McCann Achieves Level Two Status By Jack Guerino, iBerkshires Staff
12:04PM / Monday, October 17, 2016 | |
 The Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District School Committee heard about MCAS scores. |
NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — McCann Technical School students have once again scored well on the MCAS test and have achieved a level two status. But school officials have their eyes on achieving a level one rating.
McCann Technical School Principal Justin Kratz told the Northern Berkshire Vocational Regional School District School Committee on Thursday that McCann students have continued to score highly on the MCAS.
"This is really the same thing I have said the past couple of years. We continue to do very well on the MCAS," he said.
Kratz said no students failed the English portion of the test. He said there was a 2 percent decrease in students scoring "needs improvement," a 4 percent increase in students scoring "proficient" and a 1 percent decrease in students scoring "advanced." That's 5 percent higher than the state average, he said.
As for math, students also held similar scores with some small gains in proficient scoring students. McCann scored 2 percent higher than the state average, he said.
In science, there was a 13 percent decrease in "needs improvement" and a near-13 percent increase in "advanced." That is 13 percent higher than the state average.
Kratz said the school scores above the state average for achievement every year but has a hard time scoring highly in growth because they are simply running out of room.
"We have always done very well ... but the system is set up to reward the higher growth schools," he said. "So if you were doing really poorly and you made a big gain, you will get the accolades. If you have been doing well, you won’t get knocked for it, but you won’t get all of the praise."
Kratz said the state has scored McCann highly for the past three years. However, the school is rated on an average of four years, and because of a lower score four years ago, the school is being held at a level two school by the state.
Kratz anticipates that McCann will become a level one school next year because that lower score will be dropped from the average and replaced with a new score that hopefully will trend high as it has in the past three years.
"That number will disappear and if we can score another good number and keep this above 75 we should be able to get it," he said. "We are level two, which is fine, but we want to be level one."
Kratz said McCann faces one more hurdle if they want to become a level one school: They must meet the state threshold for passing high-needs students. He said the administration will figure out where these students struggled and take this back to the teachers so they can prepare those students for the next round of testing.
In other business, the board said goodbye to long-time educator Bob Davis, who has taught at McCann for 22 years and has served as union president.
"You have always done your best to represent the best for the kids first and the faculty members in the school," school committee member Daniel Maloney said. "Through the years I have seen that you have done a great job with that … and you earned the respect of many students and we want to congratulate you and wish you the best."
Davis plans to retire in October.
| 
MEMBER SIGN IN
