For Immediate Release

Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2017

Contact: John Guilfoil
Phone: 617-993-0003
Email: john@jgpr.net

Greater Lawrence Tech Maintains Level 1 Status Following Release of MCAS Results

ANDOVER — Superintendent John Lavoie is pleased to announce that Greater Lawrence Technical School, for the fourth year in a row, attained Level 1 school status from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) following the release of MCAS results.

DESE announced the following MCAS scores for GLTS’ Class of 2019:

English – 99 percent passed (18 percent at advanced, 72 proficient, 9 percent needs improvement, 1 percent failing)
Math – 94 percent passed (36 percent advanced, 40 percent proficient, 18 percent needs improvement, 6 percent failing)
Biology – 95 percent passed (10 percent advanced, 53 percent proficient, 31 percent needs improvement, 5 percent failing)

On the English portion of the exam, GLTS students have a higher than average growth rate from 2016 to 2017 compared to the state average. GLTS also saw a 2 percent decrease in students grouped in the failing category than in 2016.

For math, from 2016-2017, there was a 15 percent increase in the number of students scoring in proficient, a 5 percent increase in advanced and a five percent reduction in the failure rate.

In biology, there was a 4 percent increase of students scoring in the advanced category and a 2 percent decrease of those in the failing category from last year to this year.

Across all subjects, English language learners and students with developmental disabilities performed higher than the state average.

“Everyone here at GLTS is extremely excited to once again have earned this status from DESE,” Superintendent Lavoie said. “This achievement is the direct result of the collaborative effort of academic and vocational instructors that work together every day to improve student performance.”

GLTS earned its Level 1 status in 2014 following a three-year instructor-led literacy initiative that trained all teachers in reading, vocabulary and writing strategies. During this period, the Instructional Leadership Team (ILT) was also revitalized. This collaborative group of teachers and administrators established school-wide expectations for curriculum and lesson planning that continue to improve instruction across the GLTS’ academic and career areas.

Additionally, in 2014, the ILT invited Research for Better Teaching — an organization dedicated to improving classroom teaching and school leadership — to GLTS to train teacher leaders in their Formative Assessment for Results (FAR) program. This program works to support teams of instructors, who are teaching the same content, to work together, plan lessons and curriculum, analyze student data and improve instruction based on that data.

Over the past few years, the ILT has also created a new set of core values — growth mindset, high expectations, supportive environment and life-long learning — along with a new vision and mission that guides the administration, teachers, staff and students in their everyday activities.

“I firmly believe that our Literacy Initiative, the work teacher teams have done with the FAR program and our comprehensive focus on our core values has made all the difference in our student achievement, reducing our dropout rate and increasing our graduation rate,” said Assistant Superintendent-Director/Principal Elizabeth Freedman. “In order for students to flourish, we need to believe in, support and empower teachers. That’s what we’ve tried to do, and it’s working.”

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