Following the statewide trend, Franklin County schools experienced a drop in MCAS scores this year, with results continuing to fall below pre-pandemic learning levels.
The state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) reported that while 63 school districts across Massachusetts have reached their pre-pandemic scores on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System test, the majority have continued to see learning loss, with MCAS scores dropping further.
According to DESE, grades three to eight largely saw growth in English language arts scores, while math and science scores remained stagnant. At high school levels, students who no longer have to pass the test to graduate saw a larger decrease in the number of students meeting or exceeding expectations.
“For the first time in decades, high school students who took the MCAS in 2025 did not have to earn a qualifying score to graduate, and high school scores in English language arts, mathematics and science dropped compared to last year,” DESE wrote.
DESE said the percentage of 10th graders that met or exceeded expectations in English dropped 6% from last year and dropped 10% from 2019. In math, that number dropped 3% from last year and is down 14% from 2019. Science scores are down 3% from last year. DESE noted that it is difficult to compare science scores to pre-pandemic tests, as the high school science test changed in 2022.
Jennie Williamson, state director of the Education Trust-Massachusetts, an education policy and advocacy agency, wrote in a statement that scores have been slipping for years, indicating that Massachusetts, which prides itself on being a leader in education, is letting its students fall behind in reading, writing and math.
“The 2025 MCAS results are grim — but not surprising. … These recent results expose the deep and urgent challenges facing the commonwealth’s entire education system,” Williamson wrote. “As much as our state likes to see itself as an educational leader, the reality is that we are sliding back to the 1990s, when a diploma didn’t guarantee the mastery of basic skills. Today, too many students across the commonwealth are falling behind in reading, writing and math at pivotal moments in their education. Milestones once seen as guarantees can no longer be assured.”
“The 2025 MCAS results are grim — but not surprising.”
Jennie Williamson, State Director of the Education Trust-Massachusetts
In Franklin County, scores mirror statewide trends and the number of students meeting or exceeding expectations continues to drop.
Franklin County Technical School
Franklin County Technical School Assistant Principal and Director of Curriculum Amber Crochier explained that while the number of students meeting or exceeding expectations was down for all three exams, this follows state trends.
“Like many schools across the state, we’ve seen some variability in scores as DESE continues to adjust standards and testing expectations,” Crochier wrote in an email.
State averages show that 51% of students are meeting or exceeding expectations in English, but Franklin Tech falls at 34%. In math, state averages have 45% of students meeting or exceeding expectations, while Franklin Tech students are at 24%. The largest difference from the state average is in science, which falls at 46% of students meeting or exceeding expectations in Massachusetts and 21% for Franklin Tech.
When asked if the declines at Franklin Tech could be related to the removal of MCAS as a graduation requirement, Crochier said it could be a factor for some individual students, but there are “a multitude of factors” that contributed, noting the difficulty to instill students with a buy-in attitude about standardized testing.
As a vocational school, Crochier said Franklin Tech pays attention to MCAS data, but “we also recognize that the MCAS represents just one measure of student learning and does not fully capture the range of skills and knowledge our students demonstrate,” as students showcase success in “hands-on application, employability skills and industry credentials.”
Compared to other vocational schools in the region, Franklin Tech falls in the middle.
Montachusett Regional Vocational Technical School in Fitchburg saw more than half its students meet or exceed expectations in English, math and science, exceeding the state averages in English and science at 63% and 62%, respectively. Meanwhile, Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School in Northampton fell below Franklin Tech in terms of the number of students who met and exceeded expectations in English and math, but exceeded Franklin Tech’s scores in science.
Frontier Regional School
At Frontier Regional School, 10th graders surpassed last year’s numbers for those meeting and exceeding expectations in math, but fell behind in English and science.
While 56% of 10th graders met or exceeded expectations in English in 2024, 43% met or exceeded expectations in 2025, representing a 13% decrease. The 2025 rate lands 8% lower than the state average.
According to Superintendent Darius Modestow, the scores especially dipped for longer writing tasks.
“We need to examine those results more closely, as effort and motivation may now play a larger role with the graduation requirement no longer in place,” Modestow said.
In science, 42% of Frontier 10th graders met or exceeded expectations, representing a 7% decline from last year.
Math saw a slight increase, with the percentage of Frontier 10th graders who met or exceeded expectations rising from 52% in 2024 to 55% in 2025, beating the state average by 10%.
Two of the district’s elementary schools earned recognition for their MCAS performances. DESE identified Conway Grammar School and Whately Elementary School as 2025 Schools of Recognition.
