State Upgrades Monomoy High’s Accountability Rating

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Monomoy High School

CHATHAM – Monomoy Regional High School recently received some good news from the state.

The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education recently revised Monomoy High School’s standardized test scores accountability ranking from Level 3 to Level 2.

The rankings judge the district’s performance in the new Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers, or PARCC, exam. The test has been administered in a pilot program over the last two years.

The school fell into the bottom level because they had under 90 percent of students take the exam, which automatically placed them in Level 3. Along with the appropriate achievement scores a school needed to have over 90 percent participation to be in Level 2 and over 95 percent to be in Level 1.

Superintendent of schools for the Monomoy Regional School District Scott Carpenter said schools were supposed to be held harmless if they took part in the PARCC exams pilot program. Although the tests were supposed to be mandatory, students were able to decline taking the test. The district filed an appeal to the state.

“You can’t provide and opt out for families and then turn around and hold us accountable for families opting out,” Carpenter said.

The low rating would have been disregarded in favor of the previous year’s rating but Monomoy is a new district.

“I do appreciate that the state did look at the data and the argument and opted to change us to a Level 2 status which is what Chatham High School and Harwich High School were at when we were going in to regionalization,” Carpenter said.

Carpenter said he is not content with being at Level 2.

“While I’m happy that the rating has been changed I’m personally not happy with Level 2 and don’t want to see us ever being satisfied with being a Level 2 district,” he said.

Carpenter said to become a Level 1 district improvement to the curriculum needs to continue along with working with students to support their achievement.

By BRIAN MERCHANT, CapeCod.com NewsCenter