In the midst of the pandemic, Wilton-Lyndeborough Cooperative has seen a boost in some of its test scores.
Earlier in December, administrators received results of the state assessment test administered in the spring, and the district outperformed the state average on science by 14%, which Superintendent Peter Weaver characterized as “something to really celebrate.” The scores show 51% of the district being proficient on the science assessment, which is a jump from 34% in 2019, when the test was last administered.
“In the conditions we’re in, it’s just nice to get good news,” said Weaver.
The results, according to district Curriculum Coordinator Emily Stefanich, can be attributed to curriculum initiatives that the district has put into place. She cited Project Lead The Way, a national program that the district has incorporated into its learning, and Next Generation Science Standards, a set of goals to help guide the process in terms of what students need to know.
“It’s a curriculum aligned to those standards,” Stefanich said of the current science program. “It creates really meaningful learning experiences. It’s science that is very tangible for kids, very hands-on, really engaging.”
Improving district performance in science, she said, is vital for children to be learning.
“It’s the future,” she said.
Moving forward, Stefanich said the district hopes to keep up this progress.
“I think it’s continuing those efforts, and really making sure that we’re moving forward with those programs,” she said, including training new faculty on the standards and making sure that resources are available for teachers involved in this curriculum.
The district’s other scores held steady with state averages, with English/Language Arts at 54% proficient to the state’s 52%, and math even with the state average at 38%.
Math remains a concern of the district, and in a report on the assessment data written by Stefanich, plans to boost that score include weekly team meetings to discuss classroom needs, weekly assessments in math at the elementary level and rolling out tutoring for the middle school levels.
But Stefanich said that most importantly, these scores show that progress has already been made.
“This is showing that hard work is really paying off for students,” she said.
Weaver characterized the results as especially impressive, given the constraints the pandemic has placed on learning and widespread concerns about learning loss at all student levels.
“Despite the conditions that we’ve had in the past few years, kids are still working,” Weaver said. “Teachers are still working, and education is still going on.”