Though all schools in the Old Rochester Regional School District surpassed state averages on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System, Mattapoisett did particularly well, earning a good word from the state in a fact sheet on the results for its “outstanding overall results.” 

In 2017, the state changed the format for the exam, having students take it on a computer instead of with pencil and paper. The new tests are designed to be more standardized, and to take into account a wider variety of factors in assessing student behavior. 

Students are ranked using points, and may receive a rank of exceeding expectations, meeting expectations, partially meeting expectations or not meeting expectations. 

Though other students had taken MCAS with the new system before, this year marked the first year that grade 10 students took the new test. Grade 10 science tests are still administered with the old method. 

All four elementary schools in the tri-town area had an above-average percentage of students who met, or exceeded expectations in both English language arts and mathematics tests.

Statewide statistics show that 52% of students in grades three through eight met or exceeded expectations on the English Language Arts tests, and 49% met or exceeded math expectations.

Center School in Mattapoisett dramatically improved in both of these categories from the previous year, going up 21 percentage points in English, and 18 in math. Overall, 80% of Center School students who took the MCAS met or exceeded English expectations in 2019, and 63% met or exceeded math expectations.

At Old Hammondtown, those numbers were 73% and 76% respectively.

When asked about Mattapoisett students’ MCAS results, Kevin Tavares, Assistant Principal for both schools said “[principal] Mrs. Bowman and I are very proud of the students and staff at Center and Old Hammondtown School.”

He acknowledged that, “although MCAS scores are only one measure of a child’s success, our students consistently score at a higher level because their teachers keep them motivated to learn at a higher level. The scores are the result of a collective effort of families, students, teachers, and staff.” 

Tavares said that after reviewing data from last year, teachers and staff were able to identify strengths and weaknesses to better prepare for the 2019 test. He said recent MCAS tests have asked more specific questions on comparing multiple passages of text, whereas previous tests had been more open-ended.

He said that teachers placed an emphasis on finding similarities and differences between texts to prepare students for the 2019 MCAS.

Tavares said that third graders started using chromebooks earlier on in the school year to give them more familiarity with the devices, and that this likely helped improve scores as well.

In Marion, 61% of students met or exceeded English expectations, and 59% did so in math.

58% of Rochester Memorial School students met or exceeded expectations in English, and 52% in math.

In the fifth grade science test 82% of students met or exceeded expectations at Old Hammondtown School, compared to 60% at Sippican School, and 49% at Rochester Memorial School. Center School enrolls students from preschool to third grade, and did not have any students who took this test. 48% of fifth graders who took the science test in the state met or exceeded expectations.

Across the state, 52% of students were able to meet or exceed expectations in English, while at Old Rochester Junior High School 74% of students were at that level. In math, the gap was more modest, but still noticeable, with 64% of students at the junior high scoring in the top two categories, as opposed to 49% of the state total. 

Within Old Rochester Junior High School, students were able to improve their English scores in the meeting or exceeding expectations by 8% from last year, while the math scores in those categories dropped 2%. 

Eighth graders also had to take the science MCAS, where they edged out the state by five percent when considering the number of students in the top categories, with the state at 46 percent and Old Rochester at 51%. 

For the high school MCAS tests that 10th graders take, 81% of ORR students met or exceeded the standards in English and 73% in math.

Though the state did not provide information on how many students were in those categories statewide, the average scaled score for ORR students in English was 518 versus the state’s 506, and 512 for ORR’s tenth grade math students versus a state average of 505

The science MCAS for tenth graders is still on a legacy system. There, the number of students scoring an “advanced” or “proficient” ranking, (the two highest rankings,) dropped slightly from 83% to 81%. The state did not provide statistics for all tenth graders. 

Schools will send individual student results home in October.