QUINCY SCHOOL COMMITTEE
TEACHING & LEARNING SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING
A meeting of the Teaching & Learning Subcommittee was held on Wednesday, March 19, 2025 at 6:00 pm in the Coddington Building. Present were Teaching & Learning Subcommittee Members Mr. Paul Bregoli and Mrs. Kathryn Hubley and Mrs. Emily Lebo, Subcommittee Chair. Also attending were School Committee Member Mrs. Courtney Perdios; Superintendent Kevin Mulvey, Assistant Superintendent Dr. Erin Perkins, Ms. Kim Connolly, Mr. Daniel Cosgrove, Ms. Julie Graham, Mr. Michael Marani, Ms. Maura Papile, Ms. Bridget Vaughan; and Ms. Laura Owens, Clerk.
Coordinator of K-8 English Language Arts Bridget Vaughan presented an update on the district’s progress towards the 2024-2025 Writing Goal which is for students to demonstrate increases in achievement in the writing domain of the English MCAS for Grades 3-8. The district’s Writing Team collaborated to share resources and professional development aimed at improving student writing outcomes throughout the school year. The team met six times in October and November to plan system-wide professional days, created Google classroom-based resources, and communicated with staff at all schools. The focus was on not only direct, explicit instruction using The Writing Revolution program, but also assessing students’ writing progress through on-demand and ungraded opportunities for writing. The response has been positive from staff and students and samples of student growth in writing were shared.
Mr. Bregoli said that students can be intimidated by writing, strategies linking speaking to writing can be successful, particularly with younger students.
Mrs. Perdios noted that this work helps students understand the impact of writing on all their curriculum areas.
Mrs. Lebo complimented the progress in student writing over the course of the school year and noted that writing was an area of growth identified in the School Improvement Plans. Ms. Vaughan said that many teachers have taken the course and are sharing the information at their schools. There will be additional opportunities for teachers to take the course at future professional development days.
Mrs. Lebo asked for the definition of “process writing”, Ms. Vaughan clarified this is the multi-stage formal writing system with pre-writing, drafting, editing, and finalizing.
Mr. Bregoli asked about adapting this for English Learner students. Ms. Vaughan said that support for this is provided through language access materials from CKLA and Lexia and the Writing Pathway.
Curriculum Director Michael Marani presented an update on the preparations for the Civics and Science, Technology & Engineering MCAS. Mr. Marani emphasized the connection between Ms. Vaughan’s presentation on writing as this skill is integral for success on the MCAS. These updated MCAS assessments will be challenging.
The Civics Assessment has two parts: a state-level Performance Task that covers one of the seven grade 8 Civics topics in the History & Social Science Framework and an end-of-course test. For 2025, the state-level performance task will focus on Topic 4: rights and responsibilities of citizens. (11 questions applicable towards the students scores plus 4 field test questions.) The second session consists of 32 questions that may be multiple choice, multiple select, and technology enhanced questions. In addition, there will be 4-6 additional field test questions.
Mr. Marani also shared the Civics field test data from last spring. In 14 of 15 categories, the Quincy Public Schools scores were higher than the state average. Individual school breakdowns were also shared with the middle school staffs.
For the Science, Technology & Engineering MCAS, there is a field test embedded in the assessment for Grades 5 and 8 in both sessions. Students will complete a range of question types, either selected response, multiple-choice, multiple select, and technology-enhanced, plus constructed response. In addition, there will be matrix questions that do not count towards a student’s score.
Mr. Marani thanked the teachers for their careful analysis of this information and their integration of this information into their teaching and preparing students for these performance task-based assessments.
Mrs. Perdios asked about STE field test data, Mr. Marani said that DESE has not said that districts will receive field test date for analysis. Mrs. Perdios said that the STEM fairs have been amazing so far this year; the recent Science MCAS scores are not reflecting the student engagement in Science.
Mrs. Perdios suggested that students keep their notebooks from previous grade levels for review in subsequent years. Mr. Marani agreed and said that there is a proposed revision to the district’s Civics project structure to align it district-wide.
Mrs. Lebo thinks the re-introduction Civics curriculum is very important, the field test scores are good information to have.
Mrs. Hubley made a motion to adjourn the Teaching & Learning Subcommittee at 6;55 pm. Mr. Bregoli seconded the motion and on a voice vote, the ayes have it.