Initial Findings
After comparing the ELA MCAS scores in 2018 between 7th graders from my local elementary school (Milford) to the state of Massachusetts, I have determined that the local public elementary school as a whole is performing just as well if not better than the state of Massachusetts. I decided to look at two groups of students. Students who were labeled as “economically disadvantaged” and students who were labeled as “non-economically disadvantaged”. Like I said before, both groups of students performed just as well if not better when comparing them to the state.
While there is an achievement gap between “economically disadvantaged” and “non-economically disadvantaged” students in the town of Milford, there doesn’t seem to be much of an achievement gap when comparing these respective groups to the groups of the overall state. When looking at the economically disadvantaged students at Milford elementary school, they have very similar percentages in comparison to the percentages of the state. Students scores were categorize into four different categories. Exceeding Expectations, Meeting Expectations, Partially Meeting Expectations, and Not Meeting Expectations. The percentage of students exceeding expectations in Milford and the state were even at 3%. Milford had a better percentage of students (28%) than the percentage of students in the state (23%) when looking at the Meeting Expectations category. Partially Meeting (Milford 48%/State 45%). Not Meeting (Milford 22%/State 29%). According to the data, Milford had 116 students in the Economically Disadvantaged category and the state overall had a total of 23,754. So, it is a small group of students to look at however, 116 students in Milford is a lot more than a lot of towns in the state of Massachusetts.
The percentages for students labeled as non-economically disadvantaged in Milford show that they are performing better than students in that group in the state. See Graph below:
Has There Been Glaring Changes Over Time?
After looking at this information, I decided to look at the same data from Milford and the state, except from five years ago (2013 ELA scores). In 2013, students were either labeled as “low income” or “non-low income” and similarly, their scores were categorized into four groups. Advanced, Proficient, Needs Improvement, and Warning/Failing. Like in 2018, there was an achievement gap between students in Milford who were labeled as “low income” and “non-low income” however when compared to the states percentages, Milford was performing a lot better. When looking at low income students in Milford, 10% were placed as advanced while only 3% were placed as advanced in the state’s percentage. Proficient (Milford 62%/State 49%), Needs Improvement (Milford 21%/State 35%), Warning/Failing (Milford 8%/State 13%).
The data shows that low income students in Milford as a whole performed better in all categories when compared to the state. The data for students labeled as non-low income are not better than the state in all categories but the gap is very slim. See Graph below:
What Now?
In my opinion, if all public schools want to be able to say that there is not a gap between their students and the students in the rest of the state like in Milford, then they should all implement a pre-school program that is equally accessible for all types of students no matter what their level of income is. According to Dartmouth College economist, Elizabeth Cascio “universal” programs have had a significant positive effect on the reading scores of poor kids. Milford has had a universal program that allows low income students to attend pre-school with students from a higher income family and it has been mutually beneficial. Low income students scores have benefited from attending preschool with higher income students and the higher income families no longer have to spend serious money on sending their small children to private pre-school. According to research, high-quality early childhood education has a positive effect on children’s academic achievement.
Post by:
Matthew Hanna