MCAS scores at Bowe School have been rising slowly.
Children work on a gardening program at Patrick E. Bowe School that started last year and extended through the summer.
CHICOPEE – The School Committee wrapped up its state-of-the-schools series by hearing about innovations at the struggling Patrick E. Bowe School and the Szetela Early Childhood Center.
There have been some concerns about the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment Systems scores at Bowe School, but Principal David Potter said students have slowly been improving and he expects them to do better on this year’s exam in March.
In 2010, 39 percent of the third, fourth and fifth-graders at Bowe scored proficient in English and 24 percent were proficient in math. The statewide averages in those grades for students scoring proficient are 69 percent in English and 59 percent in math.
But the scores are mostly improving. In 2010, 32 percent of students scored proficient in English and 22 percent scored proficient in math. A year later 38 percent were proficient in English and 20 percent were proficient in math.
Bowe is one of six schools in the city rated as Level 3 by the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. Level 1 schools are those with consistently high MCAS scores. When a state names a school Level 4, it is for chronically poor performance and calls for intervention to improve it. There are no Level 4 schools in the city.
“It is difficult but we are making improvements,” Potter told the School Committee.
At Bowe School, 85 percent of children are poor, 10 percent do not speak English well and 11 percent have learning disabilities.
This year, teachers have started new, regular assessments in math and English, more cooperative work is being done to help children improve their verbal skills, and technology is being used more to engage children. A program has also been set up to help children who are considered proficient in English but do not speak it as a first language, Potter said.
“Our before and after-school programs are based on academic achievement,” he said.
At Szetela School, the number of children attending has increased this year to 281. The number of children with learning disabilities and more severe disabilities is increasing, said Janet Reid, principal of the early childhood school.
“Our needs are starting to change at Szetela,” she said.
Teachers are now piloting a new curriculum in language arts and math through the Houghton-Mifflin company. Because they are trying the curriculum, it is saving the city about $35,000 in the costs of supplies and the company will also train the teachers at no cost, Reid said.
She said teachers like the language arts curriculum but have to supplement the math.
“There is a weakness in the math but it is better than what we had,” she said.
When asked about needs, Reid said talked about the waiting list and said she would like to have more funding to add a class.
Study after study has shown that children in quality early education programs typically do better in school as they get older, she said.