EAST LONGMEADOW — At the Oct. 7 School Committee meeting, Superintendent Gordon Smith and Director of Curriculum, Instruction, and Assessment Heather Brown, shared an update on the East Longmeadow Public Schools students’ progress for the 2024-25 school year.
This report was the first part of the fall update with the school principals scheduled to present their updates and year goals in an upcoming meeting, Smith said.
During the update, Smith and Brown shared data and trends for student performance across three goals: Supporting the whole child, Teaching and learning, and Celebrating diversity. Within each goal, they outlined results for the grouped grade levels.
Supporting the whole child
This goal looks at supporting students through multiple areas, including wellness, chronic absenteeism, attendance rates, engagement, and school climate, Smith explained.
When looking at attendance, Smith noted that daily student attendance rates were meeting an average above 96% with the highest rate at Mountain View Elementary School with 97% and the lowest at Mapleshade Elementary School with 96%.
School Committee member Sarah Truoiolo additionally recommended that the schools also analyze the attendance rates of teachers and paraprofessionals, noting that their attendance impacts students’ wellbeing and attendance as well.
In response, Smith stated that the School Department would begin looking at this data.
When asked about a proactive way to approach chronic absenteeism, Smith explained that schools will be also installing signs to emphasize the importance of attendance and that schoolwide messages are released throughout the year as well as that principals are sending messages to individual students failing behind in attendance. He stated that additional messaging can be further discussed.
Results from the recent Climate and Wellness Survey showed 89% of students reporting favorably for engagement in grades 3-5 and 72% for engagement of grades 6-12, Brown said. She highlighted that while the engagement percentage for grades 6-12 was only reported as 72%, it was likely closer to 95% since the “sometimes” option showed positive potential for teens.
Likewise, grades 6-12 reported 46% favorability for interest in class material without the “sometimes” option and 84% with this option. This data highlights that students are not always interested in their classes even when they are engaged, Smith stated. He noted that the School Department would be working to better balance this data.
Teaching and learning
The recent September and October iReady data shows that 72% of students across the schools have met their grades’ expectations while 14% remained one year behind and another 14% are two or more years behind, Brown reported.
She emphasized the School Department’s role in helping the students that are behind in accessing grade level materials.
Additionally, Smith stated that each school principal will be able to provide further information about how they are utilizing this data and offering interventions to these students during their individual reports in the upcoming meeting.
Brown also shared results from the summer elementary academy, highlighting that teachers have noted that the academy was helping struggling students with moving closer to meeting expectations or preventing them from further falling behind.
Within the math academy for kindergarten through grade 5, 51% of regulating attending students improved by one grade level while 7% increased by two levels and 41% exhibited no change. Similarly, the literacy academy, which looked at grades 3-5, saw 65% of students increase by one level, 12% increase by two levels and 24% with no change, Brown stated.
The summer elementary academy was offered for five weeks to 50 students using School Choice funds, Brown said. Sessions lasted three hours each day from Monday to Friday. Each student that was identified as requiring the additional support was placed in either the math or literacy academy, depending on their area of greatest need.
Celebrating diversity
While discussing the final goal for the School Department, Smith listed the three actions steps that will be taken by the leadership team to support diversity.
These three steps were to “implement and uphold” district policies and procedures created by the Diversity and Equity Steering Committee that focus on remaining inclusive; use the ELPS Recruitment, Hiring and Retention Process; and support staff with resources concerning cultural and linguistic practices, Smith stated.
The schools will also continue use to climate and staff surveys as well as use family surveys to analyze data, Smith said.
