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McCann Students Score High On MCAS
By Jack Guerino, iBerkshires Staff
08:24AM / Monday, October 19, 2015
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Principal Justin Kratz presented the results to the School Committee Thursday night.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — McCann students have yet again increased performance on the MCAS test.

McCann Principal Justin Kratz reported another successful year of Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System scores to the School Committee Thursday night.

He said last year 94.6 percent of sophomores scored proficient or advanced in English language The amount of students that scored advanced increased 8.7 percent.

He added math scores also trended upwards and although scores went slightly down in advanced, they jumped 17 percent in proficient. This created a 6 percent increase overall, bringing the overall percentage to 78.5.

He said science scores were 75 percent proficient and advanced.

“Most students are moving towards advanced and proficient…so all the trends are going in the right direction,” Kratz said.

He said there are very few students with warnings or failing scores.

Kratz attributed much of the School’s success to the school wide approach of finding aspects of the curriculum already related to MCAS and pushing them to the forefront

"We make it a focus school wide," he said. "You will see if you through the classrooms and the shops more attention is paid towards not just jumping through the hoop of getting kids ready for MCAS, but taking what we already do and connect the MCAS to it."

Kratz mentioned that the scores are judged using the growth percentage model that rewards schools that make large score increases. Because McCann traditionally scores well, they do not receive as many points.

“The growth percentage model is not a bad model overall but when you are always done in well and have like McCann it become tougher and tougher to find those gains,” Kratz said.

Kratz also noted that although enrolment has slightly dipped from last year’s 499 to this year’s 482, McCann remains in a stable position and has done well amidst the declining Berkshire County population.

“We have all read the articles, and we have all been following what is happening in Berkshires County, but overall I think I can speak safety we are pleased with where we are,” Kratz said. “We would have like to have seen the numbers go up but no one has seen the numbers go up.”

He added that the school will continue its efforts to showcase its curriculum and attract students.

The committee authorized Superintendent James Brosnan to create a new human resource position to handle payroll and insurance procedures.

"The additional reporting and the additional requirements have become exponential," Brosnan said. "There are countless countless hours of report writing and submission."

He added that the expense increase may be very little because they often hire a third party to handle much of this work. Now they can do it in-house and have more control over it.

In other business, the committee agreed to provide the Berkshire County Educational Task Force with $500 so professional researchers and consultants can be hired.

Task force member John Hockridge said they are asking all of the 18 school committees represented in the group to give $500 and help with the funding.

"One of the reasons we have been able to form this task force this year is that it finally reached a point where everyone is really starting to notice the financial strain," Hockridge said. "This is the first year we are really getting a response from school committees and administrators."

He said the task force was created this summer after the state urged many districts to look at ways to share services and combine to make education more sustainable with a shrinking population and funding. The advisory group has been meeting and taking inventory and gathering data from all the districts and looking at different models for the future of education in the Berkshires.

Brosnan, who is part of the task force, said when people see the data professionals could provide it may make clearer the direction Berkshire County has to go.

“We all have to look at different models,” he said. “I think this will and bring some truth to many urban myths because we will have the data, hard facts, hard costs, and better opportunities and they will be in front of people.”

Hockridge said at the moment the task force is looking at four options: do nothing, continue attempts to share services, regionalize with nearby districts, or create massive super districts within the county. 

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