Chester Elementary School students wore their 2024 School of Recognition T-shirts on picture day to celebrate the state designation.
Reminder Publishing photo by Amy Porter
CHESTER — Chester Elementary School took advantage of its picture day with O’Connor Studios on April 17 to take a group shot of the majority of its 113 students proudly wearing T-shirts proclaiming Chester Elementary as a 2024 Massachusetts School of Recognition, a designation from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.
As part of its annual accountability reporting process, the Department of Education identifies a small number of Schools of Recognition. These schools demonstrate progress toward annual accountability targets, with an emphasis on the performance of all students in the school and of the school’s lowest performing students group.
Chester Elementary was one of 57 schools statewide to be designated as a 2024 School of Recognition.
Progress toward improvement targets is reported as the degree to which targets are met related to achievement, growth, and chronic absenteeism. A school is identified as making substantial progress toward targets if it has a criterion-referenced percentage from 50 to 74%.
Chester’s progress grew from 29% in the general population and 30% among high needs students in 2021, to 41% and 51% in 2022, to 71% and 76% in 2023, and to 97% and 100% in meeting its targets in 2024.
In 2021, Chester performed better than 29% of other K-8 schools in the state; in 2022, better than 44% of other K-8 schools; in 2023, better than 58%, and in 2024, better than 78%. A score in the 50th percentile is considered average.
Chester Elementary substitute principal Mark Folta said the school wanted to take the opportunity to highlight this achievement, which he said was awarded under principal Vanna Maffuccio.
In September, Maffuccio wrote about the honor of receiving the 2024 Schools of Recognition designation.
“This is the first time a school from Gateway has received this designation and I am filled with an immense amount of pride and joy — my students and staff have committed to not only climbing mountains, but also moving them,” Maffuccio said upon hearing the news.