At Conway Grammar School, the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations rose from last year in all three subjects. Along with slight increases in math and science scores, students beat last year’s percentage for meeting or exceeding expectations in English by 27%. With 66% meeting or exceeding expectations in English in 2025, the school surpassed the state average by 24%.
Whately Elementary School’s increase in students meeting or exceeding expectations included a 21% jump for math to 59% in 2025, falling 18% above the state average.
“While I am glad to see overall positive trends, I do not use MCAS as the sole or primary measure of a district’s success,” Modestow wrote in an email. “Either we collectively agree that these assessments are the tool we use to evaluate schools, or we acknowledge their limited value. Schools find themselves in a challenging position caught between two contradictory messages. The importance of testing is publicly diminished if not demonized, while state reports continue to place significant value on them.”
Modestow pointed to students’ paths after graduation as “another important measure of preparation.” According to Modestow, 83% of last year’s graduates continued their education after high school, with 59% attending four-year colleges, 24% attending two-year schools and 3% enrolling in vocational or technical programs.
Turners Falls High School
Turners Falls High School is seeing a decline in students meeting or exceeding expectations in every subject. As a result, Gill-Montague Regional School District interim Superintendent Tari Thomas said the high school will be receiving state assistance through DESE’s Multi-Tiered Systems of Support.
“They provide aid to us and categorize where the aid goes. They bring to us regional assistance teams, and they work with and through our teachers,” Thomas explained, adding that DESE provides resources so the school can create its own improvement goals.
Thomas said that because the district is missing a director of teaching and learning, a dedicated staff member to interpret the MCAS results is unavailable. However, she is working with school principals to interpret the data and will present a high-level overview to the School Committee on Tuesday, Oct. 14.
English is where the 10th graders declined the most. In 2025, only 18% of students met or exceeded expectations in English, a 32% decline from 2024. The majority of students, 45%, only partially met expectations in English.
In math, there was an 18% decline from 2024, with 33% of students meeting or exceeding expectations in 2025. Just over half of students partially met expectations, at 51%. Science saw the smallest decline, with 15% of students meeting or exceeding expectations in 2025 compared to 30% in 2024.
Middle school students fared better, with improvements in both English and math for sixth and seventh grades, including a 16% increase in students meeting or exceeding expectations in seventh grade English. Eighth graders fell behind, with decreases in both English and math scores.
Despite declines at the high school level, Thomas said there is a positive outlook for elementary students.
“We’re feeling very proud,” she said about the elementary schools of Gill and Sheffield. “Gill is showing a positive increase and Sheffield is also seeing some nice increases.”
This includes growth for fifth graders in math, with 27% of students meeting or exceeding expectations compared to 20% in 2024, and exceeding pre-pandemic learning by 6%. The fifth grade English scores also saw a small increase, with 27% meeting or exceeding expectations compared to 22% in 2024. The greatest growth came from the science exam, with 46% of students meeting or exceeding expectations, a 20% increase from 2024.
Fourth grade English also saw improvement, with 37% of students meeting or exceeding expectations compared to 29% last year.
One of the initiatives to help assist students involves math and reading interventionists at the elementary level, and Thomas feels the increased scores could be attributed to having these staff members.
Greenfield High School
In comparison to last year’s MCAS scores, Greenfield, still below state averages, has generally remained stagnant with slight improvements and declines year-over-year.
Sixth and 10th grade scores, however, brought about the greatest changes, with 19% more sixth graders meeting expectations in math and 22% more meeting expectations in English this year, compared to 2024.
Among 10th graders, scores dropped roughly 20% year-over-year, with 17% fewer students meeting expectations in English and 13% more students not meeting expectations. This continued with 10th grade math scores, as 13% fewer students met expectations this year.
Assistant Superintendent of Teaching & Learning Stephen Sullivan, noting that the 2024-2025 school year marks the first since the state voted to drop the MCAS test as a graduation requirement, explained that while scores seem to have improved in some areas and declined in others, DESE’s accountability data for the district still shows a positive shift toward the district’s goals.
“We’ve seen some improvements in places, but then we’ve seen some falloff in places. There’s so many factors that go into the MCAS test alone. Last year was the first year where students were working under this impression that MCAS doesn’t ‘count anymore’ because of the ballot question last year,” Sullivan said. “When you’re just comparing year-to-year, you might not recognize there’s actually growth there, because that’s that same group of students that two years prior were only 12% meeting expectations, and 1% was exceeding expectations, and now 22%. There’s actually a 9% increase, if you’re looking at that cohort.”
