Duxbury's Fourth Grade Reading Results Are Also Bad
The district's truly horrible elementary reading test scores are not limited to the third grade and can't be blamed on COVID.
The series on Duxbury’s elementary school reading problem continues with a look at the district’s 2022 fourth grade MCAS results.
The Main Points
The results are awful. In 2022, only 103 out of 197 fourth graders met or exceeded expectations.
Duxbury performed worse than its socioeconomic peers on the South Shore (Scituate, Hingham, Norwell, and Cohasset)
Duxbury performed worse than the schools in the wealthiest 20 suburbs around Boston.
Compared to most other upscale suburbs, Duxbury has a low proportion of students who exceed expectations.
These are long standing problems that cannot be blamed on COVID.
Duxbury’s Results
Overall, Duxbury’s 2022 fourth grade reading results were even worse than the third grade results. Only 52.3% met or exceeded the state standard.
A total of 94 Duxbury students left the fourth grade unable to read at grade level.
Duxbury vs. the South Shore
In the South Shore region, Duxbury did better compared to less prosperous towns like Plymouth, Hanover, and Pembroke, but failed to do as well as is socioeconomic peers in Norwell, Scituate, Cohasset, and Hingham.
Duxbury vs. Upscale Suburbs
Once again, the real problem comes when we compare Duxbury to the most socioeconomic advantaged suburbs of Boston. Duxbury just does not do as well as these other school districts.
Duxbury vs. the Rest of the State
Duxbury did better than less socioeconomic advantaged towns but not as well as its peers.
Longstanding Issues
Over the last 20 years, an average of 29% of Duxbury students have either not met or only partially met expectations for reading. In 2022, there was a surge in the percentage of students not meeting expectations. That surge, however, cannot be blamed on COVID alone because so many of Duxbury’s socioeconomic peers did not experience such a large decline in test scores.
To save time and fit within the Google email size limits, I have consolidated these graphs to highlight the main points. If anyone wants to see the exact same graphs that I used for the third grade, please email me at duxburysubstack@gmail.com.