Chelsea’s Own Assessment Test
Between 1998 and 2007, passing scores for Chelsea’s tenth graders on the Massachusetts Comprehensive Assessment System (MCAS) test climbed from 19 percent to 42 percent in English and from 10 percent to 37 percent in math. Statewide, in 2007, 71 percent of tenth graders passed the English exam and 69 percent passed math. Among Chelsea’s eighth graders in that same period, passing English scores jumped from 27 percent to 43 percent, and passing math scores rose from 11 percent to 17 percent. But statewide in 2007, 75 percent of eighth graders passed the English assessment and 45 percent passed math.
And while Chelsea does better compared with the state’s twenty-three other urban districts, with some grades breaking into the top five on certain subject tests, the city more often ranks in the bottom five of these urban districts.
Still, Chelsea educators have many reasons to be optimistic about student achievement. For instance, in 2007, 81 percent of high school seniors planned to pursue postsecondary education, up from just 53 percent in 1989. The number of students taking Advanced Placement tests has risen from 42 in 1997 to 172 in 2007. There have also been significant gains in the lower grades. For example, the scores of third graders on the Iowa Literacy Tests have shot up about 75 percent in the past decade, besting national averages in vocabulary, reading comprehension, and spelling.
