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Haverhill Public Schools is facing a new challenge in its efforts to raise the district’s MCAS scores: IDK.
IDK is texting shorthand for “I don’t know,” in the sense of not caring. Of the 441 Haverhill High School 10th graders who took the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test last spring, 103—or 25%—received a zero on the essay portion because they did not attempt to provide a writing sample, Haverhill School Superintendent Margaret Marotta told the School Committee last Thursday.
“There were 822 essays. Each one had to write two essays. Of those, 37 students wrote nothing, not a word. Sixty-six more students beyond those 37, wrote one sentence or less for what was supposed to be a five paragraph at least essay,” she said.
Marotta added the school system can’t count on parental support to encourage children to at least attempt an essay because many parents support their children’s disengaged response as standardized tests continue to remain unpopular in some quarters. Marotta told WHAV following the School Committee meeting, the IDK problem is hardly Haverhill’s alone. IDK percentages increased sharply after Massachusetts voters removed what was a graduation requirement in a November 2024 ballot question.
The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education last Tuesday released initial results. The overview showed 41% of students in grades 3-8 met or exceeded expectations statewide. In Haverhill, by way of comparison, scores were essentially flat, declining by .2 to .4%. On the language arts test, Haverhill students in grades three through eight scored in fifth place among the 11 comparable districts of Fall River, Fitchburg, Framingham, Leominster, New Bedford, Pittsfield, Salem, Taunton and Westfield. Methuen tied with Salem in third place with Leominster’s scores besting the other cities.
While Marotta made clear her frustration with the negative trend in the high school’s performance, she said the school system is not giving up on recalcitrant students. “There are clearly a portion of our students who are not even trying. The question is how to we attack that?” Marotta asked.
She said right off, high school teachers plan to meet one-to-one with every student who took the test and go over their essays with them.
“The teachers are going to have conferences with the students and have conversations whether it was an excellent essay or it was an essay that said IDK. Have a conversation with the student about their essay. Was this your best work? Maybe you were exhausted. Maybe you were too tired. But then how do we build stamina because reading is important,” Marotta said.
How to deal with the trend is a hot topic at school conferences and administrative gatherings, she noted.