Lawrence Schools Make Rapid Improvements

Lawrence, Mass. (Sept. 19, 2013) – After Year 1 of state receivership, Lawrence Public Schools has shown significant improvement in MCAS scores.

Released today by the Department of Secondary and Elementary Education, the results show that after several years of declining MCAS growth scores in English, LPS scores were up this year. Math growth was even more impressive, reaching the highest level in district history. In fact, district-wide math growth scores were the highest of any Gateway district in the state this year, with hundreds more students reaching proficiency.

“Teachers and students in school districts across the Commonwealth have much to be proud of today,” said Secretary of Education Matthew Malone. “We are seeing achievement levels reaching new heights and we see that persistent achievement gap narrowing. Once again, our schools are leading the way.”

Notably, students in the Lawrence Public Schools made strong gains in performance since last year, particularly in mathematics. Lawrence is operating under state receivership since the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education voted to declare it a “chronically underperforming” or Level 5 district in November 2011.

The percent of Lawrence students district-wide scoring Proficient or higher in mathematics increased between 2012 and 2013 by double-digits in grades 3 (+17, from 39 to 56 percent), 5 (+11, from 27 to 38 percent), 8 (+11, from 19 to 30 percent), and 10 (+10, from 34 to 44 percent).

“These are strong results and a credit to the hard work and commitment of the students and educators of Lawrence,” said Elementary and Secondary Education Commissioner Mitchell Chester. “We set out to turn around chronic low performance in the district. There is still much work to do in Lawrence to ensure that all students are ready for success at the next level. But these early results demonstrate that the district’s accelerated 2 turnaround strategies are providing schools with the necessary tools to improve outcomes.”

Other notable achievements:

• Lawrence doubled the number of Level 1 schools this year from 2 to 4. Schools designated Level 1 are in the top 30% of the state.
• Lawrence exceeded its first year District Turnaround Plan goal of doubling the number of schools in which students outperform their academic peers. In fact, LPS nearly tripled this number.

“We are very proud of the hard work of our teachers and students and we thank our parents and community for supporting our efforts. This is a strong start,” said Receiver Jeffrey C. Riley. “But we recognize that we have a lot more work to do.

While many students climbed out of warning and into needs improvement this year in English, our proficiency rates remained flat. Math proficiency climbed more significantly but we can and must do better.” In addition to the commitment of students and teachers, Riley cited the key levers listed in the Turnaround Plan as major contributors to the improvement. They include:

• Reforming the curriculum and using data to assess student performance.
• Establishing vacation academies to provide more help for struggling students.
• Adding arts and enrichment opportunities to achieve better student buy in.
• Re-engaging students to increase graduation rates and bring dropout rates to historic lows.
• Pushing more resources and flexibilities to the school level, while reducing the size and scope of central office.
• Fixing school buildings so students have an appropriate space in which to learn.

“This is a good day for the students of Lawrence. We honor the hard work and efforts of so many people,” added Riley. “But we have a significant amount of work ahead. We recognize that school improvement is difficult and we expect some bumps in the road. That said, after a year and a half of district reorganization we think we are on the right track.”