Candidates For Salem School Committee React To MCAS Results

SALEM, MA — When the state released MCAS results earlier this week, Salem Public School officials were quick to note that five Salem schools achieved the "substantial progress" distinction and Salem High School's improvement moved the school out of the "in need of targeted support and intervention" classification. But the percentage of students classified as meeting or exceeding expectations lagged behind state averages across all grade levels and all 19 tests, signaling there is still plenty of work to do.

Salem Patch asked all the candidates running for school committee in this year's municipal election for their thoughts on the MCAS results. School committee member Jim Fleming, who is one of two incumbents facing four challengers that are running for the three seats up for re-election on Nov. 5, said the improvements were "spotty at best." And he placed the slow progress for raising the improvement firmly on the administration of Margarita Ruiz, who resigned as superintendent earlier this year.

"The singular thing that the School Committee can do to aid the state assessment process is to hire an accomplished Superintendent who can rigorously lead the District to real gains," Felming said. "Over the past five years, the Ruiz administration failed to close the gap between Salem and state averages, especially in average student growth percentiles. A professional Superintendent and our dedicated teachers will be able to close that gap."

The three winners in the Nov. election will play a role in hiring Ruiz's permanent replacement for the start of the 2020-21 school year. The district has an interim superintendent this year.

Mary Manning, the other incumbent in the race, said she wanted to wait until the school committee's Oct. 7 meeting, when the results will be discussed, before offering extensive comment. "Foremost for me is that we continue to maintain perspective that MCAS is only one indicator of success," Manning said. "I prefer to wait to for the analysis and discussion of our scores at our Oct. 7 meeting before any specific response, but I will say I am encouraged by the positive movement in results in several schools, and look forward to supporting continual improvement across the system."

Beth Anne Cornell, who finished fourth in the preliminary election earlier this month, said the results only tell part of the story at Salem Public Schools, noting they do not, for example, measure the number of hours teachers spend supporting students' emotional and social needs.

"However, there is a great deal we can learn from the MCAS data. One conclusion we can draw is that we need to be more strategic about how we support our high needs kids. This means more teachers and paraprofessionals in the classroom," Cornell said. "It also means committing to seeing our curricular plans through. No instruction plan is going to deliver instant success. We have to trust Salem teachers to choose and implement the instruction they believe is best for kids, and we have to give them the time and resources to be successful before we move on to a new strategy – in other words, we have to finish what we start. "

Kristin Pangallo echoed comments addressing the MCAS scores in a Facebook post Wednesday when she responded to Patch's request for comment. Like Cornell, she said the MCAS scores shouldn't be the only measure of success or failure for a school or district.

"Numbers alone...can’t fully describe the success of a district, a school, or a classroom.
MCAS scores are a piece of the puzzle, but they are not the entire picture," she said. "We can measure success in many ways - student attendance, teacher retention, etc - but the most important measure is intangible. Do students love to come to school? Are they curious about learning more? That is the true measure of success for our schools."

Donna Fritz said she was pleased to see progress in the scores, given the amount of upheaval in the school system last year. The scores "show we are on the right track, but our students deserve more progress to achieve the level of success they deserve," Fritz said. "As a member of the school committee I would support the state assessment process by continuing to hold schools accountable for their school improvement plans, and learn from teachers and administrators what the schools’ needs are."

Jennifer Brown, the other challenger in the race, did not respond to Patch's requests for comment and has not publicly commented on the MCAS results.

Dave Copeland covers Salem and other North Shore communities for Patch. He can be reached at dave.copeland@patch.com or by calling 617-433-7851. Follow him on Twitter (@CopeWrites) and Facebook (/copewrites).