LYNN — Superintendent of Schools Dr. Evonne Alvarez received a strong evaluation for the 2023-24 school year from the School Committee Thursday night, during which they also passed a resolution in support of eliminating the MCAS graduation requirement.
Mayor Jared Nicholson said the committee evaluated Alvarez as having met or exceeded all of the goals set by the committee for the 2023-24 school year.
“The committee clearly sees a lot of great momentum and significant potential for excellence,” he said.
The School Committee also approved goals for the upcoming year. The first two goals include fostering multilingual learners’ literacy proficiency for lifelong success and promoting inclusion and supporting equitable practices for students with disabilities and Individual Education Plan (IEP) compliance.
The third goal is to foster belonging for educators and students.
Alvarez said they want to continue to look at the results of the climate survey they administered when creating the district strategic plan and reduce chronic absenteeism from 31 percent to 26.9 percent.
Goal four is to integrate mathematics and literary skills for global engagement and success.
“That’s to equip all students with the interdisciplinary skills to excel as informed and responsible communicators and problem solvers in a global society,” Alvarez said.
The fifth goal is to advance equitable access to advanced coursework “and that would ensure that all students, regardless of their background have access to advanced coursework,” Alvarez said. The goal particularly focuses on increasing access to PSAT, Advanced Placement and early college courses.
The last goal is to create the conditions for schools to improve student achievement, demonstrate strong instructional and operational leadership, and promote the portrait of a public school graduate. This goal also emphasizes community engagement and supporting social emotional health for students.
With the recommendation of the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the committee also approved six indicators under which it will evaluate how Alvarez’s leadership has met the goals during next year’s evaluation process.
Additionally, the committee unanimously passed a resolution in support of Question 2 on the ballot, which would eliminate the MCAS as a graduation requirement. It also unanimously passed a resolution urging the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education to disapprove KIPP Academy Lynn Charter School’s application to expand.
The resolution in opposition of the KIPP Lynn Charter Expansion acknowledged the public school district’s large population of English Language Learners and students with disabilities.
It also recognized that it is the district with the second largest number of newcomer students in Massachusetts and that an expansion of KIPP would result in a loss of $24 million in funding for the public school district.
Nicholson said it is unfortunate that the issue is one that pits the community against each other.
“I certainly want to communicate that we respect all our students and families in the entire city, regardless of where they’re sending their students,” he said.
Member Eric Dugan noted that in 2016, the majority of Lynn voted against a Massachusetts ballot question to expand funding for charter schools.
“It’s not a popular decision to expand our charter schools,” he said.
The resolution in support of eliminating the MCAS graduation requirement acknowledged that the assessment system is “significantly limited in its ability to accurately and effectively measure whether students are meeting the Commonwealth’s standards and developing the skills they need to thrive after high school.”
The resolution instead, noted that the most effective measures of assessment are “strong state-wide standards,” and are “educator-led assessments such as projects, papers, tests and group activities that are conducted throughout the school year.”
The resolution also emphasized how the MCAS has prevented or delayed students from earning a diploma, particularly students of color, low-income students, or students with disabilities, and English Language Learners.
Alvarez said the district believes in accountability, but it is concerned about the MCAS graduation requirements’ disproportionate impact on marginalized students, for which the district has a large number of.
“To lift the punitive action off of it would be a big burden off the shoulders of our students and our educators, and we can really focus on just educating the whole child and get away from teaching to a test,” Dugan said.
Concurring with Dugan, member Lorraine Gately said she remembers a time before MCAS was introduced and believes eliminating the assessment as a graduation requirement would make education joyful for students again.
“Really learning is joyful when you’re learning new things, and it’s not because of a test, but because you’re learning for the content,” she said.
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