MCAS results for 2024 show a more mixed result than the positively trending 2023 results and remained lagging well behind pre-pandemic scores, state education officials said in an embargoed briefing.
“Today, this data will show starting to see some progress,” said state Secretary of Education Patrick Tutwiler. “We still have the best schools in the country and the highest standards keeping us competitive. Some of you may have heard me say before change in education is a process. The road back from the pandemic is not short.”
In 2024, the English/language arts (ELA) scores showed lower achievement in all grades from 2023, while math remained relatively unchanged in most grades and science showed mixed results from the prior year.
The mixed results come after Massachusetts officials heralded “recovery is fully underway” in response to 2023 results, which showed the first significant positive increases in scores since 2019. While the 2023 results increased or remained constant in most grades from 2022, they remained well below 2019.
The results come weeks before a ballot question removing the MCAS graduation requirement is set to come before voters on the November general election ballot.
ELA score in 2024 drops hit younger grades harder, with up to 5% drops in cumulative scores from 2023, and remained more flat for eighth and tenth graders, DESE data show.
In math, third grade was the “highlight” as the only set of results to show a positive increase from 2023, while all others remained relatively flat and tenth grade dropped, according to the DESE data. In science, grades 5 and 10 saw improvement from 2023 and grade 8 dropped.
This is the first year after passing scores were raise for the class of 2026, tenth graders last year. In August 2022, the Board of Elementary and Secondary Education raised the necessary scores to meet the Educational Proficiency Plan (EPP) and Competency Determination (CD) standards.
If a student passes the CD they have passed the test, while students who pass the EPP are done the test but must complete a locally administered plan.
For the class of 2026, the ELA standard for both was raised significantly, and the math EPP standard was raised very slightly.
For the tenth graders, the cumulative effect “is that 78% of students in the class of 2026 reached at least the EPP level in all three subjects on their first attempt, and are no longer required to take any of the MCAS tests,” said DESE Associate Commissioner Rob Curtin. “This is compared to 82% from 2023, the class of 2025.”
Curtin said BESE expects the number of students who pass the EPP to “increase dramatically as kids have additional retest opportunities and also submit appeals.”
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