Today is a Good Day for Randolph
RANDOLPH, OCT. 18 -
The Randolph Public School (RPS) district has improved and is no longer rated as an underperforming or Level 4 school district by the state.
In conjunction with today’s public release of the 2017 MCAS scores the MA Department of Elementary and Secretary of Education (DESE) has released RPS from the ‘needs intervention’ designation and/or its equivalent that has stood for the past decade.
“I want to thank Secretary of Education Peyser, Acting DESE Commissioner Wulfson and the rest of the team at DESE for taking a fresh look at this issue and taking action,” State Representative Bill Driscoll Jr. noted on Wednesday.
A combination of climbing individual Randolph school rankings, the district’s MCAS scores and progress via improvement plans between DESE and RPS have showed a marked improvement in the school district’s performance.
Since taking office in January 2017, Driscoll made a concerted effort to see that Randolph’s district-wide ranking would be better aligned with the individual schools that were previously upgraded and ranked as either two’s or three’s under the state accountability rankings. “This was the very first issue that Randolph School Committee Chair, Ida Gordon, raised with me and after researching the situation I joined the group of constituents and town officials that felt that the district ranking of Level 4 no longer reflected the status of the school system. I’m glad that DESE agreed and has given Randolph a chance grow along with the next generation MCAS and future rankings, stated Driscoll.”
Driscoll went to say, “Today is a great day for Randolph. A game changer. I am excited for everyone that has been involved in the effort to improve education and the Randolph public school system. I commend the work of all involved. This is a major accomplishment for the Superintendent, Thomas Anderson and his team, the teachers, school committee members, the town manager Dave Murphy, town council members and of course the students and families of Randolph.“
The schools, which were previously considered to be within the Level 4 (underperforming) grouping of the Massachusetts Framework for District Accountability, have now risen out of that categorization. The district’s future ranking will now be assessed over the next couple of years along with all of the other previously ranked Levels 1, 2, or 3 school districts. The future rankings will in a large part be based on MCAS results.
In closing Driscoll said, “I am pleased that the latest MCAS scores and improvement efforts by many in the district resulted in a positive recalibration of Randolph’s current status and recent achievements. Today is a great for Randolph.”
