By DAN TOMASELLO

LYNNFIELD — The school system’s MCAS exam results surpassed the state average once again.

Assistant Superintendent Adam Federico said during the School Committee’s Nov. 7 meeting that the MCAS exam evaluates students’ performance in four categories: Exceeding Expectations, Meeting Expectations, Partially Meeting Expectations and Not Meeting Expectations.

Federico noted that that the MCAS presentation occurred two days after voters statewide approved Question 2, which will no longer require students to pass the MCAS exam in order to graduate high school.

“We will see how quickly that law gets implemented and what that looks like,” said Federico. “MCAS is not going away because of that vote. It just removed it as a graduation requirement. We are still going to have MCAS testing in all of the grades. That is still going to happen across the state.”

Elementary schools’ results

Elementary Math/Science Curriculum Director Christina Perry and Elementary English/Social Studies Curriculum Director Maureen Fennessy gave an overview of the grade 3 and 4 MCAS results.

According to the grade 3 English exam results, 20 percent of Lynnfield third-graders Exceeded Expectations, 49 percent Met Expectations, 28 percent Partially Met Expectations and 3 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. The state results from the grade 3 MCAS English exam unveiled that 6 percent of students Exceeded Expectations, 36 percent Met Expectations, 40 percent Partially Met Expectations and 18 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

The results from the grade 3 math exam revealed that 23 percent of Lynnfield third-graders Exceeded Expectations, 48 percent Met Expectations, 26 percent Partially Met Expectations and 3 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. The state data unveiled that 10 percent of students Exceeded Expectations, 35 percent Met Expectations, 35 percent Partially Met Expectations and 20 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

“Overall, we saw an increase in students in the Exceed Expectations category for grade 3, which has been a goal of ours for a few years now,” said Perry.

The grade 4 English exam results unveiled that 9 percent of Lynnfield fourth-graders Exceeded Expectations, 51 percent Met Expectations, 36 percent Partially Met Expectations and 4 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. The state average for the grade 4 English exam revealed that 4 percent of students Exceeded Expectations, 32 percent Met Expectations, 45 percent Partially Met Expectations and 19 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

According to the grade 4 MCAS math exam results, 18 percent of Lynnfield fourth-graders Exceeded Expectations, 63 percent Met Expectations, 18 percent Partially Met Expectations and 1 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. The state data from 2024 unveiled that 8 percent of fourth-graders Exceeded Expectations, 38 percent Met Expectations, 38 percent Partially Met Expectations and 16 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

“We saw a lot of growth for grade 4 as well,” said Perry.

School Committee member Jim Dillon said the elementary schools’ MCAS math scores were “outstanding.”

“We are lucky to have the two elementary schools that we have,” said Dillon.

School Committee member Jamie Hayman praised the work administrators and teachers have done to prepare elementary school students for the MCAS exam.

“It takes so many people to get these types of results,” said Hayman. “Our teachers are working really hard on all of this.”

Perry and Fennessy both praised elementary educators’ dedication to students.

“We are truly lucky to work with some of the best educators in Massachusetts,” said Perry. “They want the best for students.”

LMS results

Lynnfield Middle School English Language Arts/Social Studies Curriculum Coordinator Dr. Robin McInerney and Math/Science Director Katie Ambroise gave an overview of the MCAS scores for grades 5-8.

Ambroise noted that the MCAS science exam is only administered to fifth and eighth grade students.

According to the grade 5 English exam results, 7 percent of LMS fifth-graders Exceeded Expectations, 50 percent Met Expectations, 35 percent Partially Met Expectations and 8 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. The state results from the grade 5 English exam unveiled that 6 percent of students Exceeded Expectations, 32 percent Met Expectations, 46 percent Partially Met Expectations and 16 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

The results from the grade 5 math exam revealed that 6 percent of LMS fifth-graders Exceeded Expectations, 60 percent Met Expectations, 31 percent Partially Met Expectations and 4 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. According to the MCAS state data, 6 percent of students Exceeded Expectations, 34 percent Met Expectations, 46 percent Partially Met Expectations and 16 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

According to the grade 5 science results, 7 percent of LMS fifth-graders Exceeded Expectations, 56 percent Met Expectations, 26 percent Partially Met Expectations and 10 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. The 2024 statewide grade 5 science results unveiled that 7 percent of students Exceeded Expectations, 37 percent Met Expectations, 36 percent Partially Met Expectations and 20 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

The results from the grade 6 MCAS English exam unveiled that 18 percent of LMS sixth-graders Exceeded Expectations, 42 percent Met Expectations, 30 percent Partially Met Expectations and 10 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. The state data revealed that 11 percent of students Exceeded Expectations, 29 percent Met Expectations, 35 percent Partially Met Expectations and 25 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

