Melrose again has a higher percentage of students in the Advanced & Proficient categories than the Mystic Valley Charter School. The MCAS measures districts in 20 different categories from grades 3 through 10 (including three “all grades” categories) and reports the results in terms of the percentage of students in in one of four categories (Advanced; Proficient; Needs Improvement; Warning/Failing). In addition to the 4 categories, the state annually includes a “Proficient or Higher” category which combines the Advanced and Proficient scores. Of the 20 categories, the Melrose district had a higher percentage of students in “Proficient or Higher” than the Mystic Valley Charter School in 11 of the categories and the Charter School was higher in 9. If you wanted to look only at the advanced category, Melrose had a higher percentage of student in 12 of the categories vs. 6 for the Charter School and they tied in 2.
These results are fairly consistent on a year to year basis, for instance, last year when looking at “Proficient or Higher” it was 10 for Melrose, 8 for the Charter School and 2 ties. It is also worth noting that Melrose outperforms the state in each of the 20 categories, whereas the Charter School actually underperforms the state in 5 of the 20 categories.
However, what is new this year is what is taking place in the “Failing” category. If you look at that category, the Melrose and Charter school each had a higher percentage of students failing in 9 of the categories and they tied in 2. In 2013 Melrose had a higher percentage of students failing in 13 categories vs only 3 for the charter school and 4 ties. In 2012 it was 13, 6 and 1 respectively so it appears that these results reveal a significant downturn in the Charter School’s performance; at least as it relates to comparison with Melrose.
Before everyone complains about this being an invalid comparison, there are 2 replies. First, this information was misreported in the local paper several years ago and the paper reported the incorrect results (they compared the Charter Schools “Advanced and Proficient” against only “Proficient” for Melrose). The paper never retracted the results and the charter school management tried to capitalize on the misinformation. Second; these are the 2 public school options available to residents of Melrose. The Charter School has a public relations director that is funded by Melrose taxpayers to put a spin on the results. When comparing the 2 schools the data is easily available and we are fortunate that this website allows us to easily cascade the results.
maybe you should look at the MCAS string. Instead of focusing on Proficient and Advanced, Mystic Valley isn't failing in the Needs Improvement/Failing category the way Melrose is. Pretty pathetic.[:-?]
Couldn't care less about the charter school results.
The Melrose district results are pi$$-poor, and that's all that matters as far as many of us are concerned. They are downright shameful.
No wonder the super demanded her raise before all of this surfaced. We can only guess that the SAT and AP scores are similarly lousy. She's known since early summer just how bad it is. Shame on her.
Shame on the School Committee and the mayor for his gushing praise and "Exemplary" rankings. Shame on the group that hired this woman and her "team" of administrators. And shame on all the parents whose continual gushing praise drowns out any semblance of reason.
You want "Data-driven Evidence"? Well it's right there online now, and it really stinks. The kids deserve better. The parents who supported this disgrace of a school system deserve only this. They should be so ashamed.
What makes me sad about the Mystic Valley results is if you pull out the low income kids, they are serving them especially badly - and I thought that was the point of the charter schools.
Hey “Just sayin”, I took your advice and looked at the Needs Improvement/Failing category. I am not sure that this is what you intended but you were technically correct when you said “Mystic Valley isn’t failing in the Needs Improvement/Failing category the way Melrose is.” In fact, the Mystic Valley is failing in much worse fashion. If you compare these two categories on a combined basis you will see that Mystic Valley has a higher percentage of students in the combined NI/Failing categories in 11 of the results, Melrose was higher in 8 and they tied in 1. You can attempt to spin this as you wish; however, the facts are that Melrose has a higher percentage of students in Advanced/Proficient and a lower percentage of students in Needs Improvement/Failing than the charter school. With only 2 public school options for folks that live in Melrose, the results are very clear; though many (like “Just sayin”) assume the opposite is true because of the promotional activities by the Charter School.