The Department of Elementary and Secondary Education released the results of the 2025 Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) at the end of September. The results showed that nearly all schools statewide were still struggling to reach the levels of achievement from before the COVID-19 pandemic.
For the Harvard School District, the results are mixed. The scores for both language arts and math are, as in the past, markedly higher than the state average, both for grades 3-8 and for grade 10. But Harvard’s 2025 scores are still slightly lower overall than they were before the pandemic. And 10th-grade scores this year declined from 2024, when they had bounced back up nearly to 2019 levels. (See graphs below.)
The graphs show the percentage of students who scored as proficient for their grade level. That is, they scored in the top two categories on the test: exceeding expectations or meeting expectations.
Analyzing long-term trends in the state tests has been complicated by the introduction of the “new” MCAS in 2017 for grades 3-8 and in 2019 for grade 10. The scores from the new MCAS tests are not comparable with those of the “legacy” MCAS tests that preceded them. And no MCAS tests were given in 2020, while the pandemic was at its height. So only a single year—2019—is available for comparing 10th-grade results from before and after the pandemic.
‘On the right trajectory’
“Our scores are not quite back up, … but we’re on the right trajectory,” School Superintendent Linda Dwight said. And she noted the state has named Hildreth Elementary School a School of Recognition for its progress toward the state’s annual accountability targets in English language arts and mathematics. Of the more than 1,800 public schools in Massachusetts, only 55 were designated Schools of Recognition.
According to figures in a recent press release from the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, only 13 school districts out of about 400 in the state earned scores this year for grades 3 through 8 that were above their pre-pandemic levels in both language arts and math. Another 50 schools reached their pre-pandemic level in one area—either language arts or math—but not in both. The department’s press release did not cover 10th-grade results.
Harvard is not among the school districts whose scores have returned to their pre-pandemic levels. But neither are many districts such as Lexington, Acton-Boxborough, Dover-Sherborn, and Winchester—districts that are often considered Harvard’s peers in state rankings. In general, the 13 school districts that have surpassed their pre-COVID scores in both language arts and math had lower scores than Harvard before the pandemic. As Assistant Superintendent Dana Labb said, “It’s easier to make growth” when starting from a lower level.
10th-grade scores rise, then fall
An anomaly in Harvard’s MCAS trend line was the sharp rise in 10th-grade scores for 2024, especially in math, followed by a subsequent drop in 2025. The comparatively small number of students in each grade can often make Harvard’s scores more volatile, when measured as percentages, than those of larger districts. With only 75 Harvard students taking the 10th-grade test last spring, even one student having a bad day could cause the percentage of those scoring in the top categories to drop by more than a full point.
But another possible explanation for the drop in 2025 is that passing the 10th-grade MCAS is no longer a graduation requirement. The decline in both Harvard and state scores from their 2024 levels raises questions: Was the pandemic or some other factor adversely affecting last spring’s 10th-graders more than those the year before? Or did 10th-grade students statewide take the MCAS tests a little less seriously in 2025 than they did the year before?
How the state measures student progress
Among the many statistics that are computed from the MCAS results, one of the most studied is the student growth percentile, or SGP. The SGPs measure progress for groups as large as a whole grade statewide or as small as one school or even a single classroom. SGPs show how much progress students in any of those groups have made from year to year.
To calculate an SGP, the state tracks scores for individual students from one year to the next, even if they change schools in the meantime. In math, for example, the state groups together all students who got the same MCAS math scores for the past two years, all across Massachusetts. Those students are considered “math peers.” Then those students are ranked within that peer group by their new 2025 scores. Some will have scored higher than previous years, some the same, and some lower.
Students whose scores improved the most will be in a high percentile for this year among their group of peers. Students whose scores dropped from previous years will rank in a low percentile among their peers. Note that the SGP is not affected by how high a student’s score is, but by how it changed from past years.
When these statewide groups of students are divided into their schools, the percentiles show how much, on average, students in a given school improved year over year. A school whose students improved exactly the average amount would have a student growth percentile of 50—right in the middle. Not surprisingly, most schools have SGPs somewhere between 40 and 60.
Bromfield’s 10th-graders have achieved SGPs well above that mid-range for the past four years. For 2025, they are in the 66th percentile for English language arts and the 72nd percentile for math, levels the state considers “high growth.” SGPs for grades 4-6 this year were 62 in English language arts and 71 in math, again considered high growth. Grades 7-8 have SGPs of 56 in English language arts and 46 in math, considered moderate or average growth.
