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Haverhill educators last Thursday pored through Haverhill’s Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System—or MCAS—results which showed in many cases the city roughly tracking the state in downward scores.
The learning loss that came about as a result of the pandemic and its shift towards remote schooling that began more than four years ago is still showing up in standardized test results, state officials said last week, as they released the latest batch of MCAS scores. “The road back from the pandemic is not short,” Education Secretary Patrick Tutwiler said during a press briefing on the test results.
The Department of Secondary and Elementary Education compares Haverhill to communities such as Worcester, Pittsfield, Leominster, Methuen and Fitchburg. For English Language Arts achievement among grades three through eight, among comparable districts Haverhill falls dead center at 26% of students meeting or exceeding expectations, according to data presented to the School Committee.
Among comparable districts for math and science achievement, Haverhill falls just behind Leominster, with 29% and 35% of students meeting or exceeding expectations respectively. For Haverhill High School, district scores continue to fall below state averages for all subjects.
School Committee member Richard J. Rosa questioned whether results could be due to chronic absenteeism in the district.
“What we saw in that year was that from 2018 to 2019, chronic absenteeism went down and our MCAS scores went up. I think the point here is that the problem is attendance,” Rosa said.
He cited data from fifth grade students at the Dr. Paul C. Nettle School, where students’ scores rose to 25% meeting or exceeding expectations. Chronic absenteeism was 20% in 2024, down from 40% in 2022. “But it’s up from 10% when their chronic absenteeism was twice as much. There’s a direct connection between kids not showing up to school and these scores, it can’t be more obvious,” he said.
Rosa says the district must continue to emphasize to parents that kids need to be in school to learn effectively.
“The data shows from 2018 to 2019, our educators are doing the job, our principals are doing the job, our administration is doing the job. When kids are there, they’re learning if they’re not there, they’re not,” he said.
Haverhill Public Schools’ Supervisor of Attendance Lorna Marchant acknowledged the district’s chronic absenteeism problem, but noted that there are “really good things happening.”
“It is important to note how great we’re doing really in comparison to other towns, we’re really making up ground from where we were before,” she said, later adding, “We spend a lot of time as a district educating families on why coming to school is important, not just because it’s a number, but because that’s what’s going to help you learn.”
Though chronic absenteeism within the majority of district schools remains above the state average of 19.7% several schools like Haverhill High, which has previously seen absenteeism rates as high as 50.9% in 2022, has reduced chronic absenteeism to 39.7% among all students in 2024. according to data compiled by the school department.
State House News Service contributed to this story.