AMHERST — High school and middle school students at the regional schools are meeting or exceeding expectations on MCAS tests at higher rates than their peers across Massachusetts, even as the district is falling short of the 95% student participation rate required by the state.
While data presented by Tonya S. McIntyre, the district’s director of curriculum, instruction and assessment, show positive overall trends, including closing of performance gaps between various racial and ethnic groups, fewer students took the tests in 2025.
McIntyre explained at the Nov. 25 Regional School Committee meeting that last year’s statewide referendum only eliminated MCAS as a graduation requirement, with school districts still mandated by the state to administer the tests.
“The unintended consequence of the 2024 vote was when it’s not tied to graduation, students and families didn’t necessarily see the need to take it,” McIntyre said. “But it didn’t change the state law that required districts to administer it, and also the state law that puts MCAS as part of the accountability metric for school districts.”
At the high school, participation, which had been near 100%, slipped to 87% in English language arts, 82% in science and 75% in mathematics. The drop wasn’t quite as pronounced at the middle school, with 90%, 88%, and 87%, respectively on those tests.
The state’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education gives designations to districts based on an accountability rating and requiring assistance intervention for those where too few students are taking the MCAS tests. Those are the consequences at this time, McIntyre said.
Superintendent E. Xiomara Herman said she is aware of families who have opted out. Other students may be absent the day the test is given, and also are no-shows for the retest.
Shutesbury representative Anna Heard said the School Committee should put out a statement so families and students understand the importance of taking the exam.
“The test doesn’t decide your fate, it is still a required thing to do while you’re a student at Amherst Regional schools,” Heard said.
“I think that a very clear message is what is needed,” Heard said.
McIntyre said positives in the data are that students scored above average for all testing, and the student growth percentile, which compares each student’s annual growth to students across the state who previously earned similar MCAS scores, is showing that the schools’ instruction is improving.
“Our student growth made double digits across all of our subgroups,” McIntyre said.
In English Language Arts at the high school, 70% met or exceeded expectations, the best it has been post pandemic, and nearing the prepandemic scores.
While pretty steady in proficiency rates, there were almost 20% gains for Asian students, with 71% meeting or exceeding expectations, and 86% of multiracial students meeting or exceeding expectations.
McIntyre said this is a promising sign that the district is getting closer to closing gaps.
The same was true in math, with Asian and multiracial students achieving double digit gains.
In English Language Arts at the middle school, Black students earned double digit gains, and Black and Hispanic students both achieved double digit gains in mathematics.
Herman said the performance in mathematics was recognized by the state.
“We have made gains because we’ve exceeded our prepandemic levels at the middle school,” Herman said.
But she said even exceeding prepandemic levels, more needs to be done.
“We’re going in the right direction,” McIntyre said. “We’re not where we want to be, but our 2025 data has increased compared to our 2024 data.”
Amherst representative Bridge Hynes said it is great to see numbers going in a positive direction, but there are still significant gaps, observing that scores in certain subgroups are between 20% and 48% lower, which is “striking across the board.”
McIntyre said a focus on Tier 1 instruction is part of the improvements, with every student getting an opportunity to have instruction at grade level at the regional schools. Departments are zoning in on this Tier 1 instruction.
“I think that has helped us tremendously,” McIntyre said
Amherst representative Sarah Marshall said her concern is that the meeting and exceeding expectations in high school mathematics has gone down from 80% in 2021 to 60% this year “That’s alarming to me,” she said.
But McIntyre said 2020 and 2021 scores appear high, and 2022 was the first year where data could again be compared to data from 2019.