Canton school leaders pleased with 2025 MCAS results

Canton Public Schools received a fairly positive report on its 2025 spring MCAS performance, although it fell short of Superintendent Derek Folan’s goal of achieving a 3 percent increase in the number of students meeting or exceeding expectations in English language arts (ELA) and math.

Overall, Canton students saw a gain of around 1 percent in this metric compared to 2024. “Sometimes you don’t attain those goals entirely, but we continued to make great progress with our student achievement and showed continuous improvement as a district,” said Folan. “And when we don’t entirely meet goals, that fuels our work and goals for the year ahead.”

At last Thursday’s School Committee meeting, Josh Fogel, CPS director of technology and data analytics, noted that there were several highlights from this year’s report, including record-setting performances in grade 8 math, where 69 percent of students met or exceeded expectations (a 9 percent increase from 2024), and grade 7 ELA, where 65 percent met or exceeded expectations (up from 58 percent in 2024).

Fogel explained that the state revised its accountability formula with a focus on returning to 2019 (pre-COVID) performance levels, and based on that formula, Canton was found to be making “substantial progress” toward recovery goals.

Across subjects and grade levels, Canton continued to out-perform state averages on the 2025 MCAS exam, with 61 percent of students in grades 3-8 and 59 percent of grade 10 students meeting or exceeding expectations in math (vs. state averages of 41 and 45 percent, respectively), and 58 percent of grades 3-8 students and 60 percent of grade 10 students in ELA (vs. state averages of 42 and 51 percent). It was a similar result in science, where 59 percent of grades 3-8 students and 71 percent of grade 10 students met or exceeded expectations (compared to 42 and 46 percent statewide).

Other positive achievements mentioned by Fogel included grade 5 math students and grade 4 ELA students recording the second highest percentage of meeting/exceeding expectations since 2019; GMS students (grades 6-8) showing a 19 percent increase in meeting/exceeding expectations in math; GMS achieving its highest percentage of meeting/exceeding in civics; and grades 3-8 students showing the largest percentage increase in meeting/exceeding among comparable school districts.

Those districts, which have a similar student population, include Burlington, Easton, Foxboro, Hampden-Wilbraham, Mansfield, Medway, Melrose, North Andover, Sharon and Walpole. Among those communities, Canton ranked fourth in both its cumulative progress toward improvement targets and percentile rank statewide.

During his presentation, Fogel noted that there were several new factors that could have impacted test results, including a new MCAS vendor, use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to assess student essays in grades 3-8, and MCAS scores no longer being a graduation requirement.

A chief area of concern for Folan and School Committee members was the level of chronic absenteeism cited in the report, with Canton ranking at or near the bottom among comparable districts in attendance rate and percentage of students missing 10 percent or more of school days.

“Through our data analysis, we see a clear connection between a high rate of absenteeism and low performance on MCAS exams,” noted Folan. “We have a district goal to improve attendance through outreach, communication, and stronger family partnerships.”

In addition to cutting down on absenteeism, Folan said that writing continues to be a key focus area, as well as …

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Posted by Mike Berger on Oct 17 2025. Filed under News, Schools. Both comments and pings are currently closed.