Northampton schools report strong gains on state accountability measures

NORTHAMPTON — The district's elementary and middle school students made substantial progress on state accountability measures this year, with the overall accountability score for third through eighth grades rising from 17% to 77%, Superintendent Annie Azarloza reported to the School Committee on October 8. However, the district's English learners fell well short of their progress targets.

According to data from the state Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, the district earned 10 of 12 available achievement points in English, math, and science this year, compared with zero points last year. For the district's lowest-performing students, the accountability score rose from 36% to 57%, and achievement points increased from two out of five to five out of eight.

For the district's lowest-performing student group, achievement points climbed from two to five, with English and math each moving from two points to three points, meeting targets Azarloza said. "Last year we actually declined in all three subjects," she said. "This year, we earned 10 of 12 accountability points — growth also improved."

English learners, however, did not keep pace. The district's points for English language development fell from four to zero. In third through eighth grades, 72.4% of students taking the state ACCESS test met their progress goals, while only 46.3% met their improvement goals. Azarloza said the 2026 result fell short of the 74% target set by the state. "Fewer than half of the students included met their expected progress goals," she said. "This doesn't mean students lost English skills, it means too many were not progressing at the pace expected for them."

Working with Lauren Barry, the district's English language coordinator, Azarloza identified a concentration of the decline in sixth and eighth grades, where students face a "steep leap" into more "complex, multi-paragraph academic writing." She noted that as the most advanced English learners exit the program, the remaining evaluated cohort contains a higher proportion of intermediate learners facing steeper state benchmarks. "It takes about seven years to really acquire academic language for English language learners," Azarloza said.

At the high school, the accountability score rose from 52% to 58% between 2025 and 2026, with strong growth in math and science. The district earned zero achievement points toward the English target at the high school, even though 67% of tenth graders met or exceeded expectations on the English MCAS. Chronic absenteeism at the high school rose from 15.9% to 17.7% in the same period. Among elementary and middle school students, it dropped slightly, from 14.7% to 14.3%, though the district still fell short of its 13.7% target.

To improve student performance, Azarloza said the district will track students' progress throughout the year and provide targeted instruction. "We need to know how each student is progressing throughout the year through progress monitoring — that means regular conversations about student work, timely feedback, adjustments when learning stalls," she said. "Where we see strong growth, we need to identify the practices contributing to it and share them across the district."