are doing around how do we teach the students who are living in poverty, how to teach students who are coming to us with trauma, that work, that professional development, that energy and effort teachers are putting into this, is paying off. In every single category, maybe we didn't make target but we improved. In some areas were above target. We were on target with Asian students, we improved with the targets on every other group of students and in some cases, we improved rather dramatic."

 

English Language Learners, a particularly high spot for McCandless, made a big improvement from previous years, in English Language Arts.

 

When measuring growth scores throughout the state, by a percentile comparing students throughout their education with like scoring students, English Language Learners scored in the 50 percentile — a number 10 points above the state's target. That is compared to just 27 percentile last year.

 

"In terms of growth, are we taking students where they need to be at an appropriate rate? We are above target in almost every indicator of that," McCandless said.

 

"To me, this is proof that the systems we are trying to put into place, the believes that we are making organizationally, the approaches are taking hold. The investment in curriculum materials is making a difference."

 

In 2016, 11.5 percent of all the city's ELL students scored advanced, up from 8.5 percent last year. The percentage of failing or warnings in that group dropped from 13.4 percent to 8.9 percent.

 

"Increasing the percentage of students scoring advanced. That's a decent jump when you are talking about nearly 3,000 test takers," McCandless said.

 

Among black students, 21.2 percent were in warning last year and that dropped to 14.8 percent this year. They also saw an advancement increase from 3.2 percent to 4.7 percent. In every area of English, the district's score improved, McCandless said, including surpassing the target for economically disadvantaged students.

 

In math, the district was on target with the economically disadvantaged students, which McCandless said is "arguably the most challenging group of students." There was low forward movement with black students and with students with disabilities but those groups still continued to improve — just not at the pace the state would like.

 

In 2015, 3.1 percent of students with disabilities scored advanced in math and that jumped to 5.8 percent this year while English Language Learners nearly tripled. Despite math being a weaker point for the district than the English scores, all of the subgroups advanced over last year and fewer students are in the warning or failing level. 

 

"We are seeing the things we expect to see when we focus on rich, high-quality curriculum materials the teachers chose themselves, when we focus on pedagogy and on teaching, and when we focus on meeting students right where they are and right who they are in cultural proficiency," McCandless said. 

 

The scores for math were below target when it comes to student growth, but every group showed increased including students with disabilities, English Language Learners, and economically disadvantaged. However, looking at the progress on the English side, McCandless says he expects with a new curriculum being developed by the teachers through this year's pilot programs, those scores will begin to reflect the same level of growth in English.

 

While the English scores and growth was a highlight, math following with some advancement, the district hadn't seen much growth in the science sector.

 

"We saw and issue with the lack of ELA curriculum across our elementary schools. We invested in it and we see the results. We invested in the same for our middle schools. We are piloting mathamatic curriculum across the elementary and middle schools this year. Science is our next mountain to climb," McCandless said.

 

Most of the scores in science remained the same. However, no English Language Learners scored advanced in the science test in 2016 and 7 percent did in 2016. In 2015, less than 1 percent of African Americans scored advanced and in 2016 4.4 percent did. But not all groups are moving forward, particularly with the percentage of failing or warning students.

 

"We are moving students from the middle to the top, but we are not moving students that are struggling the most forward to the middle," McCandless said.

 

Overall, the state's ranking system puts the district at a Level 3 but a district can only be ranked at its lowest scoring district. There are multiple schools in the district which ranked as Level 1 and 2. All of the schools remained at the same level as last year.

 

"We have a lot of chatter in our community which misrepresents this particular point," Mayor Linda Tyer said. "This data disproves that. We have three schools at Level 1." 

 

Tyer called the leveling system misleading and said there is more to the school district than just what the scores say on the test. McCandless agreed, highlights good AP scores and an array of opportunities. 

 

"These rankings really say a lot more about the socioeconomic health of your building than the quality of the teaching and learning," McCandless said, saying many students are getting Level 1 educations through the Pittsfield Public Schools. "I can say, as the superintendent of this Level 3 district, we are providing kids with outstanding educations and outstanding opportunities."

 

School Committee member Anthony Reillo said small cities face an array of other issues that small towns don't, particularly when it comes to socioeconomics. 

 

"We are not a tiny town. We are not Lenox. We are not Williamstown," he said. "Cities have a lot to offer as well, that's why we are here, that is why people live here ... We are going to have a very diverse school, we have a very diverse community."

 

While there are highlights in the test scores, and the numbers don't tell the whole story, McCandless said the entire district has a long way to go to improve. But the focus isn't going to be on implementing ways to teach to a test, but rather focusing on teaching and curriculum to make fundamental changes in the education provided.

 

"The way to get learning to happen and move learning forward for all students is to address the things that comprise learning. Focusing on test scores never gets long-term gains for students. It doesn't create institutional change. Concentrating on teaching and learning does," McCandless said.