The state’s accountability data states that Newton School and Greenfield High School both “require assistance or intervention,” scoring in the 11th and 6th percentiles, respectively.
Sullivan explained that while some aspects of the accountability data are within the School Department’s control, others are not. He added that the district is working to implement a new and improved language arts curriculum in an effort to improve those scores.
“We had a number of vacancies in the past few years. Teachers have been implementing new curriculum materials and are getting trained and comfortable with new curriculum. We’ve had some unfortunate absences due to a variety of reasons, and that’s challenging both on the staff and students,” he said, adding that the district continues to work toward curbing chronic absenteeism.
Mohawk Trail Regional School
Tenth graders at Mohawk Trail Regional School have now surpassed pre-pandemic scores in math. In 2025, 50% of students met or exceeded expectations. This is a 21% increase from 2024 and a 1% increase from 2019.
In English, Mohawk Trail 10th graders are still below pre-pandemic levels, but 55% are meeting or exceeding expectations, a 34% increase from last year.
“In terms of building back from the pandemic, we’ve been making progress,” said Sarah Jetzon, director of curriculum and instruction at the Mohawk Trail and Hawlemont Regional school districts.
Jetzon said students at the middle and elementary levels also saw slight growth, and in some cases surpassed state averages. The third and sixth grades topped the state average in the number of students meeting or exceeding expectations in English and 10th graders surpassed the state average in science.
She said the districts were able to accomplish this due to an investment in a new curriculum in recent years, with a particular focus on building a foundation in math. She added that teachers’ commitment to their students, plus investing in a math coach, helped.
Jetzon said she is proud of the students’ scores, as well as how the districts have been meeting DESE’s goals. She added that the districts hope to continue this growth in the future, focusing on deepening foundational knowledge and literacy skills.
“We have some really good student growth. To me, that student growth is the most important thing,” Jetzon said. “I feel like we’re doing the right work here. It’s paying off and we’re on the right track.”
Pioneer Valley Regional School
The Pioneer Valley Regional School District’s 10th graders saw improvement in science, but a decrease in students meeting or exceeding expectations in English and math. In 2025, 48% of students met or exceeded expectations in English (down 27% from 2024), 23% met or exceeded expectations in math (down 7%) and 45% met or exceeded expectations in science (up 19%).
Superintendent Patricia Kinsella said she was not surprised by the results, as the district’s internal reviews and exams had already indicated where students are doing well and where changes are needed. In the coming years, the district plans to invest in new curriculum, learning tools and professional development.
“We already knew what we needed to do and have made a plan and begun implementing the plan,” Kinsella said. “We do expect academic achievement in math to be higher next year.”
She said comparing the results of rural school districts against state averages is difficult, as with smaller sample sizes, averages could be easily swayed by an overachieving student or a student having a bad day.
Kinsella added that a review of the district indicated it had been underfunding curriculum and would need to invest to ensure teachers have the best tools to use and students are learning the best curriculum.
“None of this is rocket science, but it takes a humongous amount of political willpower and resources to implement change. … We are well on our way, we have a plan and just need to implement the plan,” Kinsella said. “I think we have a bright future. People should look out for Pioneer in the next few years.”
Ralph C. Mahar Regional School
Tenth grade students at Ralph C. Mahar School are further from their pre-pandemic MCAS scores in English than ever before. Only 28% of students met or exceeded expectations in English in 2025. This is a 2% decrease from last year and a 24% drop from 2019.
In math and science, 10th graders at Mahar improved from last year, but are still below pre-pandemic levels. In math, 16% of students met or exceeded expectations, which is a 2% increase from last year, but is still 19% less than in 2019, when 35% of students met or exceeded expectations. In science, 25% met or exceeded expectations in 2025, which is 14% higher than last year.
Of the 10th graders at Mahar, the majority of students are only partially meeting expectations (41% in English, 42% in math and 46% in science).
At the younger grade levels, students in grades three through eight saw improvement in English and math. While the percentage of students meeting or exceeding expectations is lower than the state average by 21% in English and 15% in math, students did see some growth compared to last year’s numbers. At Fisher Hill School, third graders are now above pre-pandemic scores in math, with 25% of students meeting or exceeding expectations.
The fifth graders, in fact, surpassed the state average, with 76% meeting or exceeding expectations in English (38% higher than the state average), 67% in math (27% higher than state average) and 76% in science (30% higher than the state average).