Stoneham schools ranked among best in Massachusetts
Published on September 26th, 2001
STONEHAM, MA - A report published earlier this year by UMass Amherst Professor Robert Gaudet, PhD., ranks Stoneham as the most “effective” public school system in the state.
With a $20-plus million budget, the axiom, “You get what you pay for,” comes to mind.
Gaudet’s report, A Study of School Student Performance Relative to District Demography, focuses on the ability of school systems to prepare students for the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Systems (MCAS) tests. The report analyzes eighth and 10th grade MCAS scores from 1998 through 2001 using an equation Gaudet developed to control for the wealth and education of the community.
On a scale of one to five — one being a Dover-Sherborn and five being somewhere like Chelsea — Stoneham is a two. After running the numbers Gaudet found that from 1998 through 2001 Stoneham students exceeded the expectations of his calculations more than any other students. More than 300 school districts were studied.
“We hire very good teachers,” said Stoneham English Program Supervisor Pat Norelli. “The teachers demand outstanding work and convince the kids, ‘you can do this.’”
Other school departments have asked Stoneham educators to share the secret to success. Besides great teachers and dedicated students, Norelli said the secret is curriculum coordination.
“A program supervisor develops the curriculum in a subject area from sixth grade through 12th grade,” Norelli said.
Program supervisors usually teach one or two classes and divide the rest of their time between curriculum development and supervision of teachers in their subject area.
“Other schools have high school department heads teaching three or four classes,” Norelli said. These teachers have little time remaining to develop curriculum, and they have limited, if any, contact with teachers and students in the lower grades.
“In Stoneham the longer the kids are with us, the better they do,” said School Committee Chairwoman Marie Christie.
MCAS tests check to see whether students have mastered frameworks mandated by the state. These frameworks call for cumulative, coordinated curricula flowing from elementary school through the high school years. Stoneham has adopted an administrative model that best implements the frameworks, and, thus, best prepares the students for MCAS success.
“This is more expensive, but it works,” Norelli said.
A Program supervisor is going to make more than a department head and cover less classroom time. But this seems to be the trade-off; what these supervisors do outside the classroom translates to student success.
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