WORCESTER—The Worcester School Committee’s latest meeting put a focus on the district’s MCAS and accountability performance showing improvement in many areas compared to 2024 but still acknowledging room for improvement.
While MCAS results no longer apply as graduation requirements, the testing is still used for gathering statistics to evaluate student progress, school performance, and accountability.
In addition, the state weighs a variety of other metrics, including attendance and academic achievement, to help determine a district’s accountability score, which measures the overall performance relative to other schools that administer similar assessments.
Dr. Marco Andrade, the district’s director of research & accountability, provided a breakdown of the latest data showing improvement for Worcester Public Schools in several areas.
“We’re hitting 47% of our targets in 2025,” explained Andrade. “That’s six points up from That classifies us as a district as a moderate progress to targets.”
Overall, Worcester met or exceeded six of eleven accountability indicator targets, an improvement over the prior year. These include tackling chronic absenteeism and English language proficiency in high schools and non-high schools, reduction in high school dropout rates, and pre-high school achievement in science.
The data also showed improvement for all grades in English Language Arts (ELA) and non-high school grades met achievement goals in science. Math achievement remained stable year over year. Worcester maintains higher than average percentages when compared to other urban districts.
English language proficiency saw notable improvement with 31 of the 46 Worcester schools, or 67%, improving year over year meeting the expected progress towards proficiency targets.
Chronic absenteeism decreased compared to 2024 with nearly 80% of Worcester’s schools showing improved numbers and the district exceeding the annual dropout rate target meeting the state average of 2%.
Worcester also improved its 4-year graduation rate but failed to meet its extended engagement rate accountability target. WPS also failed to meet the advanced coursework target with one of the sharpest decreases year over year from 65% to 52%, slightly below the average urban comparison.
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Marie Morse said the administration was pleased with the findings while also acknowledging there is still plenty of work to be done.
“We were particularly impressed with some of the categories that we found directly related to some of the initiatives that we have put into place and structures,” said Morse. “We believe we’re on the right path. We believe the system has put a lot of things in place.”
The administration plans to present a district improvement plan during the school committee’s Nov. 20 meeting which will further address the findings in the MCAS and accountability summary reports and how the district plans to respond.
Jason Bleau, a seasoned reporter from Connecticut’s Quiet Corner, has more than 11 years of news media experience. He has worked as a news anchor for WINY 1350 AM, contributed to Stonebridge Press publications, and covered racing as a Press Box coordinator at Thompson Speedway. Outside journalism, he is a movie enthusiast, freelance film reviewer, banker, and solo musician. He can be reached at bleau.jason@yahoo.com
