Hanover reports MCAS gains, Center School named School of Recognition; district outlines targeted interventions

District administrators presented MCAS results to the Hanover School Committee on Jan. 17, highlighting gains across grades and outlining targeted instructional responses.

The director of teaching and learning opened the presentation, saying the team would share cohort data for grades 3–8 and 10 and next steps for curriculum and instruction. Administrators noted that Center School was identified as a School of Recognition, a status earned by improving scaled scores and student-growth percentiles.

Presenters walked the committee through comparative charts showing Hanover outpacing the state in aggregate grades 3–8 for ELA, math and science and moving more students into the meeting/exceeding categories (the district-wide meeting/exceeding percentage in grades 3–8 rose from 53% to 58% from 2022 to 2023). The ELA presenter explained the scaled-score thresholds used to define meeting and exceeding (meeting: scaled score 500 and above; exceeding: roughly 530–560). For math, the presenter cited strong growth percentiles in some grades (grade 4 math growth percentile of 61 was called out as “strong”).

Administrators also reviewed subgroup performance for students with disabilities and noted areas requiring attention: specific writing skills, making inferences and symbolic reasoning were flagged as targets for reteaching. The committee discussed how MCAS data is used with I Ready and DIBELS to diagnose student needs and plan interventions.

The district described specific actions: a High Dose Math Tutoring Grant will support 20 fourth-grade students and 20 eighth-grade students with three tutoring sessions per week over a 10-week period; Orton-Gillingham training has been added for K–1 and high-school special-education teachers; the high school introduced a new Reveal math program aligned to standards; and teachers are using MCAS item-level analysis and cohort tracking to guide instruction.

Committee members asked about MCAS-Alt participation and the number of students affected by MCAS graduation requirements. Administrators said they would provide additional data (including MCAS-Alt counts) and noted that for ELA and math the district had zero students not meeting the requirement, while biology had two students not yet meeting the standard and were retaking assessments.

The presentation concluded with a reminder that these findings will feed into curriculum, staffing and budget discussions, and that staff will continue to monitor and report progress.