According to the grade 6 math exam results, there were 4 percent of LMS sixth-graders who Exceeded Expectations, 43 percent Met Expectations, 47 percent Partially Met Expectations and 17 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. The 2024 state results indicated that 7 percent of students Exceeded Expectations while 33 percent Met Expectations, 43 percent Partially Met Expectations and 17 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

The results from the grade 7 English exam revealed that 12 percent of LMS seventh-graders Exceeded Expectations, 50 percent Met Expectations, 28 percent Partially Met Expectations and 9 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. According to the state results, 6 percent of students Exceeded Expectations, 30 percent Met Expectations, 42 percent Partially Met Expectations and 22 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

According to the grade 7 math exam results, 13 percent of LMS seventh-graders Exceeded Expectations, 46 percent Met Expectations, 36 percent Partially Met Expectations and 5 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. The state results revealed there were 8 percent of students who Exceeded Expectations, 30 percent Met Expectations, 44 percent Partially Met Expectations and there 19 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

The results from the grade 8 English exam illustrated that 11 percent of LMS eighth-graders Exceeded Expectations, 45 percent Met Expectations, 34 percent Partially Met Expectations and 11 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. The state data from 2024 indicated that 11 percent of students Exceeded Expectations, 32 percent Met Expectations, 34 percent Partially Met Expectations and 24 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

According to the grade 8 MCAS math exam results, 9 percent of LMS eighth-graders Exceeded Expectations, 44 percent Met Expectations, 37 percent Partially Met Expectations and 11 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. The state results from 2024 revealed that 8 percent of students Exceeded Expectations, 31 percent Met Expectations, 42 percent Partially Met Expectations and 19 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

The results from the grade 8 MCAS science exam revealed that 3 percent of LMS eighth-graders Exceeded Expectations, 43 percent Met Expectations, 47 percent Partially Met Expectations and 8 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. The state results from 2024 unveiled that 6 percent of students Exceeded Expectations, 34 percent Met Expectations, 41 percent Partially Met Expectations and 20 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

LMS Principal Stephen Ralston said an area of concern is an increase in the number of parents opting their children out of taking the MCAS.

“Prior to COVID, we never had a parent opt out their child from MCAS,” said Ralston. “It started during COVID. Since that time, we have had a slight increase in the number of parents opting their children out of taking the MCAS. I am hoping that is not a growing trend in light of the state election because this is important data for us.”

In response to a question from School Committee member Kate DePrizio, Ralston said there have been “one or two opt-outs in each grade.”

LHS results 

Principal Patricia Puglisi gave an overview of Lynnfield High School’s MCAS scores.

According to the grade 10 English results, 29 percent of LHS sophomores Exceeded Expectations, 56 percent Met Expectations, 11 percent Partially Met Expectations and 4 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. The state results from 2024 unveiled that 14 percent of students Exceeded Expectations, 43 percent Met Expectations, 31 percent Partially Met Expectations and 12 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

The results from the grade 10 math exam revealed that 21 percent of LHS sophomores Exceeded Expectations, 57 percent Met Expectations, 18 percent Partially Met Expectations and 5 percent Did Not Meet Expectations. The 2024 state grade 10 MCAS exam results unveiled that 12 percent of students Exceeded Expectations, 36 percent Met Expectations, 39 percent Partially Met Expectations and 13 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

According to the grade 9 science results, 15 percent of LHS freshmen Exceeded Expectations, 62 percent Met Expectations, 23 percent Partially Met Expectations and zero percent Did Not Meet Expectations. The state data from 2024 revealed that 12 percent of students Exceeded Expectations, 37 percent Met Expectations, 40 percent Partially Met Expectations and 11 percent Did Not Meet Expectations.

“Our MCAS data was pretty awesome,” said Puglisi. “They have done a great job.”

Hayman said Federico, Puglisi and Superintendent Tom Geary “really need to think about what our district philosophy around MCAS, especially at the high school” is going to be moving forward in the wake of voters approving Question 2 last week.

“I think the fear is it is going to become a so what,” said Hayman. “The reality is we do get good data, and the ultimate data is we haven’t had any kids who haven’t graduated because of this. We do have to have an approach to how we view this in the future and how we are going to react it to. I don’t think it is fair to ask us to come up with that two days after this vote happened. I think it is something we should talk through at a subsequent meeting.”

Puglisi said Hayman’s concerns are shared by “every high school principal” in the state.

Action plans launched

Similar to previous years, all four schools will be implementing MCAS action plans in order to help improve student achievement.

“Those are already happening,” said Federico. “We are on top of that.”